From Janie:From Lamar CO to Garden City KS on Monday, October 1.
Jody rode another century today. 103 miles, to be precise. But it may be the hardest 103 miles he'll ever ride. We rolled early, as it would be a long day. And long it was. We had a bit of a following wind as we left Lamar, headed east into the beautiful sunrise.
Sunrise east of Lamar CO.
The sky lit up in a rush of color - pink and blue, then orange and blue and white. Stunning. Hard to see the rider, so Rod drove close behind Jody as the sun came up.
Sunrise colors east of Lamar CO.
As we followed Jody out of town, the sun glinted off the railroad tracks to our left, and Jody's wheels in front of us. Rod and I were both taken with it - something we'd never seen before. You can see hints of what it was really like in this photo:
Sunlight glinting off the rails and Jody's wheels.
It was really more incredible than this.
Shortly after we left Lamar, the wind kicked up from the north, blowing directly across the road from the left. It blew hard, then gusted, but never let up. Never. Not for Jody's 103 miles or for my 30 miles. The road was quite busy, with lots of trucks, but a pretty good shoulder. We needed it, as the wind buffeted us from side to side, with the impact of the passing trucks making us white-knuckle cyclists today. This is a ride I couldn't have done even two weeks ago - it took leg strength and stamina, upper body strength to control the bike against the wind, and nerves to tolerate the traffic whizzing by. At one point, I looked down and could see the entire right side of my bike - I was leaning that hard into the wind. Later in the day, I stopped and got off the bike to drink. I didn't think I could control the bike with one hand. And, at that, I had to hold onto the bike to keep it from blowing over. Windy, windy day.
Jody, with some of the day's traffic.
Janie, riding despite the wind and the traffic.
I stopped at the Subway in Holly CO for a bathroom break. Not a particularly pretty town, so I wasn't expecting much, but stumbled into a group of 6-8 old timers sitting at the tables drinking coffee. They sized me up. I said good morning. They all smiled and nodded. One told me what a pretty coat I was wearing. 'All the better to see me with,' I thought, but didn't say. When I got in the car a little later, Rod told me he'd seen them, too. We lamented that they hadn't been in a cafe, but were in a chain restaurant instead.
Thirty miles from the hotel, 15 miles into my ride, we hit the Kansas border.
Jody, at the Colorado to Kansas border crossing.
Janie, a little bit later, at the Colorado to Kansas border crossing.
I spent much of the day in the car with Rod. I rode 15 in the early morning, then 15 at the end of the day, ending up at the hotel before Jody and Rod. Rod and I saw a lot of interesting things, including this truck, which was loaded with something (we speculated it was manure) that was dumped out the back through a set of spinning blades, which spread the dark and dusty matter across the field. Neither of us had ever seen a truck or an operation like this. You can tell from the photo that it was windy.
Spreading something on the fields.
After we saw this truck, we waited for Jody in the tiny town of Syracuse KS. He pulled up next to The Little Darkness and said: "Did you see the donut shop?!?" I hadn't, but Rod had. One block back. Mmmm, donuts! We turned like a herd of Homer Simpson wannabes, and went back. Drooling. Figuring we'd all ridden enough that day to justify donuts. (Even Rod, who had been driving The Little Darkness all day, and hadn't been on the bike!)
So excited! Until . . . breaking our collective hearts - they were sold out! We lamented, we pleaded, we wished, and we hoped. But we didn't get donuts. One of what must have been a group of regulars said we should have been in five minutes earlier: "You would have seen a grown man cry!" The woman working there said it was really unusual to sell out on a Monday. Here is Jody outside the donut shop where we didn't get donuts:
No donuts for us!
Jody, in yet another construction zone.
This flagger said he'd never been mooned. He also said we'd be looking at 27 miles of road re-striping. What he didn't say was that they were also resurfacing. Jody was riding along where it was only one lane when suddenly the pilot car was coming at him, in the same lane. He slid over to the right, and ended up riding through hot tar. Flecks on Jean Luc. Flecks on Jody. Even after a shower, still flecks on Jody. Yuck.
Jody, riding on the leeward side of The Little Darkness.
20+ mph, and close enough to touch the car.
More sunflowers in Kansas, the Sunflower State.
(Photo by Rod Riley)
It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.
~Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
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