Day 36 – Not the Plan

By Mark Heggestad
Day 36 did not go as planned.  After almost 1,900 rugged miles in the mountains our bikes required some repair and maintenance.  Got to give us credit for doing maintenance before a big problem occurs.  Our plan was to get to the bike shop early, get our bikes worked on (tune derailleurs, true wheels, new tires, new cleats, etc…) and hopefully be on our way no later than noon.

The problem started when the guy at the bike store said they had no time to work on our bikes today.

     We, “Okay, point us to your nearest competition.”
     He,  “Oh, maybe we can get your bikes done today.”
     We, “Okay, how soon.”
     He, “Maybe by end of day.”
     We, “Not acceptable.” 
     He, “Okay, by 1:00.”
     We, “We can live with that.”

At 1:30 they had not started on the bikes. We finally got them at 4:00.  We were on the road at 5:00.  That gave us a little less than three hours of daylight.  So today we set a new record for least miles in a day: 36.5 miles from Boone, CO to Sugar City, CO.  Given the way the day went we were happy to get the few miles we did.

I took one picture today.  Prior to 5:00 it would have been of the strip mall parking lot in West Pueblo where we hung out all day waiting for our bikes.  Once we got on our bikes I was in too much of a hurry to stop for pictures.  So here is the one picture I took: a self-portrait of my shadow.  You can make a number of observations from this picture:
  • It is late in the day as my shadow is long.
  • My shadow is in front of me so we are finally moving east as opposed to north and south.
  • The terrain is getting flat – no more mountains or foothills to be seen.  Good-bye Rockies.
  • I must be coordinated.  It’s not easy to take a picture of one’s shadow while biking down a road at 15 mph?  Or maybe I’m just foolish
Self-portrait - A long shadow



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