Day Fifty: Navajo Nation, Houck, AZ

We woke two hours before sunrise today. We were not sure what time to call this, since Arizona (Springerville) is on MST (same as PDT) but the Navajo Nation (Houck) is on MDT. We avoided using time today, since it’s all so arbitrary in comparison to our fixed solar schedule.

I rode with Jane today, who took this as a recovery day. The recovery riding was helpful, but painful. I don’t know how or why, but riding slow is so much harder than riding fast.

The last bit of the ride into Houck took us on I-40, our first section of riding on an Interstate highway. The Interstate has nice, flat, wide, well paved shoulders, but is full of wires and things that cause flats. I was fortunate to not get any flats on the way in.

Our hosts at the St. Anselm Catholic Church were members of the Navajo tribe. I’ve never seen people who look like this before in my life. Their facial features are truly unique. They’re also the nicest people ever. We had Navajo tacos for dinner, which are like regular tacos on Navajo fry bread. Delicious.

In response to the beautiful weather, and to excessive noise inside, Jane and I pitched a tent. We saw a perfectly clear sky and the Milky Way once the sun set. It was wonderfully clear, cool, and dry, ideal tent conditions. I slept well.

Day Forty-Nine: Van to Springerville, AZ

I drove the van today.  One of the other leaders (really not sure who) managed to bend the jack on our trailer, so I was able to purchase and install a new one. We stopped to take photographs at the Arizona state line.

Our host this evening was the Round Valley High School in the town neighboring Springerville. The high school has a large dome for their football team, with a million-dollar artificial turf field inside. We stayed in the dome, which was really great. People were running around all over the field playing games. I did an excellent job backing the trailer into a tight parking spot.

The logistics with laundry, dinner, and a town hall meeting were a real disappointment, with much confusion and some people waiting two and a half hours to eat. Unacceptable. We need to do a better job planning and executing these events for the rest of the trip.

Day Forty-Eight: Battling the Wind to Pie Town

Today’s ride was epic. We climbed about 3,000 feet from Socorro to Pie Town, over the course of nearly 100 miles. It was hot and dry, and to boot, there was a roughly 30 MPH headwind the entire day. I chose to ride with Jane today.

We visited the Very Large Array, located on Route 60. It’s the perfect array for a radio telescope: flat, at elevation, with almost no cloud cover, and with mountains in all directions to block radio signals. Brilliant. I enjoyed the technical humor on the posters at the visitor’s center, the warnings about rattlesnakes, and the astronaut ice cream.

The last bit of the ride was impressive for Jane. She pushed harder on that section than I’ve ever seen her ride. She set three new personal power records. Hooray Jane!

Pie Town, NM is a little town of sixty people located on the Continental Divide. It’s home to some pie champions, and a woman who allows thru hikers and bikers to use her home. Our reward for the hardest riding day ever (Jane burned almost 4000 kcal according to the power meter, so I burned more) was a fantastic, homemade dinner that exceeded all expectations.

I can only imagine how wonderful today would have been if we were going the other way.

Day Forty-Seven: Downhill? Tailwind? Really? Socorro, NM.

We woke at 0410 this morning, two hours before sunrise. I spent the morning fixing two flats, changing my brake pads, lubing my chain, and not getting a good breakfast. I would spent much of today's ride changing two more flats.

The rain from yesterday persisted through the night, so it was raining when we left. The rain removed my fresh chain lube within about ten miles, leaving me with a loud, squeaky chain all day. It was so foggy for the first part of the day that I had to remove my glasses just to see, and I couldn't see much at all.

Eventually the rain lifted, revealing a breathtaking landscape. This is why we rode to New Mexico. It's beautiful. I enjoyed a long downhill with a tailwind, and being alone for the day. I also visited the local bicycle shop, and enjoyed good local food en route.

Our host this evening is the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, or New Mexico Tech for short. There is a large "M" painted on a neighboring mountain, a demonstration of school pride. We're just staying in the gym. We did manage to tell a few students about Bike & Build, and maybe we'll have some Tech students on rides next year!

I spent the evening taking the laundry crew to dinner, eating delicious grilled chicken, and listening to an Affordable Housing presentation.

