Sunday, May 4, 2008
another kansas day
longish kansas day with, of course, wind. we were on 96 again today for around 100 miles with stops at 30-65-85. internet isn't so good here so i will be brief and pictureless, but we are currently in the high school in lyons, KS. i bet you can guess the mascot. oh and beard week is sadly over.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
calm wind
overall another nice day. started out in leoti, KS at the high school and made it to ness city, KS 81 miles later. after owning colorado, many of us decided to show our pride by wearing the infamous colorado socks. below from top, nate's left foot, jen's left and my right.
luckily the winds stayed pretty calm today sitting in the teens instead of the 30-50mph range like yesterday. was a headwind of some variety for most of the day but the pacelines diffused the wind nicely. our first rest stop was in scott city where we stopped at "ma and pa's" mostly for coffee and cocoa but some brave souls tried some interesting hotdog concoction. from left: kt beck, dave, nate, kel, erin, joe, jen, van and bobby (marianne is behind bobby but you can't really see her face)
continued to a town called, get this "dighton". it was pretty run down but support found frigid creme who gave us half off everything including chicken tenders (yes!).
i took this photo because i am a little curious about the pizza burger and the nacho pies.
group at frigid creme
the day was not boring only because we stayed in pacelines the entire day. it is hard to explain how empty this state and eastern colorado actually is. literally you bike for miles and see nothing but fields and maybe, just maybe a silo in the distance. the "cities" are actually just a few silos and their is a train track that is never used. it might just be that we have been on highway 96 for the last three days. glad im not doing this alone. peace.
almost forgot, i had a "what am i doing moment" a little bit ago. so it was 630 on a saturday night, im sitting in a high school gymnasium eating cereal for dinner. a little sad.
luckily the winds stayed pretty calm today sitting in the teens instead of the 30-50mph range like yesterday. was a headwind of some variety for most of the day but the pacelines diffused the wind nicely. our first rest stop was in scott city where we stopped at "ma and pa's" mostly for coffee and cocoa but some brave souls tried some interesting hotdog concoction. from left: kt beck, dave, nate, kel, erin, joe, jen, van and bobby (marianne is behind bobby but you can't really see her face)
continued to a town called, get this "dighton". it was pretty run down but support found frigid creme who gave us half off everything including chicken tenders (yes!).
i took this photo because i am a little curious about the pizza burger and the nacho pies.
group at frigid creme
the day was not boring only because we stayed in pacelines the entire day. it is hard to explain how empty this state and eastern colorado actually is. literally you bike for miles and see nothing but fields and maybe, just maybe a silo in the distance. the "cities" are actually just a few silos and their is a train track that is never used. it might just be that we have been on highway 96 for the last three days. glad im not doing this alone. peace.
almost forgot, i had a "what am i doing moment" a little bit ago. so it was 630 on a saturday night, im sitting in a high school gymnasium eating cereal for dinner. a little sad.
Friday, May 2, 2008
monumental day
me, ashley and my gashed elbow at the ed in denver. seeking healing power from "the light above" - it just so happened to be a procedural light rather than superhuman light. please note my wicked tan lines.
wichita baby. indian pride 4 life (this is in the locker room)
windy day as we approached kansas. this is a picture charade, can you guess what im depicting? yup, right on the nose. (answer: wind)
team arriving in kansas. notice the strong winds blowing hair around and people hanging on for dear life. we had to call the ride at this point.
today was big for a couple of reasons. 1) we entered the very long state of kansas 2) switched over to central time zone (one more to go) and 3) i overcame my new fear of riding a bike. but let me first talk about the day coming out of denver.
like when we came in, we were on the southern route of colorado so we drove from denver down to a town just east of pueblo. on the way there, we hit some snow/rain showers then eventually reached ordway high school in time to give a combination lecture of poverty and infectious diseases. kem started it off with a distribution of food activity drill showing that north america and western europe use about 75 % of the food despite having a much smaller population. then van, bobby, and i gave the rest of the lecture that, in my opinion, went very well. at that point the others (i was on support) started biking in the wind for about 60 miles when we reached our final destination in eads. stayed in the community center where carissa made a really nice dinner and we ended the night with some borat. i felt a little better yesterday overall and the pressure on my left forearm seemed to go away even though the elbow and hip pain has continued.
