A Woman without a Bicycle

From Janie:

Friday, September 21.  From Cortez to Durango

If you look closely at this USA today weather map, you can see both how far we've come and how far we have yet to go.  We started in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara, CA.  We're now in Durango, CO.  The star on the far right is our target, Savannah, Georgia.

How far we've come so far.

 

I didn't ride today.  Not because I was tired - although I was.  Not because it was a rest day.  Not really by choice.

 

As most of you probably know, the forests have been on fire in the American West this year.  Currently fires are burning in Washington State, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.  They may be burning elsewhere as well, but these are the big fires.  And where there are fires, there is smoke.  Sometimes a lot of smoke.  By the end of the day yesterday, too much smoke for me.  Lots of coughing last night, a little wheezing, laryngitis.  All the signs of too much bad air.  So, into the car for me today.

 

Jody, however, was a stud on the bike.  Again.  Mountains?  What mountains?  About 44 miles today, with over 3400 feet of elevation gain.  A day in pictures:

 

Fall in the high country.  Beautiful country.

Jody, on the early climb of the day.  Smiling.

Jody, working hard on the climb.

Note the shadows of The Fish and Joe's bike, atop The Little Darkness.

Colorado.

 

Jody, riding through one of several construction zones.

Janie and The Little Darkness at the county line.

Jody, coming up the mountain.

Yes, it really was that steep.

Jody, drinking water!

 

 

The colors beginning to turn.

Joe Tonon, on the roadside.

Jody, powering up the mountain.

Jody, flying down the other side.

Rolling into Durango.

It was a glorious day in the mountains. 

We're now in Durango, where the air appears to be cleaner, so I expect to ride tomorrow.  It was hard today, being in the car while Jody was on the bike.  I missed being on the bike, the long stretches of quiet where the only sounds are the wind, the bicycle and the breathing.  I even missed the adrenaline rush of traffic going by.  And I missed how great it feels, at the end of the ride, to get off the bike, to have a cold drink, a shower, a meal.  A nap.  To put clean clothes on a tired body.  To marvel at what one's body is capable of doing.  I did go to the gym late this afternoon.  (That was an act of will!)  But it's just not the same.

Tomorrow.  We'll pick it up again tomorrow.

A woman without a bicycle is like a man without a fish - both are hungry for something more.*
     ~Janie Braverman


*For those of you who don't remember the 1970's:
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
     ~1970's bumper sticker; often inaccurately attributed to Gloria Steinem