Day Forty-Six: Rain All The Way To Carrizozo

I rode sweep today. I certainly enjoyed hearing Jorge's life story, as I was very curious about him. I did not enjoy riding at 10 MPH for much of the day, or the fact that it was 60 degrees and raining all day and I was stuck without my rain gear. We eventually arrived, quite cold, after 100 miles in almost 11 hours on the bicycle in the rain.

A recent hurricane has sent a freak summer rain storm into the area, one that will stick with us for the next few days. The locals say that the rain is welcome, and that everything is greener than it has been for quite some time. We just wish the rain could have held off four a few more days. We've had more than enough rain this summer, and it just seems to continue to follow us.

We punished a rider for no good reason toda

Day Forty-Five: Day Off in Roswell

In planning the route, we decided to add the detour to Roswell. Compared to just staying on US 60 all the way, going to Roswell only added a few extra miles while adding a very interesting stop. So, we're in Roswell today, a decently sized desert city that capitalizes on the 1940s UFO incident to bring tourists to an otherwise quiet place.

I woke up early, did some errands on the Internet, and managed to watch the sun rise with Jane. After that, we went into town on the Pecos Transit public bus; 75 cents and a wait got us into town. We had breakfast at IHOP, explored a Goodwill store, purchased a copy of Full Metal Jacket, and walked around town for a while. We even got to visit the UFO museum. I was glad to have some time away from the group.

Day Forty-Four: Another Van Day into Roswell

I drove the van today.

Today's 96-mile day into Roswell was punctuated by, well, nothing. There was one town early on, around mile 35, but after that, the next thing we saw was Kenna, a "town" consisting of a single eatery, post office, and store. The proprietor of the store, an elderly woman, let us use the bathroom, let us play with her cat and dogs, and gave us three gallons of bottled water.

The next stop was Acme, a "town" that consisted of an abandoned building, and a mailbox.

Today's ride was made exceptionally difficult for the riders by the 95 degree heat and strong headwinds.

We had a mail drop day today. I received another wonderful package from my mother. She's getting much better at this, and I greatly appreciate all that she sends me.

Lenny's crew managed to secure our group donations from Chili's, KFC, and two local pizza houses. Well done!

We're sleeping in four squash courts at ENMU's Roswell campus.

Day Forty-Three: Portales Burn-Out

We woke at 0455 in Hereford, approximately two hours before sunrise, per standard. The leader team was delayed this morning, as we were determining how best to deal with the fact that five of our riders had broken two of Bike & Build's most serious policies. I was all for enforcing the letter of the rules, and giving them three days of van time. Hey, you know the rules, and you know the consequences, so there should be no surprises. The other three leaders on the trip disagreed for various reasons, putting me in the uncomfortable minority. We had the group of five riders ride sweep today, awaiting the office's verdict on the situation.

In hindsight, this morning's meeting was the turning point of the trip for me. Prior to today, I had been optimistic about the rest of the trip. I tolerated excessive van use, unsafe riding, poor routine, lack of organization, and general incompetence from the riders and leaders. I honestly believed that, in time, the errors at the start of the trip would come to fix themselves. This morning taught me an important lesson: it was me against the other three leaders, and I was fighting a losing battle.

After this morning, I felt uncomfortable working with the rest of the leaders on the trip. I don't think of them as friends, nor do I trust them to make sound, rational, competent policy decisions based on the written rules that we all agreed to uphold. I'm not going to go out of my way for these people any longer, if my reward is having riders lie to me about alcohol and leaders wanting to go along with this.

As a result of various meetings this morning, I left about 45 minutes to an hour late. A combination of wanting to win the state line sprint into New Mexico, wanting to ride with Jane, and being less than pleased with the conduct of the riders and leaders on this trip, motivated me to push into the headwind. I managed to average about 21 MPH for 90 minutes, with no aero equipment other than my wheels. I caught Jane, who was in pretty dire straights after another day of riding through feed lots and slaughterhouses. I decided that it was more important to stay with Jane than win the sprint, so we rode together into New Mexico.

Lenny, our donations guru, managed to get us all free Subway sandwiches at "lunch". The time zone changed to MDT (GMT -6) at the state line, leading to some confusion. After lunch, Jane and I rode with Emma, stopping at a Western store along the way. I was happy to ride at less than full power at that point, after my strong effort.

In Portales, we stopped at a Dairy Queen, and I visited a local bicycle shop (which sponsors a female triathlete!), before heading to the ENMU dorms, which hosted us for the evening.

