Welcome Home Party for the Touring Terrapin on August 11!!!!

An invitation from the editorial assistant

In the past six weeks, our intrepid terrapin has made FAR more progress on the ground than he has with his blog entries.  Tonight I posted the last two entries he's written ... which gets him all the way to ... June 23rd.  Even though the latest post covers the day he arrived in Colorado, he will COMPLETE the trip on Sunday, August 11!

Bill is not cycling all the way home; in the next few days, he'll complete his trip in Florida.  His start date at Amazon is August 26th and he needs to get organized before he leaves for Seattle.

He's headed toward Gainesville and then on to St. Augustine, where his trusty Trek 520, Amicus Valens, will have his tires ceremonially dipped in the Atlantic.  After Bill and the bike finally hit the ocean, he'll head north to Jacksonville where he'll catch a train to come home to DC.  His dad and several friends are meeting Bill in D.C. to make final leg home with him – 60 miles from Union Station to Huntingtown, MD, via Waldorf.

We're so proud and amazed at this 4,200+ mile journey Bill has taken!  We're really excited to welcome him home, even if it is only for a week and a half. This may be your last chance to see him for a long time, as he's leaving for Seattle some time around August 21st.  So please join us as we celebrate the Touring Terrapin's return!

Bill estimates the trip from Union Station will take about 6.5 - 7 hours, including breaks, and that the group will arrive at our house sometime after 4:00 p.m.  If you'd like to join us for the party, please post a comment here (or on Bill's Facebook page) so I can get a head count.  We're not sure when the cycling group will arrive so, if you definitely want to be here to see Bill arrive, I'd aim to be at our house by 3:45.  You might have to hang out for a while but I'll have beers, wine and iced tea to enjoy while we wait!

June 23

My memory of today's ride is far too vague to make a good blog post about. I apologize; had I been more on top of things, little days like this wouldn't have faded from memory, and there might be something more substantial here. Be that as it may, I'll tell you what I do remember.

I woke late, and hit the road even later because I wanted to get some more food at the local café I have been spending so much time in. I even did another blog while I was there. Still, leaving so close to noon is not something I should be making a habit of. Plus, considering how strong a cyclist Nate is, with him getting ahead of me like this I don't think I'll be seeing him again. Well, c'est la vie.

I remember absolutely nothing of the ride except for small details. For instance, I know I met two cyclists.



I know I finally got a pic of the strange mile marker signs Wyoming is so fond of – the ones that go out to hundredths of a mile.

And today I passed into Colorado.



One thing that I do remember about this is that there was such an stark difference in the roads the moment I crossed into Colorado, for better and for worse. On the one hand, the road quality was notably improved. On the other hand the shoulder disappeared completely. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

Somewhere along the way I stopped in a liquor store in a minuscule town that actually had flask sized containers of scotch! The owner was really funny, I tried to compliment him on how great it was that he had these sized bottles and he immediately started to apologize that they didn't carry anything larger! I and the motorcyclists that were there at the time had to quickly reassure him that it was actually a good thing, and we liked it. I ended up talking to him for a long time before I left for the final leg of today's ride.



When I reached today's stop - Walden - I made a quick beeline for the closest restaurant. The first thing I saw there, and I SO wish I had taken a picture, was a family of four sitting in the restaurant wearing cowboy hats – completely unironically. I didn't have the guts to just snap a pic right there, and it didn't occur to me that, with my smartphone, I could just act like I was texting and take a shot.

In any event, I stayed there until they were closing and ended up talking to the staff. All of them were from different countries:  one woman was from Peru, the other was from somewhere in Europe, and this guy was French.

I talked the longest with the Peruvian, and she told me that she was mentally preparing for the day all the Great Divide Race cyclists would be passing through. Last year they had so many people hit them at once that every restaurant in town literally ran out of food! I still had the link to the live tracking on my phone and have her a tentative estimate of 5 days to a week until the mob hit them, and wished her the best of luck.

The Walden public park is one of those great parks that lets people put their tents up for the night, and I joined about 6 other cyclists in using it. Unfortunately, they were already set up and asleep, so I didn't get to talk with any of them. Still a pretty good day though.

