Status

Day 135, August 14, 2011, Status

Route from Williston, ND, to KOA Kampground, Bozeman. MT

I’m in Ruby and she can go fast!

Worst Moment – Leaving the Buffalo Trails Campground with both of my bicycles on Ruby and I’m not riding one of them was very disheartening.  This is the first time of the entire trip I’ve not left for a new destination via bicycle.

Best Moment – Thank you all for your good wishes, phone calls, e-mails, blog posts, and Facebook comments. They mean so very much to me and have been the very best moments of the past two days while I’ve been disheartened about the status of the ride.

I actually feel pretty good physically – especially considering that I was hit by a car two days ago.  My neck, shoulders, and hips are a little sore as is the place of impact on my left arm.  My hand isn’t terribly uncomfortable, but all of my left-hand fingers are swelling up.  The biggest pain is the disappointment about the ride.

The status of the ride is really uncertain.  A lot will depend on what the x-rays show on Friday and what the doctor says.  I may be able to pick up the ride and continue the rest of the route physically.  Mentally, while the Big Ride is still something I really want to accomplish – especially cycling down the west coast, I’m not really 100% sure I’m up to it.  This accident really scared me particularly considering what could have happened.

If bodily functions, like urination are too much information for you to handle, you may want to skip the next four paragraphs.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!  Before the Big Crash, I was considering what the topic of the day for the blog would be and had decided it was time to discuss The Predicament of Peeing. It has sort of been an issue for most of the ride, but at least in the east there were normally trees I could hide behind, or side roads without traffic.  This isn’t the case in ND.

It so happens, as long as I stay relatively hydrated, I need to pee every couple of hours and when I do, I really need to go, urgently.  Sometimes there are convenient fast food places like McDonald’s. Burger King, or Subway –they have easy to get to restrooms and I’ve used all three.  Other times, I’ve gone around the other side of a seemingly deserted building to go.  Sometimes there are outhouses or public restrooms.  Ohio, along Lake Erie was good for this, and so were some of the beaches on the east coast of Florida.  In some towns the businesses let you know that the restrooms are for their customers only –not good for someone like me.

Also, most of the time I wasn’t riding in a town.  So usually I had to urinate along the roadside.  Now I’m a fairly modest person, so I try to find inconspicuous places, and most of the time, I’ve been successful.  That is until North Dakota, which is wide open, with few trees and the road was busy –I sort of had to let my modesty go!  I think I’ve been seen in the act only three times before ND, but one time, it was the sheriff in upstate New York.

Thank goodness for the male anatomy – because of it, I don’t even have to get off the bike.  I can just sort of lean over a little bit to take care of my business.  And, I can do it from either side.  I can’t imagine what women doing this kind of ride go through.  

While in Williston, we were staying at the Buffalo Trails Campground and it stank.  It really smelled bad –sort of like someone had dumped their tanks on our space.  With all of the oil work going on in the area, housing of any kind is limited.  One of the workers next to us was living in a camper shell.  There was another site with a large tent and lots of tarps.  Under the tarps was this guy’s open-air living room complete with comfy couch.  Many of the trailers look like they are being prepped for winter living.  Frightening prospect in North Dakota!

There are entire families living in the RV.  A bright spot at the campground was Duncan’s new friend, Gracie.  I took Duncan for his evening walk and this adorable seven-year old girl ran up to pet him.  She had her right arm in a cast.  I asked her what happened to her arm.  She told me, “I broke it like you did.”  When I asked her how, she said, “on her bike.”  I said, “me too.”

Today, Neita drove nearly 500 miles to Bozeman MT.  Cycling would have taken at least 5 days.  And we crested the 5700 foot Bozeman pass.  The scenery along the Yellowstone River was spectacular!  I guess I’d never been west of Billings.  Billings is where we would go for our back to school shopping when I was little. I had to share my space with Duncan.

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.