After a chat with Kristian, we had a conference with the aforementioned five riders. We decided to give them one day of van time each, in a 2-2-1 pattern.

I just know I'm going to get flack for making this information public. People will call me this and that in their frustration. Let me just say this: the rules are no secret. They're written in plain and simple American English at http://www.bikeandbuild.org/Documents/2008Manual.pdf. Riders and leaders received them before the trip, and reviewed them at Orientation. The riders agreed to follow them, and the leaders agreed to enforce them. So, don't fault the leaders for doing their job, and don't blame the Bike & Build office for the way these things pan out.

The riders got one van day each, and the leaders got no reprimand. Are you kidding me? Alcohol has no place on a trip like this. These people got off easy. I'm ashamed of the other trip leaders, of the riders, and of the office.

Take the high road. If the rules seem broken, revisit the rules, not your enforcement of them.

In hindsight, this is where I stopped enjoying every new day, and started waiting for things to be over.

Day Forty-Two: Hereford Express-Direct

Today’s ride featured a scenic detour to the Palo Duro Canyon, a very large canyon. On account of a few nights of bad sleep, and just needing some alone time, Jane and I booked it to Hereford. Book we did – we managed to average about 15.5 MPH into fairly strong headwinds, with me pushing along and Jane holding on quite well.

I put the FP60s back on the bike before the ride. I just don't trust them to not be destroyed in the van or trailer, so I decided the safest spot for them is on my bike.

Hereford is the beef capital of the world, and as a result, is home to many feed lots. We rode by some feed lots (a.k.a. slaughterhouses) on the way into Wheeler, but this was way worse. The stench of death was overpowering. Jane was depressed and almost vomited. I wasn’t doing much better. The wind was blowing the worst of the stench right at us, and it was beyond horrible. If it weren’t for the excellence of our hosts at the First United Methodist Church there in town, I would vote to never go this way again on future trips.

Our hosts made up for the bad ride. We had an entire building to ourselves, with lots of classrooms and an incredible youth room at our disposal. Our hosts cooked us a fantastic meal, and ran shuttles to the showers and Wal-Mart as needed.

Jane and I managed to catch the 1250 showing of Batman: The Dark Knight. It was a good movie, and I’m glad we saw it. Apparently, two riders from our trip make a cameo in the movie, though I didn’t see it. As we left, we caught most of the trip, there for the 1545 showing.

It’s really nice to run out of phase with the rest of the tri. We were at the movie when everyone was at the church, and vice versa. Jane and I really appreciated the quiet time, plenty of time to rest, talk to the hosts, and de-stress.

This is our last night in the Central Daylight Time. We’ll enter Mountain Daylight Time tomorrow, and start going to sleep at 2000 and waking at 0400 to be consistent with our solar schedule. Sigh. 

Day Forty-One: House for fifteen. Specialized Transition. Building in Amarillo.

After breakfast at the Habitat office, we ran van shuttles to a build site just north of Center City in Amarillo. We were working on putting the finishing touches on a house. We did a lot of painting, some caulking, and some landscaping. The house, a six-bedroom home, is still not nearly big enough for the family of fifteen (!) that will inhabit the home. That’s right; one single Somali mother and her fourteen children will inhabit this home once we complete it. I wish them the best.

A number of people had bicycle fit issues today, including Jane, who needed a shorter stem. We visited two bicycle shops in the afternoon. The first had an ordinary bike in the front, which we did not get to ride, and a tandem, which we did. Jane hates tandems. I also managed to find batteries for the PowerTap at a dollar store (!). At the second shop, I got to test ride a 2008 Specialized Transition (!). I came really, really close to just buying it, but decided that I only really want the frame. What a beautiful bike.

Day Forty: Drive to Amarillo. Steak and oysters.

I drove the van today, and as a result, missed out on a century of riding into a hot headwind up a continuous 0.25% grade. Jane was doing exceptionally and unusually well today, gapping the group by about an hour into the first lunch stop. By the second lunch stop, her lead had dwindled to about 15 minutes since she was pulling into the wind all alone. She still managed to be the first rider to arrive, after a strong effort. Well done, Jane! Unfortunately, the PowerTap had run out of batteries, so we don’t have power data for her fastest century yet.

