Before recounting the activities of the day, I think it important to wish Katie a very happy second anniversary. I know there lay many challenges ahead of us, but so far things have worked out pretty well.
So today started on a down note for two reasons. Sophie wound up back in the ER still sick, while I woke up sick myself in the morning and felt fairly nauseous. I made the decision to take it easy while trying to cover the 90 miles in as little time as possible. .
Today was supposed to be one of the hardest days of the trip, but thankfully fortune was on our side. While the majority of the day was spent climbing, our group made it to first lunch in record time aided by a tailwind that was caused by a tropical storm in the gulf. After fighting through 20 mph+ headwinds on several days leading up to today, today was almost too easy, even given my state of health.
I spent the day biking with Kyle on the highway, and we set a good pace all day. We biked through Lincoln County, home of Billy the Kid and one of the most dangerous roads in America, according to President Clevland. While Lincoln County might have been in a state of anarchy in its hey day, I doubt it could compare to present day Philadelphia at times.
We also biked through the national forest where Smokey the Bear was rescued and made into a national celebrity. We took our own lunch break in the town of Capitan, homeplace of Smokey the Bear, and stopped at a diner to get out of the rain which began coming down in buckets. Still feeling ill and having eaten nothing since the night before, I forced myself to put down some food before continuing on.
The large elevation change and unsuspected rain left both of us freezing, and I was glad to see that the van caught up to us after our lunch break where I was able to retreive my arm warmers and rain jacket from the van. As a "grizzled" ECCC veteran, I was content with the arm warmers and while cold, realized Kyle needed my rain jacket even more.
After a few more miles of climbing, still in pouring rain, we encountered our best descent of the trip: 15 miles of downhill. Without even pedalling, our speed never dipped below 40 mph for the first couple of miles and it was a truly remarkable sensation being able to bike at the speed of cars for an extended period of time. It was also interesting to note how quickly things became hot again as soon as we lost part of the elevation we gained.
After reaching our destination, I took a lengthy nap which seemed to eliminate most of the sickness I was feeling. Having found my usual ravenous appetite, alot of our group sought dinner at one of the only two fine dining establishments in town, Elises, which gave us five free dinners. (They also agreed to boil water to make pasta for our group, as we forgot to buy propane for the camp stoves, and there was nothing in town.) Leader Kyle found most of our food, finding food donations from the two gas stations in town.
The day ended on somewhat of a down note, when one of our riders found himself in the van the next day for what was seen as unsafe riding behavior. I know the group leaders did not single him out as he felt, and I feel fortunate that I am just a rider on this trip that is not faced with making decisions that follow bike and build policy, even if they are unpopular regulations.
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