“Have you ever had one of those days…?
You know, the one where you’re riding your bicycle on a 4,281 mile cross country journey…
And you’ve got a 12 mile long, 2,500 foot mountain to climb…
And just as you start climbing the hill, you get a flat tire…
So you fix the flat and get back on your bicycle,
But it decides to go flat on you again about 1/4 mile up the road…
And then again, about 1/2 mile after that…
And then, when you grab your phone to call your support vehicle so they can bring you a new bicycle tube, you discover that your cell phone service has been disconnected, because you switched services before you started the ride and didn’t realize that the bill was due…
So you flag down the nearest car (a nice couple from Denver with a lovable Rottweiler named Wonder who’s going blind from a rare genetic defect) and use their phone to call your support vehicle to bring you a new bicycle tube…
But you discover that your support vehicle driver’s (and his girlfriend’s) telephones are both turned off – and you get sent straight to voicemail…
So you have the nice couple from Denver (with a lovable Rottweiler named Wonder who’s going blind from a rare genetic defect) give you a ride back into town to buy a new bicycle tube…
And, once you buy the new bicycle tube and fix your tire, you realize that now you’ve spent virtually all the money you have on you to pay for the tube (and other miscellaneous bicycle supplies), and that now you have no more money left for the ride over the 12 mile long, 2,500 foot mountain you need to climb…
And your support vehicle driver’s (and his girlfriend’s) telephones are still both turned off and going straight to voicemail…
And it’s starting to get late in the day, and you realize that, with no phone, no money, and no support vehicle contact, you’re never going to make it safely to the top of the 12 mile long, 2,500 foot mountain you need to climb over…
So you resign yourself to having to ride back to the home where you stayed last night – to ask if they’d be kind enough to let you stay over one more night…
But you realize that you don’t actually have the address or phone number of the home where you stayed last night – and better still, you realize that since you’ve never ridden to the home where you stayed last night yourself (your assistant always drove you to the house), you’re not exactly sure where said home is located…
So you ride back through town, hoping to find some familiar landmark – and ultimately guess at the right street and find the home where you stayed last night…
Only to arrive just as you support vehicle is leaving the home to come and find you and pick you up from your days ride up what was supposed to be a 12 mile long, 2,500 foot mountain…”
…
Yeah, I thought you’d understand.
Oh well, just another day along The Dog Cancer Ride Across America (Day 46, to be exact)
From the home of Andrew and Andy (father and son), who graciously let us stay with them in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, last night (and again tonight), this is Ted Schneck saying goodnight and hoping Day 47 goes a little bit smoother than Day 46 (as we make attempt number 2 at the 12 mile long, 2,500 foot mountain I need to climb over to get to Denver)…
Bye for now and we’ll see you…
Up the mountain.
- Ted Schneck
P.S. Actually, truth be told, the day wasn’t that much of a loss. We got to have a nice, relaxed, dinner with our gracious hosts, caught up on some backlogged ride related work, and in reality it, the delay only set us back 1 day on our schedule, which hopefully we can regain once we hit the Midwest plains.
I don’t know that I’ll go out of my way to repeat it…, but when you ride 82 days across the country by bicycle, you’ve got to assume that you’re going have one or two days like this. – Ted
