Day 38: screw it

Lamar, CO to Fowler, CO — 86.3 mi, 1,542 ft

Today, I was hit with the big trifecta of chores: blogging, laundry, and driving tomorrow. Since a driver’s power unofficially begins at the end of the previous day’s bike ride, I had many tasks to accomplish tonight. Naturally, I had to slack on one of them — this meant publishing my blog the day after. Apologies.

I wake up at 7am to Tian shrieking (she’s today’s driver). I mumble a half-asleep complaint and tumble off the three chairs I slept on. I roll up the sleeping mat I didn’t end up using, then pause right before rolling up my sleeping bag. I usually have a specific order I do my morning tasks in (put away sleeping gear, change to biking clothes, pack my bags, eat, pump bikes…) but today I had a crazy thought — screw it. Let me try something new. I leave my sleeping bag unfurled, brush my teeth, then eat breakfast with Ramona, who always wakes up earlier than the rest of us. Doing things backwards is refreshing after over five weeks of the same exact morning routine, and yes I know the fact that this was so exhilarating to me is slightly concerning.

Ramona and I — the dynamic duo — head out with Sarah and Joseph — the equally dynamic, albeit newer, duo. Ishaq had already left, and Greta and Charles are shortly behind. The high for today was 83 °F, so naturally Sarah, our Vegas native, felt “cold.”

A bit into the ride, Ramona receives a phone call. She initially tries to talk through the wind, but pulls over once she realizes she can’t hear anything. I dutifully pull over too, while Sarah and Joseph abandon us. It sounds kind of urgent, and I realize what the fuss is about as soon as Charles sends a picture to the group chat.

Greta had called Ramona, the gear expert, to ask for her expert advice on Charles’ screw-in-tire situation. Ramona agrees that Tian should pick Charles up and go to a parking lot where he can attempt to patch up the hole with a plug kit. Ramona begs Tian to let us know where they pull over so she can spectate (nerd). Tian unfortunately opts for a grocery store we had already passed to kill two birds with one stone, so Ramona and I continue pedaling to rest stop 1. 

Rest stop 1 is short since Tian and Charles and the van with all our supplies are nowhere near. The unofficial dynamic trio of me, Ramona, and Greta, who we picked up at the rest stop, bike and chat. My dad calls me in the last 5 miles and I tell him how the day’s going so far. When I mention the lightning storm from two days ago, he mentions a similar story from his youth, when he walked for hours in torrential rain in the middle of a forest in Ethiopia. I love hearing stories from my parents’ youth. It’s almost like they lived full lives before I was born.

At rest stop 2, a trusty Dollar General, Ramona and I pull up to a loud POP. Charles is trying out a new plug kit combo, and it apparently burst at 45 PSI right as we arrive. Ramona is excited that she finally gets to witness the (attempted) repair of our worst bike damage yet, so while Sarah, Joseph, and Greta leave, I dutifully wait by Ramona for another half hour (spoiler alert: I do not see Ishaq the entire ride, he’s too far ahead). We come to the conclusion that Charles should in fact not bike for the rest of the day, and that he should try to fill his initially tubeless tire with a tube, which will supposedly provide an impermanent but stable solution to the screw issue. I suggest to Ramona that Charles ride my bike tomorrow, since I’m driving and he has pretty short legs, but this great solution is ignored.

By this point, everyone is wayyy ahead of us, so Tian, Ramona and I agree the van can skip rest stop 3 so the others don’t have to wait for supplies as long. Ramona and I pull up to the gas station rest stop anyway to refill our waters with ice, and to our surprise, the van is there! Apparently, Tian is easily susceptible to the whims of others. Specifically Charles and his lottery addiction. At least he wins $40.

Ramona and I leave rest stop 3 at 2:10pm. We are informed that rest stop 3, a cafe, closes at 3pm. There are 11.7 miles. I am determined to make it. We zoom there, our last 2 miles at an average speed of 20 mph. Ramona casually called her parents in the midst of this speedy ride, one-handed — they had just finished eating dinner after a fun day of mountain orienteering and quarrying. We make it to the cafe a minute before closing! Turns out the baristas do not care at all about us staying overtime, because I lounge on the couch far after 3pm. Also shoutout to Tian for letting me try her pear peach apricot smoothie 😌

The last 18 mile stretch is surprisingly quick. Ramona and I arrive at our church for the night, and find it entirely empty save for all the Spokies’ bikes and bags. Apparently Pastor Wayne graciously let everyone shower at his house, so we make the long, 5 minute trek to his place of residence. Everyone’s finished showering, except Greta and Charles who are crazy and decided to go on a run (more so Greta, Charles was a bum in the car today). Ishaq asked for the password at the door, Ramona correctly answered “password,” and we were allowed in. I stayed at the Pastor’s house until everyone was done showering so I could start the laundry, then Greta and I walked back to join some church members at dinner. We were greeted with burgers and a mix of freshly grown fruits and veggies, including Fowler’s very own cantaloupe specialty. Yum!

Post dinner, I unload our food from the cooler into the fridge. Then I walk back to the Pastor’s house to do some more laundry, and Greta graces me with her presence on the walk. We run into a bunch of cats on the way! The cats apparently all live in one house!! I count 16 total!!! I go back to the church to get my phone to take pictures of the cats, and Ramona follows me out. We squeal at how cute they are — fine, I squeal at how cute they are. At the same time, the sky starts looking like a renaissance painting, so we take flicks of that as well. I knock out at 9:30pm after a long day, gleefully knowing that I’d get to wake everyone up at 6:30am the next day, however I want 😈