Thursday, June 22, 2017 Day 4 Across America North

Beautiful Mt. Jefferson

Water for all my cyclists here at the Best Western in Prineville, OR!

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We left the Ka-Nee-Ta Resort around 7:30 am, flying down a huge hill at about 30 mph right out of the gate!  Pretty nerve racking since my cycling brain was just waking up (readers insert jokes about Steve's brain here!).  Just 20 minutes into the ride, the hills started coming and kept me busy for about the next hour.  The sky was bright blue and the terrain reminded me so much of New Mexico--lots of brown tones, only sparse vegetation and towering buttes and vistas.  Despite the lack of hill training in Florida, my legs really feel darn good.  I thank my Solivita buddies for getting me on the bicycle seat regularly and I want to specifically thank Chuck Hudson for accompanying me on all those off the reservations rides to Frostproof and beyond.

At about the 25 miles point I looked in my rear view mirror, saw the beauty behind me, and pulled over to a safe spot to admire Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters, and even Mt. Hood in the distance.  Absolutely stunning panorama!  Fifteen minutes later I pulled into our first rest stop at an old, abandoned Grange in Madras, OR.  I waited about 15 minutes before the ABB van showed up and Karen Bauer, the driver told me she was late because we had a cyclist from our group fall at about the 6 mile point.  An ambulance and police escort took him to the hospital.  Sure hope he is okay.  As I have said many times in all my previous blogs, it only takes 1 second on a bicycle for everything to change!

I rode by myself most of the way and just had a blast sliding along with a tailwind, even during another climb of about 1000 feet.  Most of our travel yesterday and today has been on OR State Road 26 and it was mostly rural and less traveled until the last few miles into Prineville.  The last 8 miles was a continuous downhill and I pedaled lightly at 26-28 mph to complete the 59 mile journey!  I knew I had arrived in a farming town when I rolled over several flat, dried cow patties!

Tomorrow is a real challenge for our 50 cyclists.  The 117 mile journey will likely be a record distance for most of the crowd.  I will do my best to calm some nerves of friends tonight as I know that it is definitely a bigger mental challenge than physical challenge.  Even after 4 days, these cyclists are stronger than when they started 4 days ago, despite being a bit leg tired from the climbing thus far.  Wish us luck and stay tuned tomorrow!

Stay healthy,

Steve

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