today i decided i was ready to start biking so i gave it a shot. another windy day to start but, luckily it was not a headwind. i was in pretty good shape with the exception of the bumps in the road which seemed to shake up all of the wounds on my body. the group had to give up the ride at the colorado/kansas border as the winds went from 20-30 mph to 40-50 mph and gusty. was pretty sore when i was done as we toured the wichita county museum then eventually made our way to the high school. pretty cool here with home-ec access and decent showers. also cool because there are signs all over the place that say "indian pride" (mascot is a feather indian). now we head for mexican food "downtown" (literally, there are like 2 streets here).
hopefully tomorrow will be a wind free day. pretty unlikely during tornado season but keeping my fingers crossed.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
rough day
rough day that is starting to get better (i'm trying my best to be optimistic). woke up in more pain than i had the previous night. decided to stay back instead of attending the events today as i was still a little off from the meds and still in a significant amount of pain. think the worst part of the morning was the shower that just seemed to burn all over. more bad news came when i heard that my back wheel was beyond repair. i keep telling myself that it could have been worse and, indeed it could have been, but i am still have a combination of feelings as i replay the events of the last day.
on the positive side of things, i finally got chipotle after a 1+ month hiatus. i also heard from trucian and jordan that they found a cool place in the city and after talking to the landlord, it seems as if it might be a done deal very soon. that is a huge relief for me and the other guys. i also got an email about some award that i wasn't expecting from the department of internal medicine. my guess is that it is something that a bunch of people get, however, on a day like today, i will try to celebrate all the good news that i can.
i think we are still planning on hanging out at a spot tonight so no vicodin for me tonight. thank you for all of you that called today.
on the positive side of things, i finally got chipotle after a 1+ month hiatus. i also heard from trucian and jordan that they found a cool place in the city and after talking to the landlord, it seems as if it might be a done deal very soon. that is a huge relief for me and the other guys. i also got an email about some award that i wasn't expecting from the department of internal medicine. my guess is that it is something that a bunch of people get, however, on a day like today, i will try to celebrate all the good news that i can.
i think we are still planning on hanging out at a spot tonight so no vicodin for me tonight. thank you for all of you that called today.
fall
i am going to do my best to write something out now but i am a bit loopy from the pain killers. im also on someone else's computer so i will post pics when i can find my own power cord.
yesterday started out amazing. first 30 or so miles out of salida were along the arkansas river in a nice canyon with mountains all around. we made a pretty tight pack and knocked it all out in just over an hr then took a rest stop prior to starting the climb. the first part of the climb was about 20 miles gaining a few thousand feet elevation as we made our way to the rest stop. had a great lunch then continued our climb towards for another 15 or so miles. was kinda rushing it so that i could reach another century prior to getting swept by the vehicles and heading to denver. nate and i were on pace to make it as we flew to the summit and began our descent for the last 30 or so miles.
the descent was a blast as we were flying down very tight and technical turns. one of those times that you can't help but smile the entire time down. about 10 miles into the descent (around mile 80) we hit this series of turns with speed limits of 30 mph, 35 mph, 25 mph then 30 mph. was having a blast and being careful at the same time when i felt the ground move underneath me on a patch of gravel then hit the ground. i think i was going about 30 or so mph as i slipped. it was a tight left turn so my bike continued in the direction i was turning while i hit my left side with some force and whipped around to my back to control my fall so i wouldn't hit the guardrail. i saw nate finish the turn while i was on my back and my only thoughts were "this is going to hurt". luckily the car behind me stopped and made sure i was alright then eventually other riders caught up to check on me. carissa waited for me until i got picked by fernando and bobby. they took me back to get cleaned up and we started heading to denver. overall my left elbow and left hip took the greatest impact but both knees, my right elbow, my ankles and my fingers were all scraped up pretty good. got to our location in denver and started cleaning out the wounds a little better when i noticed the muscle was very well exposed but it was difficult to see if the joint was still intact. decided to take a trip to the ED to get it checked out.
ashley kindly joined me for an evening in the ed as we waited for several hours to get checked out. they got x-rays, then consulted the orthopedic people to make sure my joint capsule was not broken (in fear of an infected joint). in order to test it, they injected blue dye into it to see if it leaked. luckily the joint was fine, however, the dye couldn't be removed so the pain in my elbow is pretty extreme - almost feels like there is a rod from my elbow to my fingers. after they checked the joint, they sewed up the wound with a couple sutures and we were on our way home (at like 4am). glad everything checked out. also glad i have friends like ashley, joe and jess who all kept me company. was a long painstaking evening with the exception of watching juno on ashley's computer.
