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.