Day Nine - The Tempest

Day Nine – The Tempest

Daily Brief

The Weather gathered her forces and mounted an attack on our little band of bicycle riders, who formed a retaliation effort, although in the end they were still set back a little.

When fierce winds become your enemy (The Ride)

In only stands to reason that after the smoothest day of bicycle riding we needed to be tested. Today was that test (I hope). In the morning there was hills and wind. The rolling hills were doable. We could have handled that. It was the face blasting winds that drove us up the wall, or back up the hill as the case may be. We had to pedel just to keep moving going downhill, so you can imagine what the up hill climbs were like. We took multiple rest breaks to recuperate and gather our strength. As we continued our valiant efforts against the prevailing winds, we were getting close to our lunch location when near freezing rain began pelting us. Soggy, stung and worn-out we made it to a McDonalds where we took shelter for lunch.

Lunch was provided again by Bonnie, making the group happier day by day for the great idea of having Chanlder’s mom drive the van. That and she keeps an eye on us fella’s while still letting us be guys biking across the western united states. Yeah, it’s like that.

So, we hid in McDonalds against the onslaught of ever increasing rain. We waited and waited but the rain kept coming. We still had 40 miles to go and we were already dead tired from the morning skirmishes against hills and headwinds. I looked up online and found that we had been facing gusts of wind of up to 37 MPH. I was fine with staying right there, but the day was moving on and something had to be done. After about three hours the riders began to prepare for the inevitable. Slowly, ever so slowly, we started making motions to head back outside. I can’t remember who started it, I think it was Shaun and Chris. They began to suit up for bike VS. weather combat. On came the leg warmers, hats, headbands, gloves, rain jackets, extra shorts and toe warmers. Chandler and I got some plastic gloves from the McDonalds people to put under our short bicycle gloves to keep the water out (and they worked great!). After we geared up we had Bonnie lead us out to battle with a prayer for safety and relief.

As we jumped back into the rumble we found relief as the rain let up to a drizzle, then it disappeared! Praise be! Our prayers were answered and we continued on, still facing some tuff winds and hills, but we forged ahead. To either side we saw snow capped mountains, and darkening clouds. I wouldn’t doubt if one of them lead to Moordore. As evidence of the destined wind I spotted about 50 or so electircty gernating windmills to our right, far away on the landscape. We conquered about 20 more miles, then took a rest in a little town called North Powder. The rest turned into a re-evaluation, and with it the decision to stay there for the night. As we were unpacking our gear into the local motel the rain started up again, and we knew we had made the right decision.

While the wind and rain pushed us back by 20 projected miles, we still made a good effort and took plenty of ground. We have until Saturday to make up for the lost 20 miles, a feat that one favorable day of bicycle riding could more then make up for. Heck, if it was like yesterday we could make it up in our sleep!

Here’s for a good one tomorrow…

Daily Stats

Distance: 71.78
Time: 6:15
Avg. Speed: 11.5
Max Speed: 23.9

Total Distance: 606.6

P & C Pushups: 150