June 22 (Rest day - Listening to my body)

Well, I woke up today and felt shitty. Sick to my stomach, sick to my head, and I had no idea what it was. So I immediately decided I'd take the day off; it seemed like the responsible thing to do. And so I spent most of the day just relaxing in the local cafe. This allowed me to charge my batteries, do some blogging, and gorge myself on food until I felt better all at the same time! I also finished the book I was currently reading - The Reluctant Swordsman by Dave Duncan.

I found time to do my laundry, and was appalled by how much I had to spend to do it. (Laundromats ain't cheap, especially when you have to do two loads because you have to wear something.) And later I wandered over for another late night soak in the hot spring, which I had the good sense to take a picture of today. 

 

In fact, one of the locals told me that there were two hot springs  in the pool I was in, the small hot spring encircled by rocks in the bottom right of the picture where the hot water springs from, and the rest of the pool that is warmed by that water. I tried by best to handle the really hot spring, but I didn't last more than 30 seconds. (Which the local said was actually pretty good, considering the water was 108 degrees)

Nate had arrived at about midday, and decided to stop for the day because of the hot spring and because the wind was ferociously blowing against him. We hung out a fair deal in the cafe, and ended up camping together later that night. 

With the luxury treatment I gave myself today, I should definitely feel well enough to press on tomorrow.

June 21 (Headwinds, crosswinds, and construction oh my!)

I got up really late again today. I was actually worried that Nate might have already passed me in the morning and that I would never see the guy again. (I think I left at 10 a.m.) In any event, I pushed through some irritating headwinds until I hit this little café called "Annalope." It really was how the cute name that made me stop for lunch there. I was glad I did, the food was pretty good.

 

Oh yeah, and I crossed the great divide again at some point on the way to that, I forget where.

 

Right as I was leaving, Nate arrived at the cafe, which was funny to me. (Nope, no chitchat for you guys!) It was lucky for him too, the cafe was almost at closing time. In fact, I encountered most of the cyclists I met today near this cafe. A little before it I met this really interesting couple on a recumbent-standing tandem bicycle...

 

Another cyclist on a straight recumbent bicyclist...

 

And a group of five who were coming into the café as I was hitting the road...who I apparently forgot to take pictures of.

The next leg of the ride was one of the most grueling and demoralizing sections I have ever ridden on. Again, the wind was strongly in my face/sides, so the going was extremely slow even though it is so absolutely flat. To make that aspect worse, there was a really large hill/mountain ahead to climb, and it was close enough that it didn't look that far away, but far enough that no matter how long you rode it didn't feel like you were getting any closer... which is really demoralizing. Aaand the road was crappy and had no shoulder, which made the fact that there were miles of construction up ahead that much worse. (When there is construction on a road, they only let through one side at a time...which means that when the oncoming traffic comes through there are a torrent of cars coming at you, and the cars on your side have nowhere to go around you. Add that to no shoulder and half the time I had to pull over to not get hit.) And finally, all you had to look at the entire time was this.

 

Nate passed me halfway through, which did not help the demoralization problem.

Eventually though, at long last, I reached and passed over the mountain, once more...crossing the great divide. Seriously though, how many times am I going to cross this?

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur; I think my brain may have ceased functioning correctly, or maybe it just doesn't stand out as much as the previous section. Either way, I eventually reached Rawlins, and treated myself to some delicious Thai food. I even met another guy (hippie) on a cross country tour of his own. He however, was walking, though not above hitchhiking if offered.

 

Now I have been hearing about this place 40 miles away from Rawlins called Saratoga, and specifically its AMAZING hot spring from just about every cyclist I pass up until this point. I really wanted to stop there, but I was struggling with it. I mean, if I stopped in Rawlins today and wanted to go there I would have to settle for a 40 mile day tomorrow, and that's no good. On the other hand, it was getting dark...

Eventually I settled on, "Meh, what's 40 more miles?" And for once I did not regret my impulsive decision. In fact, it was one of the best decisions I've made so far! There was a full moon so I could see well even when I turned my headlamp off, and the stars were beautiful with no light pollution around to cover them. Plus, since I was riding at night the wind was almost nonexistent, and even though I passed through some (usually) extremely windy areas it was almost still.

