Cowboys 'n Jackalopes

Howdy y'all,

I'm in Casper, Wyoming, a city of about 50,000, with one glaring claim to fame (aside from a Friendly Ghost); Dick Cheney's from here. We got to ride by Halliburton plants and the Dick Cheney Federal Building in town. Both experiences made me seethe with unadulterated liberal rage.

Despite being Satan's birthplace, Casper seems like a great little city, with a few nice coffee shops, a few nice breweries, a jazz club (!?!?!) and Taubert's Western Store, which boasts 9 floors of the finest cowboy boots $400 can buy. Just take a look at these babies:



The rides over the last 2 days have been easy, fun, and rewarding: 56 and 54 miles, with a slight tailwind, over amazing terrain, with amazing views. The sandhills of Nebraska have given way to buttes and the slightly imposing Laramie Range in Eastern Wyoming. The plains are uniformly khaki and seem to stretch out to the hazy horizon, and in places the sky seems imbued with bands of faded reds and greens. The train conductors lead mile-long coal trains and wave/sound their horns liberally. I realized a few weeks ago that all of the trains sound a major 6 chord-- I think it's a C chord, second inversion. For those of you who care (at all), that's also an A-minor 7, third inversion. Sometimes it's encouraging, other times mournful.



We've seen jackrabbits and buffalo and antelope ("Where seldom is heard a discouragin' word...) and even a few living and dead rattlesnakes. We rode through Glenrock, WY, which boasted (naturally) Glen Rock, a great sandy outcropping featuring hundreds of carved names and dates from Oregon-bound settlers throughout the ages. I distinctly remember seeing a scene like this in Oregon Trail, the computer game we played incessantly during indoor recess in 3rd grade. It seems everyone on the trip has fond memories of fording rivers and hunting for bears and buffalo until the game grew disgusted with their excess and cut them off.


Oh, speaking of excessive, here's a few of our state sign pics in Wyoming and looking back into Nebraska. This is but a taste of the ridiculousness that takes place at every Bike & Build state sign photo-shoot.




























We're spending the next day-point-five here in Casper, and working on a Habitat site tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it-- it's been a while for some of us (half the group was rained out in Ames) and my knee's bothering me, so it'll be good to let it rest a bit. Most of us are freaking out about being in Wyoming-- it feels a little too close for comfort to Seattle. After being embedded in this routine, anything else (AKA the real world) seems downright terrifying.

Aight, enough from Casper. I'm glad so many people are reading and enjoying this blog (and Terra's) because I'm having fun writing it and sharing this crazy experience with all of you sane folks back home. I'll leave you with a few more pics, because sometimes those work better at conveying this place, and its space.

-Sam

Through Nebraska on The Westward Ho

Yup, that's my bike name. The Westward Ho. Punny and marginally offensive, just like me.

I'm in Lusk, WYOMING at the moment, sheltering from the heat in an original Carnegie Library (which we've all come to regard very highly) on a computer donated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the town. It's an interesting confluence of philanthropy: the old money and the new, two different eras that boomed in their own spectacular fashion, and two controversial figures who gave a whole heckuvalot of money to a whole lotta people.

But enough on that. I'm in freakin' Wyoming. And I rode a bike here. With 29 other crazies. I believe that I'm really pushing this point because, for me, the West, as in Manifest Destiny-Trail of Tears-Yellowstone-Cowboys 'n Indians really starts here. The landscape, as you'll see in the next post (coming as soon as I get my own computer outta the van) is rolling and ridiculous-- buttes and prairie and tumbleweeds (yup, even saw one roll across the highway this morning) and bison! And we're at 5015' at the moment. Some people think the air feels thinner. I can't really notice a difference, but I might have grown accustomed to the lightheadedness and shortness of breath that a day's worth of riding in sun and heat brings no matter what the elevation.

I've really enjoyed Nebraska: the people have, as usual, been unfailingly generous and welcoming. An old-timer in Valentine (where all the street signs have hearts on 'em) gave me the baseball cap off his head: the "Buffalo Roundup" from South Dakota. He also told me we'd just missed the Rocky Mountain Oyster festival in town. For those of you who don't know, do yourself a favor: search for Rocky Mountain Oysters online. Lemme put it this way: I can't say I'm too disappointed that we missed the festival.

We also ran into two cross-country walkers: one doing it backwards (Mr. Bill, from Brattleboro VT no less-- I think he's a kook, but he CAN do 78 two-finger pushups in a minute) and another doing it forwards (http://walkforprogress.blogspot.com). Both had different reasons for doing what they do, but the mutual respect we all shared for one another was encouraging and exhilarating.

