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Grant Anderson's Ride
by Grant Anderson
Editors Note: Grant is quite the shutterbug and his article refers to many photos that I did not include due to the space limitations of the Paceline. I've tried to pick one or two photos from each of his days on the road that I think best show what he was seeing.
7) Summary of the Second Day
This is 7th installment in which I discuss the morning of my second day, and having to bike 77 miles to a rather varied breakfast and conclude with the rest of the ride, and after 133 miles did not have a lot to say.
Sunrise out my motel window. Day two and on the road by 5:10. Beautiful sunrise and tranquil cows. The first car didn't pass me until 1hr 20m into the ride. Breakfast place at mile 30 was not open, so pressed on into the central time zone and White River where I'm now having breakfast at the Chuckwagon Restaurant which just opened. Open diners on a Sunday are harder to find than expected. 77 miles down, 52 to go for today.
Breakfast?: BLT, medium vanilla shake, potato wedges, macaroni salad and an Arnold Palmer. Oh, and I forgot the while waiting for the restaurant to open I had a pickled boiled egg, a chocolate milk and a V8 from a nearby tavern...Quiz: What can you eat when burning 7000 cal/day. Answer: pretty much everything!
If you want more immediate status where I am you can see my tweets at @granttdh. (Something I NEVER thought I would see myself write but I've gotten some requests to keep them posted on a more timely basis.)
For about 60 miles the white stripe, rumble strip and shoulder all merged into one. But I would guess I had a total of 25 cars pass me the whole first 115 miles (until I hit the state highways ). So, top to bottom, left to right. Sunrise over east badlands at 5:10am. Just past where I was supposed to have breakfast, showing 42 miles to next possible restaurant. View of the road I came into white River on (just over and to the left of the red garbage can lid). The hill that a rancher in White River warned me about. The long undulating hills for the last 20 miles or so. Yes it is TOO green. One of the wettest springs/summers in memory. Makes for beautiful biking though. There's a smell of alfalfa or flax when I go by some fields that is like smelling Eden.
Tired and hitting the hay at 8pm (I lost an hour due to crossing from mountain to central) but I've been up since 4 and got some exercise...
8) Third Day, Morning
This is 8th installment in which I discuss the events of the third day up to breakfast and outwait another rain cloud
First leg of my journey today was Winner to Gregory. It rained about 3am this morning so I thought I was going to miss it but about 6 miles from Gregory I got dumped on. Luckily I had time to pull over and don my rain jacket. But I'm sitting here in Gregory at the Sissy Cafe (Carol Anderson's--the owner's--nickname is sissy) waiting for some weather to pass.
Despite the rain the ride was through some beautiful countryside and the sun coming through clouds made for some pretty pictures. Don't let the blue sky fool you in picture 3. The rain clouds were right above me and pretty much lined up with the road. You can see that in pic 5.
The last three pictures here are Main Street in Gregory outside the cafe and a view of the interior. This has been the best breakfast yet. (Three eggs, bacon, ham and sausage, hash browns, tomato juice and coffee.). Got to know a 91 year-old woman (self-described "farmer's wife widow") who lost her first husband at 50. She's waiting for a ride home as "I just can't walk that far anymore." When I asked her name it was "Aunt Vi" short for Violet. Danish background though married a bohemian.
You may ask after 133 miles yesterday, how are my legs feeling? Pretty good. The first 5-10 miles today were a little bit of a reality check for my legs: Legs,"We're doing this again?" No doubt they are down in strength today. I was trying to explain this to someone in the diner. Thinking like an engineer, I ride at about a 78 cadence. That means about 78 rpm for my pedals. I was on my bike for just short of 8 hours. So 78rpm x 60min/hr x 8 hrs = 37,440 revolutions or "pumps" with EACH leg. Think of going into the gym and saying to a trainer, "I'm going to do 37,000 reps." Yeah, right... But that's what it takes.
Looks like I've out-waited a storm. Back on the road again!
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