June 21, 2006
Day 42: Tribune, KS to Eads, CO: Finally! Colorado!
The wind was terrible during the night--I was scared to get out of my tent to go to the bathroom for fear it wouldn't be there when I got back, but everything stayed in place. I'd left the rain fly off to get some breeze through the tent, but I didn't need a gale!
Everybody was up pretty early since we'd just crossed into Mountain time. Tim was first out of camp in his quest for his first century (a 100 mile day). If he made it all the way to Ordway in one day, he'd have a double metric century (200k/124 miles). Tim's done some ultramarathon running before, and since the guy could run 50 miles, I didn't doubt that he'd make it today. Apparently he'd stopped for coffee on the way out of town, because he didn't pass me until I was 6 miles out of town, telling me that in the early morning light he could see my safety triangle about a mile away!!!
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Had been riding pretty fast with neutral to favorable winds into Colorado, but the road surface deteriorated immediately after crossing the border and made me slow down a few mph. With all the bumps, I was thinking about whether Jacques' wheel would make it all the way to Ordway where his new one was waiting.
The uptight Englishman who'd come into camp the night before caught up with me at Sheridan Lake, riding into the tiny service station swearing at his wheel and a newly broken spoke. He whipped out some wire cutters, snapped the thing off and angrily threw it to the ground as he continued swearing and talking about quitting the trip because of his wheel. I'd actually just been looking at the map and thinking about calling the hostel in Ordway to make alternative housing arrangements there the next night so I wouldn't have to stay anywhere near this guy, and his behavior there confirmed my plan, but about that time Alvin pulled in, too. I discretely told him what had just happened and he got this mischevious "I'll take care of this--don't worry about him" look on his face.
Now, Alvin is a really strong rider. He usually rides sweep at the back of his group to make sure everyone makes it to camp ok, but today he had to take care of getting housing set up in Eads and decided to ride ahead of them. And thankfully so, since I got to see a wonderful demonstration of his use of THE FORCE because of it.
Alvin started talking to volitile-guy about how he was such a strong rider, how Alvin never did quite catch him on the way into Sheridan Lake. "Why, young buck like you'll have no problems making it all the way to Ordway tonight. That'd getcha to Pueblo a day quicker to get that wheel all fixed up before the weekend and all. Seein's as there's a hotrod convention in town that's taken all the rooms for the weekend, it might not be a bad idea to get there a little earlier. Why, as strong as you ride, you oughtta be there to Ordway by 4:00 even. No sense stayin' around Eads when you can get that much closer to Pueblo today, 'specially since a young buck like you'll get to Eads before noon." (apologies to Alvin for the rough paraphrase...feel free to send ammendations!)
The guy wouldn't commit to going on at that point, but when I got to Eads, he was just pulling out after a quick lunch and heading on his way to Ordway. I was on my was to a shower and a night in Eads. Alvin is a Jedi master.
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That night we were set to stay in a community building at the fairgrounds with a group of Americorps kids. I had such a fun evening. Jacques offered to let me be his geisha again and help an old man. Will thought he heard Jacques asking for help and offered some assistance, to which Jacques replied, "Will, you no like geisha." Will insisted that yes, in fact, a geisha sounded like a pretty good idea, but Jacques just kept shaking his head until I figured out that he had meant to say that Will didn't LOOK like a geisha. No. Will does not look like a geisha, so we had some good laughs.
After we got cleaned up, Alvin showed me more of the paperwork aspect of leading an Adventure Cycling group (for my future reference), Ron just about made me wet my pants with a dry off-hand comment of "get a bag" to one of the other group members trying to hide his beer (it was funny to us at the time), and the Americorps kids started asking lots of questions about the trip.
After dinner, the group had its map meeting, leaving me to answer all the questions from the kids, which was a lot of fun. The guys looked over my bike, looked at the bags, someone else's trailer, and got that look I'm now becoming familiar with--the "I wish I could come, too" look that looks a little bit like the look your dog gives you when you leave him behind to go on a trip.
But the guys also gave me some helpful information about sleeping in the community building. Not only was this going to be an echo-y metal space with teenagers and snoring middle aged men. There were crickets that crawled in your sleeping bag with you. I hate crickets that don't mind their own business. I'd already contemplated sleeping outside to avoid the mass-sleeping arrangement, but that did it. Since it had stopped raining (oh yeah--they hadn't had hardly any rain all year, but we apparently brought it with us), I packed up and set up my tent in a barn away from snoring men and unwanted crickets. It rained again in the night, but I was safely snuggled in my cricket-free sleeping bag.
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 2,198 miles (3,537 km)
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