Today's ride was marked by a badass 1500-2000' climb over 4 miles into Nebraska's high country and a few ridiculous coal trains heading alongside the highway we were riding. We also took some humorous state sign pictures (as per usual) and generally freaked out about being in Wyoming already. It's a big country, but it feels like it's really flying by.

Tomorrow we head out of Lusk and to Pastor Struck's Ranch, about 50 miles away. We'll be riding horses and playing in a "water park" (I'm expecting a home-made slip 'n slide, but I'm secretly hoping for more elaborate structures) and then spending the night out there on the range. With the deer and the antelopes. The next day's another 50ish ride with a build day waiting at the end. We're all staring down the barrel at the Rockies, but the upcoming shorter distances are more than welcome. My next sweep day will be a ridiculous climb up to Jackson. I can't wait to see the views from the top.

All the best from the West,

Sam

So, this happened...

Okay, so we've been tossing around the idea of mohawks for a week or so now, and yesterday in Gordon, Nebraska, we finally got around to it. We'd ridden for 8 hours from Valentine, NE; we left at 4:30 AM Central Time to avoid the heat and we crossed into Mountain Time Zone about 30 miles in to the 94 mile day. Most of us finished the near-century before noon, leaving ample time to appreciate the two businesses open on Sunday: a gas station and a grocery store. We all swam in the public pool, and then when we got back from the pool decided to follow through on the mohawk option. Each looks different: Logan looks very 80's rocker, Derrick 90's club-goer. Nate's pulling off the emo look very well, and Amelia looks like a badass biker chick. Greg looks like he's always had one. And, as you can see, I'm rocking the "real" fauxhawk. I think we were all inspired by the extremity of our 600-mile week, and exhilarated by the prospect of a 46-mile ride into Chadron, NE the next day. I know I was ready to let off some of the anxiety built up from the week of 90+ degree weather and intense distances.

I'll include a more detailed before/after series, but the internet here in the Chadron Public Library is painfully slow. Here's a shot for the ages, though...











Top Row (L-R): Me, Greg, Nate, Logan. Bottom: Derrick, Amelia.

Gnarly. Later.

My entry from the bike 'n build site

This has been lifted directly off www.bikeandbuild.org...
I'd write more, but this is about how I feel about the day. Hope y'all enjoy...





















Wednesday, July 11, 2007, was a day that will go down in many a P2S07er’s memory as a day of toil and reward, drudgery and joy. It would be easy enough to convey the experience in traditional prose, as seen in other entries. But I think an exploration of multiple writing styles will be the most fitting way to communicate our ride. And yes, I was an English major.

Enjoy. And hang on to your saddles.

1. Statistics

Mileage: 100-103 miles, depending on detours
Vertical feet of climbing: 7,200
Elevation change: -140 feet
Calories burned: 8-10,000
Lunches consumed: 2 by each person (except Pat, who unknowingly blew by second lunch); one at mile 45, another at mile 68
Number of people in van with stomach flu: 2 (Tommy/Derrick)
Number of people in van with possible early carpal tunnel syndrome: 1 (Katie)
Number of people in van, driving: 1 (Sarah)
Miles run by Katie at second lunch, because she felt like it: 14
Miles ridden by Candace after severe cookie-tossing: 30
Pat’s arrival time: 3:45 pm
Arrival time of sweeps: 8:30 pm
Exhilarated, exhausted, extremely full riders at day’s end: 30
Earliest bedtime (Bridget): 7:25 pm
Latest bedtime (Emily): 10:30 pm

2. Superlatives

Most miles ridden to date
Most vertical feet to date
Most on-bike hours to date
Most chamois cream used to date

3. Haiku

One more day awake
To five a.m. shoulder pokes
And bitter coffee.

On to the bikes now,
With jaws set determinedly
And some well-lubed butts.

Lunch came late that day—
Abuzz with expectation
We wanted our food.

Kittens at first lunch
Were friendly, mewling, waifish
And climbed in baskets.

More hills now,
And so many hills later.
But fields from Ireland.

4. Limerick

There once was a ride towards Nebraska
It may as well have been Alaska
We went over the hills
And had just one spill,
But everyone felt better afta.

5. Free verse

These roads look like a rolling, rumpled ribbon
Draped across a twisting quilt
By some punitive, sadistic toddler. In Vermont
The roads are routed ‘round the mountains, but in Iowa
Civil engineers seem to enjoy straight lines. I say
Put ‘em on a bike and let them ride those roads. They’ll think
Different next time.

