Today was a slow day along the Dog Cancer Ride Across America.
There was plenty of stuff going on, mind you. Website updates, scheduling our first Radio interview in Craig, Colorado, contacting a bunch of online dog magazines to get online publicity, etc.
No, when I say slow, I mean SLOW. 4 MPH kind of slow.
I got on the bicycle late today (we did a lot of website work from our campgrounds this morning) and as we approached my start point for the day a nasty storm was brewing to the north. Black Clouds, Lightning and Thunder (oh, my).
Ian’s parting advice as I started the ride was “Ride fast, and maybe you can beat the storm.” I think he was right (the skies did look clearer up ahead) – but, unfortunately, fast was not an option today.
Because today was a day for climbing hills (we’re rising up as we approach the Rockies) and getting swallowed up by stormy 20 MPH headwinds. Believe me, when you’re riding a bicycle across America, the 2 things you don’t want to face are steep uphills and massive headwinds. Well today I got BOTH. Double Whammy. (At least it didn’t rain – luckily I managed to avoid the Triple Whammy)
The result, as you can see from the title of this post, was a lovely 4 MPH journey through the hills of Colorado. Less than ideas when you’ve got about 70 miles left to your scheduled destination.
On days like this, all you can do is bury your head and keep on peddling – one foot over the other – and hope you actually make some progress. Man those mile markers seen far away on days like today – normally I cross one every 3 – 4 minutes… today it seemed like hours (I think I could have walked faster during certain parts of the ride – where’s Dashiel when you need him…)
At any rate, I somehow managed to make it 40 miles for the day (way short of the 70 mile target I’d set for myself) before I started getting cold and tired (my legs turned to jello towards the end), so I called in my team to save me from the winds and the road. Tomorrow would be another day.
And speaking of tomorrow. Tomorrow we get to face the Greatest Challenge of the Ride so far.
Not the Rockies – those are coming soon but they should be easy compared to this challenge…
Tomorrow we have our First Dog Cancer Ride Across America On-Air Radio Interview.
What’s so challenging about that, you may be wondering. Well nothing really about the interview part (I’ve actually never done an in-studio radio interview so I’m really looking forward to it). The trouble is, the interview is scheduled for 7:00 AM!!!!! Now that’s cruel and unusual punishment for a group that tends to stay up late working on website updates until the wee hours of the morning (heck, we’ve actually had a few nights when we stayed up almost that late to launch an important update). But when it comes to getting publicity for the ride and the charities we’re riding for, you do what you have to do…
OK, I’m just kidding (sort of). But I do have to close out this post because for now, I’d better go and get some sleep.
Sweet dreams from Craig, Colorado, on The Dog Cancer Ride Across America
And we’ll see you on the morning show, Country 55 radio in Craig, Colorado.
Good night.
- Ted Schneck
dreaming of country music and studio headsets in Craig, Colorado
www.DogCancerRide.com