Bill PSA:
For any of you that are going to respond like my parents did, "Bill, night/day time has nothing to do with the wind, the cyclists that told you that are pulling the wind over your eyes or fooling you..." YOU'RE WRONG. I have by the time of this writing done numerous night rides, and I can guarantee you that as a general rule - storms and other exceptions aside - the winds die down at night. I do not know why this is the case, but it is a real phenomenon.

Note from the editorial assistant:
He's right.  I didn't believe him but now I see there is a plethora of websites that explain this phenomenon.  Here is a Texas A&M answer about why the wind dies down at night.

So after a few more hours of glorious riding I arrived in Saratoga, and had absolutely no idea where the hot spring was. Luckily, there was a man working in his shop at midnight, and he gave me directions to it. And let me tell you, that 1AM hot spring after riding 90 miles was INDESCRIBABLY good. I think I just laid in there for an hour at least. OH YEAH, and they had hot showers there too. There are just no words. 

Afterwards I rode around for a little bit and ended up camping on a dune near the lake. What a day. 

June 20 (Meet. All. The cyclists!)

I don't know how many cyclists I've passed that have told me that "The wind will be in your favor up ahead." LIARS. The wind is sentient and knows all and sees all. It ensures that NO ONE gets it in in their favor. Today was no exception. Headwinds and crosswinds all day.

Bill PSA:

Speaking as someone with a lot more experience (like four weeks) than past Bill, grow up. The wind in my face that day was nothing much, but it was irritating to have it turn out against me again. And to be straight, by the time of this writing I think I've had 5 days with tailwind - days where the wind was at my back for more than 30 minutes at a time. I think at June 20th I'd had 2 days.

So anyway, let's get the boring stuff out of the way first. There was pretty stuff to see on the road, as always.

 

Onto the people! I passed a huge number of cyclists on today's ride, and all of them in the area where the mosquitos swarm you! There was a couple riding a tandem - trailer combo.

 

An old Aussie who kept calling the mosquitos "mozzies" in between curses as we tried to have a roadside chat.

And a couple from I forget where. Its been a while.

I talked with a few of them at length, and even recorded many of their names, but the notebook where such details were recorded has been lost to the ages due to water damage.

Now the mosquitos I mentioned were hellions. No amount of bug spray would deter them, if you stopped, 15 would land on you at once, and some of those assholes were keeping up with me as I went 13 mph down the road! It was also close to 8 PM – when the bar I was counting on getting dinner from would close – so I was riding hard for a good hour or so.

And I did make it. In fact, when I got to the bar, I met three more cyclists, old pro's at touring as it were. All of them had tablet computers, something I wish I had brought. (I wouldn't be behind on blogs if I had a tablet for one.) Well we were talking over dinner when who should walk through the door but Nate! He was one of the three who pulled that 110 mile day at the bike in the day before I...lost...my wallet. It was great meeting him again, but apparently I won't get to see the siblings. They have been biking like bats out of hell, and passed me days ago. Ah well, I'll live.

 

The four of them were going to camp in an abandoned field (the place was a ghost town), but I opted to press on. There was a near full moon at the time, and I wanted to take advantage of it. And I wanted to get the hell away from the mosquitos. I was planning on getting at least to Muddy Gap, but my head lamp was dying, so I just pulled over at the side of the road halfway and pitched a tent. #HoboStatus

P.S.

I had picked up a flask a few days earlier, I thought it would be fun to have some scotch on hand...not realizing that scotch usually comes in bottles far too large for a flask. So when I arrived at this bar I was willing to spend a little extra just to have some. I won't say how much was spent (too much) for how much alcohol (too little) but the thing that enraged me many days later was that he gave me Jameson. I had thought Jameson wasn't scotch, but I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't read the bottle, and he assured me it was. It's. Irish. Whiskey. The bastard lied to me.

June 19 (The (pure) rest day)

I spent most of today walking my bike around town rather than riding it, because it wouldn't really be a rest day if I was riding. Or that's how I rationalize it; I think, by this point, I'm walking just to make yesterday's hellacious ride be for something.