think i need to lay down, this stuff is strong. peace.
yesterday started out amazing. first 30 or so miles out of salida were along the arkansas river in a nice canyon with mountains all around. we made a pretty tight pack and knocked it all out in just over an hr then took a rest stop prior to starting the climb. the first part of the climb was about 20 miles gaining a few thousand feet elevation as we made our way to the rest stop. had a great lunch then continued our climb towards for another 15 or so miles. was kinda rushing it so that i could reach another century prior to getting swept by the vehicles and heading to denver. nate and i were on pace to make it as we flew to the summit and began our descent for the last 30 or so miles.
the descent was a blast as we were flying down very tight and technical turns. one of those times that you can't help but smile the entire time down. about 10 miles into the descent (around mile 80) we hit this series of turns with speed limits of 30 mph, 35 mph, 25 mph then 30 mph. was having a blast and being careful at the same time when i felt the ground move underneath me on a patch of gravel then hit the ground. i think i was going about 30 or so mph as i slipped. it was a tight left turn so my bike continued in the direction i was turning while i hit my left side with some force and whipped around to my back to control my fall so i wouldn't hit the guardrail. i saw nate finish the turn while i was on my back and my only thoughts were "this is going to hurt". luckily the car behind me stopped and made sure i was alright then eventually other riders caught up to check on me. carissa waited for me until i got picked by fernando and bobby. they took me back to get cleaned up and we started heading to denver. overall my left elbow and left hip took the greatest impact but both knees, my right elbow, my ankles and my fingers were all scraped up pretty good. got to our location in denver and started cleaning out the wounds a little better when i noticed the muscle was very well exposed but it was difficult to see if the joint was still intact. decided to take a trip to the ED to get it checked out.
ashley kindly joined me for an evening in the ed as we waited for several hours to get checked out. they got x-rays, then consulted the orthopedic people to make sure my joint capsule was not broken (in fear of an infected joint). in order to test it, they injected blue dye into it to see if it leaked. luckily the joint was fine, however, the dye couldn't be removed so the pain in my elbow is pretty extreme - almost feels like there is a rod from my elbow to my fingers. after they checked the joint, they sewed up the wound with a couple sutures and we were on our way home (at like 4am). glad everything checked out. also glad i have friends like ashley, joe and jess who all kept me company. was a long painstaking evening with the exception of watching juno on ashley's computer.
think i need to lay down, this stuff is strong. peace.
Monday, April 28, 2008
"harder than childbirth"
what an amazing day. we stared out in gunnison, co and worked our way to salida. did about 35 or so easy miles then started our long, high ascent. looking back, the hill was not actually that bad, however, on the bike i felt much differently. usually when you climb several thousand feet, you climb some steep areas, take a break on a relatively light climb or a flat then climb again. monarch pass was more of a constant climb where you continuously saw the road ahead and saw cars and trucks struggling to get up the hill. i actually thought it would be much more difficult to breath at such a high altitude, but surprisingly it was not that bad. decided not to get competitive and took the hill at a slow and steady pace that proved to be the right choice. ended up alone for most of the climb then finished the last few miles with jen. after the climb, marianne stated that it was the hardest thing she has ever done (harder than childbirth - she has three children so she knows). but seriously, this was a really tough climb and all of our riders completed it. i can't say how proud i am to be with all these hardworking people.
a little drama happened at the top when a 20 ton tractor was trying to shovel away ice and ran head first into our van. there were about 5 people in the van at the time (i was napping like every mediratta does after lunch), but luckily everyone walked away without injury and the van was minimally damaged. jen and i also got kicked off of an ice pile for shoveling away the snow to better see what the sign said (i will try to post the video if i can get it on here).
finished the day with about 67 miles at the local sonic (not impressed) then worked our way to the salida high school for our showers and sleeping headquarters. went our for dinner and found this place called amica's where they fired their own pizza and brewed their own beer. i tried the IPA and was very impressed both at the taste and the 3.10 price tag for a pint. food was great, company was great and in kem's opinion, "everything was perfect" (from the lemonade to the music)
view of rockies from salida. this is what we ascended and descended. you can tell the mountain looks sad after being owned by a bunch of amateur riders.