After having the most delicious chicken I’ve ever had (grilled over mesquite wood) at our host site, the Amarillo Habitat for Humanity Chapter, we went to the famous Big Texan restaurant. An original Route 66 attraction, the Big Texan is best known for its 72 oz steak challenge. If you can eat the steak, a potato, a salad, and the shrimp within the span of 60 minutes, it’s yours free. Jorge tried, and ate all but 9.8 oz of the steak. We applauded him for trying.

I also tried Mountain Oysters. As the restaurant’s menu quipped, “if you think this is seafood, stick with the shrimp.” They weren’t too bad, really, they just tasted like fried generic meat product.

This evening's events, and the following events, marked a significant downturn in the trip for me.

On account of my no alcohol policy, I ended up driving the van shuttles back from the Big Texan. I would find out somehow, without my noticing, a group of five people managed to transport alcohol in the van. This is a major policy violation. Come on, people. Fill me with pride, not shame.

I was very upset when I learned about this happening. I was even more upset to know that another leader could have helped to avoid the entire situation.

Day Thirty-Nine: Wheeler Express

Today was my fastest day of riding to date.

We woke at 0430, two hours before sunrise, in anticipation of sunrise at 0635. We'll be waking two hours before sunrise every day for the rest of the trip, to be out the door for civil twilight, twenty minutes before sunrise. After gathering our laundry and eating some breakfast, we hit the road at 0610. I decided to push myself on this 77 mile day, after yesterday's unpleasant experience with the heat and the wind.

I rode quite fast, and didn't get off the bicycle or stop at all. My next stop was lunch, at about mile 38. I stopped for exactly 2 minutes and 11 seconds starting at 0807, just long enough to refill my Camelbak with 1.5 liters of water. I won the state line sprint into Texas at 0932 with no contest. After that, my next stop was the host, at 1025. I averaged at most 19 MPH on the slight upgrade.

Since the host was not available, I decided to poke around the town. My first stop was the town square. There were a couple of local farmers selling their wares. One of them, the Jones', a pair of retired math teachers, were selling organic apricots. They donated a dry gallon of apricots and a small jar of apricot jam to the cause. My next stop was the town park. I hosed off from a faucet, changed, and caught up on phone calls while munching on apricots. As I was getting ready to leave, a grandmother arrived with five of her grandchildren. Kyle, age 5, was very impressed with my bicycle, and tried on my helmet, gloves, and sunglasses.

At the host, I rested for a while and ate more apricots. We were treated to a delicious dinner of beef brisket. We got to meet the Baptist church’s very active youth group as well. Matt, our host, and the youth and music director, is a funny man:

“Are you looking for just, a little bite to eat? No? Well, good, because you’re in Texas.”

“We know y’all have some vegetarians in your group, but this is Texas. We made brisket.”

Priceless.

Day Thirty-Eight: The No Aero Road to Cordell

We woke at 0500 this morning in various parts of the church, to an excellent breakfast and a moving prayer by Judy, our host in Yukon. It would be about 88 miles to Cordell, a slow climb to elevation. Since Jane was feeling well, I rode with her for the entire day. I pulled, with her closely following my wheel.

The first half of the day went well. The weather was cool, as clouds blocked the sun's rays from baking us on the road. The wind was calm into lunch, so Jane and I were able to maintain about 18 MPH all the way in.

Lunch took longer than I would have liked. On days like today, I try to avoid excessive delays at lunch. Every minute of time not spent on the road becomes two minutes in the afternoon heat at reduced speed. I was sucked into doing a bicycle repair at lunch, delaying us.

The second half of the day was a test. Within a few miles of lunch, and with almost no water in the air, the temperatures climbed into the 90s as a 20+ MPH headwind tried to blow us back the way we came. A very narrow SR 152 and an excess of oversized vehicles traveling at 70 MPH did little to improve the ride. We filled our Camelbaks and bottles at lunch, but the brutal wind was sapping water from our bodies before we could replenish it and, before we knew it, we were dehydrated and almost out of water. With the van nowhere in sight, we stopped at a house for water. No one was home, so we just used the faucet on the side of the house.

Jane and I arrived to a well-colled church just before 2pm. I had two double cheeseburgers and a milkshake fronm Sonic before taking a rest.

We had a busy evening, with dinner, laundry, and an affordable housing curriculum. I cut the evening short by going to sleep at 2000, in anticipation of an 0430 wakeup. Riding hard into a hot headwind all day did strange things to my body. The plan for tomorrow is to leave early, and do anything possible to beat the heat.