 

In any event, I started the day (after breakfast) by spending many many hours in the library. I did write a few blog entries, but I honestly spent a lot more time catching up on all the websitesI usually follow, but haven't been able to of late. (In my defense, each one of these blogs takes 30 minutes to an hour, and it gets exhausting writing more than 3 at a time.)

 

I got my care package from the parents in the afternoon with the credit cards! Woohoo. Just to put this out there, I made it all the way to Lander without using any of the extra money gifted/lent to me, just to prove I could. (I didn't need help was the point.) Then I got my bike looked at at the local shop, and got the broken bits repaired. Ok enough, boring part over.

 

Here's the interesting bits of the day. While at the bike shop I met an old man who has literally ridden almost all of the AdventureCycling routes. He must have been 60 at least, but it sounded like he was still touring! He gave me a little advice on getting down from St Louis to Mississipi, something called the Natchez Trace Trail. I'll be looking it up when I get closer to the Central US.

 

 

I met three other (currently) touring cyclists today - of course going in the other direction. One was a Scot, and I...think...the other couple was Belgian... or Dutch?? Of some country who's language sounds similar to German anyway. Here's the thing though : the couple brought their 2 year old daughter on the tour! Apparently they don't make good time because she needs to be taken out and walked every 20 miles or so, but still! Its a damn impressive way to juggle wanderlust and parental responsibility. So the three of us ate dinner together and had ice cream afterwards, while talking about our current tours, their past tours, how they manage to take long trips like this and still have a job, etc.

 

 

 

 

All in all today was great!


Note from the editorial assistant (July 26)

Bill asked me to ask a question of Richard & Patrick.  He has had his Brooks saddle since somewhere in Wyoming and it's still not broken in.  He has used a whole container of mink oil on it and says another rider has told him that it's starting to break in.  He'd like to know if you have any ideas / advice on something he can do to move the process along.

Thanks!

June 18 (For the sake of the (pure) rest day!)

Today was...rough. I had intended to ride my first full century to get to Lander; that is where my new credit cards were being shipped. I wanted to get there today, the cards would arrive tomorrow, and I would have the perfect excuse for a rest day. Even just a little less and I would have to ride tomorrow, and I much prefer to not ride my bike at all on my rest days. I figured that with most of the terrain being downhill to some extent, it would be trivial...*sigh*...wrong. Everything went wrong. And a lot of it was my fault.

I didn't wake up late today, but I did hit the road very late on account of the wonderful facilities at the resort. First, there was a buffet style breakfast. Sausage, bacon, blueberry french toast! I simply had to have some. So that put me back about an hour. Furthermore you could also use their showers for a song, so I had to use that too! That put me back about 45 minutes. So I left much closer to noon than I had intended.

Minor aside... I was chatting up the employees about my tour and somehow ended up talking to an older gent about WarmShowers. He seemed rather interested in it so I talked it up; we can always use more hosts! (Little hint to my readership, there!)  When I got up to leave, he offered me a bit of money to help me out on my tour. Since I was almost out of cash again I really could use the money, so I thanked him for his generosity. Then he gave me a brochure titled, "Have you found Jesus?" I didn't say anything about it, because he had been extremely kind, but I never understood that kind of thing. If I have come this far in life and, for whatever reason, don't believe in Jesus, what makes someone think a brochure will do the trick?

Anyway, the road up to Togwotee Pass was actually less constantly steep than yesterday, but the wind was doing its damnedest to make sure I worked for every mile. I think one time I actually made a 180 degree turn around a sharp bend in the road, and the wind followed me the whole way; no tailwind for me today. Eventually I did reach the pass, which apparently is also a part of the Continental Divide.

 

 

Oh, and I took a few more pictures of the Teton Mountains for you. I think I'll actually miss this scenery.

The ride down was GREAT...at first. Unfortunately it didn't take long for the road to level out, and that is what it was for most of the ride, level. So it wasn't as trivially easy to cover a century as I thought it would be, especially with the wind in my face most of the way. Scenery was decent though.

