A Sad Day for the CrossRoads Gang,

Hello everyone,

Today may be one of my longer posts and I apologize in dance if you are a fab of brevity, but I have a lot to cover. It always brings a degree of sadness when a rider departs the tour, you tend to bond very quickly to the folks you ride long miles with, share meals with and swap tales. Tom has been with us since LA but only signed up for the ride into  Albuquerque so we said our good-byes after route rap and dinner. Tom is a very strong rider and one of the nicest, most considerate gentleman that you meet. It is a pleasure to make his acquaintance and I sincerely hope that our paths cross again in the future. We will all miss this North Carolina native.

Michelle B has been suffering from severe knee pain and will be heading home to Connecticut to recuperate. She has ridden part of many days but has spent considerable time in the van and helping out at the SAG stops. When you prepare so long for an event such as this, it is a terrible blow not to be able to ride. Michelle though has been ever smiling and optimistic, a great example of how to take disappointment in stride. We hope and pray that Michelle will be able to rejoin her husband Michael in Indianapolis for the final few weeks of the ride. Michelle we will all miss you as well.

On a lighter note, my good friend, Mike K from XC-12,asked me to opine on the topic of cattle guards. For those not from open range cable country, the term “cattle guard” may be seem a bit strange. We could easily call them “bicycle wrecker” or “cyclist trap”. These are actually sections of the highway that have been dug out to a depth of several feet and covered in metal rails running across the highway. The gap between the rails is large enough so that a cattle’s hoof could fall between the rails. They have also ended many cyclists tours or rides. They are quite dangerous if you hot them at a bad angle. The rails are often bent, uneven or cracked and that could cath a wheel or cause a crash. They are meant to keep cattle from crossing the road. I will include a picture in tonight’s edition of photos. Mike care to add anything? I think you did a whole exposition on cattle guards a couple of years ago!

Our ride today from Grants NM to Albuquerque NM covered approximately 78 miles. It was a partly overcast morning, cool with little wind when we departed. Overall the temperature was moderate and we had a prevailing tailwind for the ride. I rode the whole day with Herm and we took a leisurely pace and snapped quite a few photos. Along the way, we saw some volcanic rock, crossed the Rio Grande River, and had some spectacular vistas into and around Albuquerque. Tom D’s daughter at a young age used to call it “Apple Turkey” andI kind of like that name better.

Early in the morning, Hem and I stopped at an old corner store for a snack. There were some antiquated motels around back. I stopped to talk to a Native American gentleman and he told me that Ernest Hemingway once stayed in those motels. He invited us into his store office and there was a place with news clippings that commemorated the event. Now, we could have easily passed by or not said a word but it is amazing what one can find out if you strike up a conversation with a total stranger. Sorry, I have a picture of the place but not of the motel…

Jan L who is one of the staff rejoined us after a few days off to celebrate her birthday. Now, those of XC-12 will remember the birthday song rendition made famously Roberta and Jeff to commemorate special events. So at the first SAG, when I saw Jan, I sang the song to her. They actually made me sing it three times and recorded it on the third. It goes like this:

Jan, Jan she’s’ a wonder,

and when she is old and gray

all the boys will say by thunder,

She was some gal in her day.

This area of the country is striking in many ways, the beauty of the land, the number of trains and locomotives we see, the abject poverty. It is truly Big SKy country as one can see for miles. It is also amazing to note how the vegetation and landscape changes abruptly. It is hard to capture the magnitude of it. I continue to have flashbacks of the ride in 2012. As i said before, I am riding two rides, reliving the ride of 2012 and having a whole new set of experiences from 2014.

At this stage, I feel much better despite the numbing headwinds. I came better prepared to cope with the elements and potential physical ailments such as saddle sores. A better saddle, very expensive cycling shorts, antibiotic cream and liberal applications of chamois butter have made this a much less painful experience to date. My new bike and wheel salsa are an improvement and shedding about 25 pounds of Camel back and gear has significantly lightened the load.

I would like to remind everyone that I am riding for the Wounded Warrior Project and there is a donation link at the bottom of every page on the right hand side. I appreciate your reading my blog and any donations that you can make.

Tailwinds

Chuck