Day 17: 1,000 Mile Mark! NM Desert, Picnic Lunch

Gil's emailed cliff notes (5:30 pm local time):
An awesome ride. Open range land first 34 miles. Big sky country. Beautiful. Then crested a small rise and saw a sign indicating a steep 9 percent down-grade for 3 miles. Like, what's happening here? We rolled through some low trees (?) and then saw the road fall off the Canadian Escarpment. 2000 ft that we'd been climbing for some time. It opened up a grand view of the plain below. Just really took your breath away. We could see forever across this desert plain that was punctuated with other geological features. I video taped it! Rolled into hotel at at 4:10 PM. 109 miles total. But is sore. Knees at tad sore. Now get ready for tomorrows long ride. Cross into Texas tomorrow. Gil

That's Gil (on the right) and (I think) Tony (on the left) with a woman I assume is CR support staff. Her hair looks too good to be a rider.

The Canadian Escarpment is an actual thing. You can read more about it here, or LOTS more about it here. (I'd stick with the first link, quite frankly.)

Re ages of the riders: Someone told Dad that the average age on their tour is 56. There's one guy who's 80 (!) and only slightly slower than Dad. His grandson is traveling with him. No one has dropped out yet. (I wonder what the normal drop-out number is?)

Dad said before today's ride started that it would be an interesting day - more desert and long distance. They were told yesterday that today would arguably be the second-hardest day of the tour (the only harder day being that 116 mile ride through the desert in week one). The plan was to ride steadily and not fool around too much with photography.

Today was a long day - his bike computer showed 109.x miles, and the official day's mileage was 108.7 (not 108, as the itinerary suggests - the official list ripped them off!). We're counting every mile here. They crossed the 1,000 mile point today! (Dad's personal 1,000 miles occurred today as well, though slightly later due to a few short hops in the van. The point is, tge 1K line was crossed.)

The first part of the ride: As they left the "other" Vegas, they rode over gently rolling range-land (you can tell that this vocabulary is not my strong suit, so I'm just using the words he uses) with a general gain in elevation. Was simply beautiful; could see forever. They would occasionally see a little farm house or "something" - it was very open and blank country, much more so than Otis, CO. (This will mean more to our family and the Kuntzs than anyone else, unless they're up on obscure towns in the great plains.) It reminded him of pictures he's seen of Montana. Everybody was just awed by the natural beauty of it. They were off of the interstates all day today, which was nice - very little traffic. (Yay, no trucks to run them over!) "So that was good."

Their first SAG stop was 28 miles in. There was no service area or restrooms for over 75 miles today. (He doesn't know if anybody had to dig a hole, but the women were advised at yesterday's Road RAP to bring some toilet paper with them. A female rider told them at supper that she just convinced herself before the ride started that she wouldn't need to go for 75 miles. Said it worked just fine for her. When she got to the end of that 75 miles, she needed to go. (Wouldn't it suck to be off by a mile or so as you're counting that down for yourself?) ) Dad and his group did ok as well.

After the first SAG stop, they got to about mile 33 and saw a sign warning vehicles (and silly riders) about a steep down-grade for three miles. "We couldn't believe it!" They were going through range and prairie land ("grass and stuff"), but sure enough the road took a bend around a knoll (I sure hope you guys are more clear on what a knoll is than I am. Do I care to look it up? No.) and went DOWN almost immediately. They were going off the face of the Canadian Escarpment and dropped about 2,000 feet. It was a stunning view as they came off of it because the land just opened up, and they could see across the countryside and all of the other geological features were jutting up in the distance. They could see for 50-100 miles (or "an amazing distance") - it was stunning. He stopped to take some video of other riders going down the Escarpment "and also got a bit on the roll" going down. (Was he holding the video camera while speeding down a 9% grade? I bet a certain sister-in-law will need a dramamine to watch that footage. It also doesn't sound particularly safe.) Anyway.

Then they were into more continuous range-land "stuff," but had a few other climbs. At the 67 mile point they came to what they were told was "The Wall." They climbed up onto a plateau and there was "this huge hill" - the road just went straight up through the mesa at about a 9% grade and went on and on. So that took a bit of effort. (You're kidding.) The support staff had written encouraging words (and riders' names) on the road in chalk - "take a deep breath" at the bottom, "keep pedaling!" further up, and other cute things all the way up. One of the support staff came partially down the hill and cheered the riders on.

They escaped all of the thunderstorms today. It was "fairly warm" - his bike computer read 100 degrees, but he doesn't think the ambient air temperature was quite that hot. Richard says that it read 93 degrees on a billboard as they came into town (Tucumcari, NM). They drank lots of fluid/nutritional supplement mix today, and used the camel backs. There was nowhere to eat lunch today, so the staff provided peanut butter sandwiches (what, no jelly? I'll assume there was also jelly) at one of the SAG stops. (Not much of a picnic, I have to say. I pictured a leisurely group bonding lunch.)

A number of people took the van before the day was over and hopped up the road to the hotel. Dad's pleased to report that he made the complete ride today, which included a total of 4,100 feet of elevation gain. So that was satisfying on a personal level. His butt does not feel super (in fact it's quite sore), and he's a bit aware of his knees. Almost everybody is having butt "issues" today - there's just no way to sit on a bike from 7:15 am till 4 pm without seeing some adverse effects. (At this point Dad went, "isn't that right, Richard?" But Richard would prefer not to talk about his butt, feeling that's kind of personal. What, he doesn't want it out there for the world in cyberspace? He is having cadence (?) trouble, which was not spelled out for me because spelling isn't our strong suit. It was described as being problems with the legs and having to do with the number of revolutions of the pedal per minute. Whatever it is, it isn't comfortable. He may take tomorrow off as a rest day.)

Today was clearly the longest ride Dad's ever had on his bike, and he reports that this record will STAND. No 109 mile rides for him in the future! (Fortunately, the tour itinerary is working with him; only day longer than today was the 116 mile day.) The Pile Drivers split up today; Dad and Tony rode ahead of the rest of the group. The group discussed it and it was ok with everybody. They were "frankly concerned about just accomplishing today's ride" and felt they had to ride at their own pace. There was also some concern that other members may end up taking a van jump later in the day, and they didn't want to hold themselves back to ride with the group but then end up further behind the other riders if group members did take a jump.

Tomorrow's 96 miles with a bit less net elevation gain; it'll be a little bit more rolling territory. They'll cross into Texas tomorrow. I told Dad that they'd be crossing three state lines in the next three days, and he went "wow!" (The Oklahoma panhandle? Not so big.)