This evening, I decided to opt out of the van drive back from California. A number of reasons led to this decision: wanting to spend more time in Santa Barbara, not wanting to spend more time in the van than necessary, and differences in philosophy between myself and the other members of the van ride home. (I want to high-tail it home; they want to go drinking and take a non-optimal route.)

I'm reconsidering putting the aero equipment on the bicycle. With these winds, the wheels would help, though trucks passing would give me grief. 

Day Thirty-Seven: In Memorial. Oklahoma City and Yukon.

We woke at 0500 today. I was going to ride with Emma today, but a medical problem prevented her from riding today. Instead, I rode fast with Lenny and Oliver along good old Route 66. As the FP60 wheels are now "surplus", I'm lending them to people. Oliver rode with them for the first half of today.

I saw a dog get killed on the road today. It was a little dog, running at about 25-30 MPH on the left hand side of the road. It repeatedly tried to cross the road, successfully avoiding the cars several times. At an underpass, it didn't see a car coming in the opposite direction. The car's front right tire hit the animal. It yelped, flew into the air, and hit the ground hard. It was still somewhat alive, though paralyzed, when we rode past it. There was nothing we could do.

After a few miles of fast riding, I decided to take it easy. I rode along 66 slowly, waiting for people to catch up. I stopped at Pops, a huge gas station with an impressive cantilevered roof and a convenience store full of soda bottles. That delay was long enough for Kyle Rudzinski to catch me; we rode together to "lunch" at IHOP, which generously gave our group a 50% discount.

Lenny, Kyle, and myself decided to ignore the cue sheet for the second half of the day, instead detouring to visit the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. This didn't add any mileage, but did take us far from the other riders. We explored the memorial solemnly and respectfully, as this was a place where almost 200 people died some 13 years ago.

Our elevation is slowly increasing, putting us to 1350 feet today and 1600 feet tomorrow. Getting in early allowed me to take a much needed nap.

We had a mail drop today. My mother's package of cookies, beef jerky, sardines, cashews, my favorite cereal, and $20 was well received - thanks, Mom! Dave Miller of Crummy Crunchies, Inc. sent our group delicious cookies. Oliver's triple crank arrived, but without the correct derailleur, we're stuck until Zane's ships us the correct part.

We had another excellent dinner, courtesy of the church, consisting of pasta and marinara sauce. I never get tired of the pasta, since it is delicious. I'm starting to get worried about the weight; I'll have some making up to do at the end of the trip. Staying hydrated is also getting difficult, since it takes conscious effort.

Today was Erin Rice's 24th birthday. We bought her a pinata, which we hung from the basketball hoop for everyone's amusement. We watched "Cars" and "Dumb and Dumber" in separate rooms. We're looking forward to the new Batman movie tomorrow.

It is now time for sleep. I never sleep through the night; I usually wake up because I'm cold, or I have to pee, or I've managed to soak the sleeping bag in sweat. Grumble grumble. 

Day Thirty-Six: The Mother Road: Route 66 to Chandler

The de-aero-ifying of my bike left me with a conundrum: where to put the aero bars? I put them on Jane's bike for the time being, but they're a little too long for her. Also, we had to flip her stem to address some back pain issues, so since these are the stem-mounted Profile Design Lightning Stryke bars, flipping the stem makes the aero bars unusable. I spent about 2.5 hours in total today tweaking Jane's bike.

Jane and I left behind the rest of the group, due to equipment delays. The rest of the group included Pastor David Frerichs of the Bethany Lutheran Church, an excellent cyclist and host who we will all miss. He rode with us all the way to Chandler - well done, Pastor Dave!

I hopped on Old Route 66 a number of times today. I just live riding the old, narrow, abandoned, concrete sections of the former Mother Road, since they're authentic and usually empty. So excellent.

Chandler, OK was home to several museums. I visited two of them, telling the curators about Bike & Build and spreading the message for next year.

Our excellent hosts provided dinner for our group, then invited us to their Wednesday night service. We gave a presentation to their youth group, about 50 middle and high schoolers.

I thoroughly enjoy meeting the locals on this trip, especially the younger ones. They're so different from the uppity, high maintainance, perpetually busy folk of New York City. This Oklahoma place is starting to grow on me.