 

Many, many, many miles later I crossed into an Indian reservation, right as I was running out of water. I checked my map, and saw that Ft. Washakie wasn't too far out, and opted to push on until I got there. I even refused water from another cyclist coming down from there, I thought it would be fine....

Rolling hills. Miles of rolling hills rolling uphill. I arrived at Ft. Washakie when the sun had just set, and the only gas station in town was closed. Shit. I knew there wasn't camping on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and I didn't think I'd be able to make the last 16 miles to Lander without any water. So...I flagged down a car, and asked the lady if she knew where I could find some water in town. She was extremely nice, and offered to fill up my camelback and let me have the water in her bottle in the meanwhile. Her son even gave me an orange! Great people.

So I rode through the night to Lander. Not much to see in the dark, but I did pass an Indian casino!

And I finally made it to Lander...and collapsed in the public park. Woo.

June 17 (Into the Tetons...and out?)

I left Yellowstone today. I would have liked to stay longer but, with my funds running so short, I can't stick around and sightsee. Someday I'd like to come back and spend the week leisurely touring around Yellowstone, seeing all the sights at a relaxed pace.

 

I guess the Teton's are less popular than Yellowstone, for while the "Welcome to Yellowstone" sign had a freaking line of people for taking pictures, the Teton sign was neglected.

 

The first two things I noticed about the Tetons were the roads and the mountains. The roads were instantly in better condition, and had a larger shoulder to boot. (If memory serves anyway) In fact, as I rushed down one of the larger hills, there were five signs forming a poem flashing by on my right. I would have taken pictures, but by the time I realized what they were I was at the bottom, and just no. The signs said this.

We saw wildlife,

From afar,

Until we hit them,

With our car.

Slow down!

I also saw this GREAT message flashing on one of the electronic road signs:

 

 

 

The Tetons were absolutely beautiful. I really wish I had had the time to go down to Jackson, apparently that road parallels the Tetons and is magnificent. But I did still get some great pictures!

 

 

 

Finally, I passed one couple on my way out of the Tetons.

 

The Teton area was actually rather short, and I ended up leaving it today as well. Which just left Togwotee Pass... a short amusing aside on this. Togwotee Pass is almost a three thousand foot climb, and I was very much not looking forward to finishing it at the end of today's ride. In fact, while looking at my map this morning, I got into an argument with the cyclist I was camping with about where the real climbs were on my ride yesterday. She somewhat balked when I showed her that the three passes I had put behind me all dwarfed her tough climb that day. She had those three to look forward to.) And she was really taken aback when she saw the 3,000 foot elevation climb of Togwotee. Pride ++.

Anyway, I decided I wouldn't take the whole pass in a single day. There was a campsite halfway up, and I figured it wouldn't be too bad. WRONG. For about 9-10 miles, I continuously passed these signs.

Even though the sign looks like the truck is going down, I was very much going UP.  If you're not a cyclist and would like to understand exactly what this means when you're on two wheels, moving under your own power, here's a Handy Guide to Climbing Grades.

 

Add in the fact that there was standing water nearby – and whenever I stopped the bugs swarmed around me making me feel like a modern day Beelzebub – and you have a miserable situation. Constant harsh climbing and because of the bugs you can't even take a break. Arrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!.

I did eventually reach the lodge, and I did luck out there. The campsite was cheap, $10 a vehicle but, as bikes aren't reaaaaally a vehicle, (words of the front desk) I could stay for free. In fact, there was another cyclist named Matt at the campsite. Matt is doing a mountain biking tour of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, and has put down some SERIOUS miles. We both started the same day, interestingly enough. But while I have put 1,200 road miles behind me, he has ridden 1,800 – across mountain biking terrain. Pride-

 

The sunset over the Tetons was spectacular.

 

P.S.

Can anyone tell me what these signs are for? I've been seeing them everywhere since I got out of the Tetons, and I have no clue what they are for.

 

 

June 16 (Old Faithful and other geysers)

I woke somewhat early today, in time to chat a little bit with the other cyclists in the hiker-biker area. I have since forgotten their names and what we talked about, but I do have this picture of them!