Raps and songs and primal screams were the plan of attack,
Exhaustion caught us all off-guard and threw us all on track.
Harry Potter fans cast spells against the wind
And curses on last night’s midnight showing.

Cresting a hill we saw a fertile valley, awash in afternoon light,
Verdant, deep, and, crucially,
flat.
Upon descent, the road pulled right, the headwind died,
And then we saw a hill.
And then the road went over it.

Why, Iowa?
Why.
Why, oh why.
Why-o-wa.
My thoughts, over those last 13 miles.

6. Food

Burgers
Pizza: Pineapple, Pepperoni, Plain
Salad
Crudites
Beef Stroganoff
Soy-meat Stroganoff
Black-bean salsa
Chips: Tortilla, Potato (plain/BBQ), Sun (multi-grain/cheddar)
Watermelon
Honeydew
Cantelope
Brownies
M&M Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies

7. One more haiku

We sleep thoroughly,
Afloat on our Thermarests.
The day's marks will fade.

Wow.

102 miles.
7200 vertical feet of climbing, with -140 feet elevation change.
7.5 hours spent on a bike seat, between the hours of 7 am and 5 pm.
Carroll to Sioux City, IA.

I'd say more, but I'm too beat to think clearly right now. I hope your heads are screwed on better than mine right now...

More soon... bed now.

Oh, one more thing...

Sorry, pics are gone. They might not have been the most appropriate posting material. But thanks for the comments!

More to come soon...

Iowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaguuuuughghghhgh

So, turns out "IOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" makes for terrific primal scream material-- I've done my best impression above, and I did it a lot over the course of our ride through the headwindy hills of this great state. Today marks the culmination of some of the most intense riding we’ve done so far, as well as the most miles we’ve ridden consecutively. Today was only about 45 miles (which, ironically, was the longest ride I'd ever done before this trip), but yesterday was an 82-miler, the day before I rode 102, and the day before THAT was 93 or so. And Iowa, despite all initial speculation, is HILLY. Like, 4-5,000 vertical feet of climbing per-day hilly. And windy, like, feels like you're going uphill when you're flat, and feels like you're flat when you're going down. It cancels out gravity out here. Yesterday I was riding downhill, hands-free, and started decelerating. It was eerie. It was frustrating. But we got it done.

So far, though, Iowa's been a pleasant, welcome surprise. In an earlier post, I alluded to a popular belief that these four states or so would be like one big, boring, flat state. And despite the fact that it's been a big, flat, boring ride at times, the people and places have been absurdly welcoming and generous. And beautiful. See attached pictures.

We spent the day after our first "century" in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is an awesome little city with a killer farmer's market and a really good bike shop, where I got a cushy pair of Nike spandex (turns out they're the best. I've come to agree...). I was in Cedar Rapids till about 10:30 AM with Bronwyn, Win, and Chantel, waiting for Win's bike to be fixed, and then had to deal with a "76 mile" day which turned out to be 82, featuring 14 miles on GRAVEL ROADS. I'm not talking about pleasant hard pack, either, I'm talking about the kind I'd feel comfortable on with a mountain bike. Maybe. The leaders used four sources to check the directions, all of which indicated that the roads we'd be following were "two lane blacktop," and "well-suited for bicycles." Win and I had a 10 mile shiatsu butt-massage thanks to those darn "blacktop" roads, in 92-degree heat, with a 25-mph headwind. Up hills.

I'll stop bitching. Incredibly, we maintained a positive attitude through all of this sadistic washboard, and after "first lunch," (on 90+ degree or 90+ mile days we get TWO lunches, which is unbelievably exciting) we managed to actually have fun. Lauren was insane, and chanting "Push it, Push it" up hills, and we (Bridget, Win, Lauren, Eric, Carrie, and I) all had an impromptu primal scream session at about the mid-point of a terrible, wind-ravaged plateau. My internal monologue, unprintable in this forum, was hysterical by then. It normally consists of three- and four-letter words that I blush about, but yesterday it was far worse-- strings of said words, creatively arranged, ending in "hills," or "wind." Or "leaders," though I'm not proud of that one.

All of that aside, on days like that I keep in mind that, no matter how much it sucks, it'll pass. And we'll make it, and it'll feel great to make it. We had no showers, and cold pizza, but the ice-cold, Marines-style shower I took was about the most satisfying one I've had in a while. We're in Ames, Iowa tonight, after a real nice 44-mile jaunt over some hills and against the wind. I like it here. More to come soon.