Saturday, July 6
Rehoboth to Shiprock, NM
I slept in the gym at Rehoboth on Friday night. I was glad I hadn’t put up my tent when
I heard another wind and rainstorm come up during the night. The local people are very happy with
the rain since it has been so dry.
I was up at 5:00 am and ready to get on the road at the break of
daylight. However, the trip
coordinator told everyone to stay because he had an anouncement to make. The announcement was that a bridge on
our route was washed out and the detour route would add another 80 miles. He said the ride would have to be
cancelled for the day. While
he was making the announcement, he received a call from the state highway
patrol that there was enough of the bridge left in intact and bicycles should
be able to cross. So
the ride was back on! The day
started out cool, I put a long sleave shirt on for the first time on this
trip. There was a long downhill early in the ride and I topped out at 41 mph.
The first half of the trip was great – mostly down hill,
little wind, and little traffic.
The low vehicle traffic was due to the bridge being washed out. I did have to out bike a couple of dogs who insisted on chasing my bike. Later in the morning, the temperature
climbed to the mid-90’s and the wind picked up and it was in our face. The hot wind slowed us down
considerably. Today was the
first time I learned the value of “drafting.” We had a group of six bikers and we would get in a line
behind the lead biker who took the brunt of the wind and the followers had a
much easier time. When the lead
biker was tired he/she would pull out and the next biker would take the lead. We did this most of the afternoon and
we made good progress. When you
are drafting behind another biker you have to focus on their back tire so you
don’t get too close or too far away.
There is not much between Rehoboth and Shiprock. We did stop at a couple of small Christian Reformed Churches along the
way. Several members of these
small congregations gave us water and some snacks. The churches are almost entirely Native American. These churches are branches from the
mission at Rehoboth.
I completed by first “century” bike ride today. I biked the 100 miles from Rehoboth to
Shiprock, NM. This is the longest
I have ever biked in one day and my butt is extremely sore from sitting on the
saddle that long. I’m
glad we will not be biking on Sunday. I need a day to recover.
We are staying
at the Bethel Christian Reformed Church in Shiprock. The rides had a choice of setting up their tents
outside or sleeping inside. I
chose to sleep inside and found a spot behind the piano on the pulpit. People were sleeping in the pews,
Sunday School rooms, and all over.
I had a nice surprise waiting for me in Shiprock. My wife and daughters sent me a care
package of cookies, bars, other
treats, and more socks! I
shared the cookies with my drafting companions who helped me get through the
strong wind today.
I was able to go over to the local high school pool on
Saturday evening to swim and shower.
It was soooo refreshing to cool down and get clean.
The Shiprock
No comments:
Post a Comment