Shortly into today's ride I met another touring cyclist, and we did the whole side-of-the-road chat thing. (For anyone unaware, the usual thing two touring cyclists do when meeting is pull over to one side of the road and trade information. Topics range from formalities - where are you going, where did you start,etc - to the far more useful trade of road details. Many of the interesting places I have stopped were learned of in these roadside chats.) When I joked about how I was going to make it to Lander, Wyoming in three days on 60 dollars he became rather pensive and told me "I don't think you're going to be able to make that..." And then he gave me $20, on condition I pay him back via Paypal. Super great guy no!? (Check out his blog at Steve's Journal.)

In other news, there was much scenery to be had today. I got to see tons of Geysers and even got 5 feet from a bison!

I also got to see Old Faithful, which was...weird. I didn't really expect it to be the mercantile [please fix this, I dont't like the word. Something meaning stores-y] hub of Yellowstone, but there you have it, stores everywhere. Old Faithful was kinda unimpressive too. I mean, yeah, its reliable and all that. but the eruption was rather unimpressive and only lasted 4 minutes...

...However...I was just sitting around relaxing for a while in front of Castle Geyser when THIS happened.

       

These much larger geysers have time intervals at which they can go off, in Castle's case I happened to be sitting in at just the right spot of that 2 hour block. It was much larger, and just seemed to keep going and going, which is when I heard the radio of a nearby watcher go "Castle is a Major, I repeat, Castle is a Major." I just had to ask.

She told me that a "Major" is an eruption in which all of the water in the geyser is let out, even the steam. As a result, the geyser is much more predictable in it's next eruption; they know exactly how much water was left inside when it finished - none. Furthermore, that means that after the geyser is finished shooting water it goes into a steam phase, which she thought was much more impressive. I would have to agree.

I also crossed the Great Divide a grand total of three times! Every time I saw other people there taking pictures and helped them get their whole family in the picture in return for taking a picture of me.

 

 

 

When I finally pulled into camp for the night I met up with another touring cyclist and pulled into a nearby campground. We traded information, apparently she was doing a shorter bike tour focused on beer: she was essentially riding from brewery to brewery, sampling their wares. She even had a flask mounted to her bike! Styling!

Later another camper pulled up - a fisherman and the three of us spent the night talking around a campfire. (When we managed to finally get one to light by using wood gathered by another set of campers) All in all it was a good day!

P.S.

Some pictures of Yellowstone, the good...

And the bad? (This devastation was caused by a massive forest fire many years ago)

Bill PSA:

So I've been reluctant to mention the fact that I actually name my bikes before to anyone – it seemed kinda embarrassing. Which is why I am going to publish this on the internet, for EVERYONE to see. Makes perfect sense. Anyway, this touring bike was recently (at this point in the trip) named, so I figured I'd tell you all what I named my bikes and why.

I'll start with my Cannondale. My CAAD9 5 is a lightweight racing bike, upon which I am able to hit simply beautiful speeds and, when everything goes right, it simply feels like I am flying across the road. Of course, that is only when everything goes right. She is extremely temperamental. If I'm not pedaling just right or I haven't taken good enough care of the bike recently she gets finicky and starts to act up. In this I have always viewed her as something akin to a (stereotypical) girlfriend (metaphor you jerk friends of mine) – she is very high maintenance, requires a lot of attention, but yields incredible rewards when you do your part right. As such, her name is Alae Ventosa, Latin (fem.) for Swift Wings.

In contrast, my Trek 520 touring bike is sturdy, tough, and able to take a beating. I pull a trailer with an extra 40-50 pounds of weight, ride it over mountains, through dirt and gravel roads, and put down 60-70 miles a day. I don't have the time to take adequate care of it, and some of the supplies (notably degreaser) are to heavy to carry altogether. Despite all his, the bike trucks on; I have had no major breakdowns thus far on my trip. When something does go wrong, it is never so terrible that I cannot keep riding until I get to the next bike shop – sometimes days away. Yes, he doesn't go that fast, but he is sturdy, and I view him as an ally thus far on the trip. As such, his name is Amicus Valens. Latin (mas.) for Strong Comrade.

Please don't mock me too much for this guys. (You know who you are)