mercury checking out the view from the top. yes, i named my bike (and you should too if you haven't)
proof. the more i bike the more i realize how much adding and removing of clothing you do. when you climb, you take layers off, when you descend, you add layers. it was about 20 degrees but i was perfectly comfortable in my few small spandex layers, that is until i stopped moving. i put on two coats and a face mask to go down the hill.
me at blue mesa lake with future mountains in background on sunday. could not have had a more beautiful ride.
again, from previous day at blue mesa lake and canyon. too many people to identify but i will try. back left josh, katie, jen, erin, bobby, cory. next row tammy, caitlin, nate, kem, marianne. one of the more pretty lunch stops we have had.
a little drama happened at the top when a 20 ton tractor was trying to shovel away ice and ran head first into our van. there were about 5 people in the van at the time (i was napping like every mediratta does after lunch), but luckily everyone walked away without injury and the van was minimally damaged. jen and i also got kicked off of an ice pile for shoveling away the snow to better see what the sign said (i will try to post the video if i can get it on here).
finished the day with about 67 miles at the local sonic (not impressed) then worked our way to the salida high school for our showers and sleeping headquarters. went our for dinner and found this place called amica's where they fired their own pizza and brewed their own beer. i tried the IPA and was very impressed both at the taste and the 3.10 price tag for a pint. food was great, company was great and in kem's opinion, "everything was perfect" (from the lemonade to the music)
view of rockies from salida. this is what we ascended and descended. you can tell the mountain looks sad after being owned by a bunch of amateur riders.
mercury checking out the view from the top. yes, i named my bike (and you should too if you haven't)
proof. the more i bike the more i realize how much adding and removing of clothing you do. when you climb, you take layers off, when you descend, you add layers. it was about 20 degrees but i was perfectly comfortable in my few small spandex layers, that is until i stopped moving. i put on two coats and a face mask to go down the hill.
me at blue mesa lake with future mountains in background on sunday. could not have had a more beautiful ride.
again, from previous day at blue mesa lake and canyon. too many people to identify but i will try. back left josh, katie, jen, erin, bobby, cory. next row tammy, caitlin, nate, kem, marianne. one of the more pretty lunch stops we have had.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
big climb tomorrow
nadia - tom cruise was not with katie holmes when i saw her. if i can find a thrift store, i can promise that they have or can have a mug with your name on it.
literally an up and down day. started off in montrose with a 15 or so mile climb then descended to climb again for another 12-15 or so miles. really not all that bad overall with some fun descents. then lunch and an easy 25 more miles to finish around 66 miles at western state college of colorado in gunnison. andrew and chris led the charge for most of the day but had to leave back to ohio after lunch. pretty cool little college that provided us with food, shower, and a place to stay. had a great lecture given by kem, van, and bobby that, unfortunately, didn't reach all that many people. then had a long group meeting about what was going well and what we can do better as a group. people had great ideas for improvement and an overall positive energy from the group.
tomorrow we head to salida as we go through our largest climb thusfar going from somewhere in the 7000 ft range to almost 11300 ft as we cross the continental divide (point in the country where if rain falls on one side, it theoretically will go to the pacific ocean and if on the other side, will go to the atlantic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_divide).
time is flying, three weeks we will be back in ohio. one month from now is our last event in washington, d.c. in two months i will be living and working in chicago. wow.
literally an up and down day. started off in montrose with a 15 or so mile climb then descended to climb again for another 12-15 or so miles. really not all that bad overall with some fun descents. then lunch and an easy 25 more miles to finish around 66 miles at western state college of colorado in gunnison. andrew and chris led the charge for most of the day but had to leave back to ohio after lunch. pretty cool little college that provided us with food, shower, and a place to stay. had a great lecture given by kem, van, and bobby that, unfortunately, didn't reach all that many people. then had a long group meeting about what was going well and what we can do better as a group. people had great ideas for improvement and an overall positive energy from the group.
tomorrow we head to salida as we go through our largest climb thusfar going from somewhere in the 7000 ft range to almost 11300 ft as we cross the continental divide (point in the country where if rain falls on one side, it theoretically will go to the pacific ocean and if on the other side, will go to the atlantic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_divide).
time is flying, three weeks we will be back in ohio. one month from now is our last event in washington, d.c. in two months i will be living and working in chicago. wow.
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