March 14, 2020
We Begin Our Ride: With A Hike
Hello again friends. Oh My what a lot has happened since we last checked in!
I am a big, big fan of the TV show The Walking Dead. BIG fan. Can’t wait until each new season drops on Netflix. The drive from Des Moines to Moab felt a bit like the first couple episodes of TWD ... where Rick Grimes wakes up in his hospital bed to slowly understand that a killer virus has set loose a Zombie Apocalypse. Each day’s drive westward brought new dominos falling for us. Pro and college sports first saying they’d play games in front of empty stadiums then flat out canceling their seasons, wide swaths of the professional cycling season being cancelled or shortened (*SOB*), entire states closing their public and private school systems, higher education doing the same, Broadway shows being cancelled all the way down to performances of the local community theater group Margaret does set design for having to cancel their upcoming show. People running amok in a panicked stampede to hoard as much toilet paper and bottled water as they can ... Good Lord even Trump is admitting there is actually a problem although its everyone else’s fault.
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When we arrived in Moab the organizers of the Skinny Tire Festival were at the headquarter motel bravely answering questions and offering heartfelt apologies. Their only concern was making sure their riders were informed and taken care of. In essence they had been forced to cancel their event because of the flailing about of local government. The organizers had been informed by the local town council that there might be a forced cancellation put in order, but then told they might be allowed to operate if certain stipulations were met, but no word was ever forthcoming as to what was going to happen, what the stipulations might be, or when they would be communicated. That is why they cancelled on Tuesday this week, mid-day, because of the silence from government and the resulting uncertainty. In a sharp edged bit of irony, the Moab town council tied 3-3 on a motion to enforce a ban on outdoor gatherings of more than 250 people, which meant that the event could have been run as planned. Given that the vote wasn’t taken until Wednesday night that was no help to anyone. Organizers knew their participants needed to be informed, and had to cancel to give people a chance to cancel reservations, etc. There was also a 1/2 marathon and an ultra run that met the same fate. The local paper had quotes of some choice words from the 1/2 marathon organizer criticizing the murky communication from the council. Bungling all around from local, state and national government ... a tone set by our current national administration I’m afraid.
The organizers gave away free t-shirts to anyone who wanted them which was phenomenally generous. They are committing to refunding as much of people’s entries as they can once they calculate what they need to meet the expenses they had to commit to prior to the cancellation. That is very generous of them. I fully expected and would have supported them simply saying they could not make any refunds. Ah, sie la vie.
Today was meant to be the first day’s ride of the four day event. Instead, Margaret and I went hiking in Arches National Park. Pro Tip: Never take lightly the offer from Margaret to go hiking. Do not assume it will be a jolly traipse in the open air ... a quick out and back that will get you home in time for your early afternoon coffee. Always, ALWAYS, pin down the specific details of that hike with the tenacity of a criminal trail attorney. Route, distance, stops, planned time of conclusion. Get it writing. Do not make the mistake I made for the first 25 years of our relationship and accept the “Oh, probably about 3 miles or so ...” only to find you have been “bait and switched” into a few jigs and jogs that have led to a seven mile forced march. As Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Marg accurately guessed her plans would lead to about 9 miles of hiking and that was the case. My fully informed self enjoyed the hike immensely, and I was shocked to find that my former Deathly Fear of Heights has now calmed to more of a Deep and Abiding Respect for Heights, that allowed me to negotiate some sections that not long ago would have given me the Howling Fantods.
But! Tomorrow we ride!! The fact we will be only two cyclists on the road instead of 500 made for some changes in routing, but tune into tomorrow’s update for some more on that.
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2 years ago