It is day 4 of my adventure, a rest day. This morning we took the bikes in for maintenance and shopped for more supplies (lots of food). We visited a great bike shop called Finish Line, 560 Main Street El Centro. They told me that a group of riders had come in a couple of days ago and they were riding in support of their friend who has Lou Gehrig's disease. To find out more check out http://coast2coast4kalan.net.
The past two days have been pretty intense.
Day 2 consisted of climbing, lots of climbing. We started out on about a 4-6% grade for 16 miles. The road was not straight so we could only see the hill directly in front of us, but when we made it around each bend, we only found another hill in front of us...for 3.5 hours! We stopped for lunch at 230 and we stopped for way too long. My knee became really stiff during our brake. I rode for another 2 miles and had to call it a day because my knee was screaming. We still had 2 other riders other than Dad and me at that point so Paul and John took up the slack that day.
That night we stayed at Outdoor World RV Park which was lovely. The others drank some Coronado Brewing Company Islander IPA while I iced my knee.
The next day, we started off on a short climb then it was downhill to Jacumba, CA. Right on the border, Jacumba had a killer airport and a gas station. We had to be careful not to get hit by one of the many border patrol vehicles in the area.
If you look closely, you can see the border fence in the background
Leaving Jacumba was a slight uphill where we met the sag vehicle and placed our lunch orders (service with a smile). When we reached the peak we knew we were in for a helluva ride. Our side road ended at the onramp to the freeway and the bike path was just to the right of the rumble strip. This was the craziest ride (rollercoasteresque)! It was a 6% grade for about 8 miles. 30 mph while riding the brakes. I drifted onto the rumble strip a couple of times and it scared the ____ out of me. Not only was it loud and bumpy, but I started losing control and I decided to stay off. The gutter was on my right and everything was coming at 25-30 mph not to mention the semis that were passing just on the other side of the rumble strip, maybe Im being a bit over dramatic but it was crazy in the totally sweet sense of the word (does that even make sense)?
After that intense downhill we met the sag for lunch and did not stay too long this time. Got back on the bike and kept cranking. On this stretch we had a straight desert stretch just like you see in the movies, slightly downhill we averaged about 17 mph for about 15 miles, it was a lot of fun to crank out miles at a rate like that.
Then we turned onto Drew Road on the way to Seely CA, 8 miles to go. This was the bumpiest road ever. If the road had been smooth we could have cruised at 14 or 15 mph but I could not get above 9 because the road was so bumpy. For 8 miles we dealt with this until we reached the RV park again. We finished 56 miles by 2pm so we decided to crank out a few more miles while we were on a roll. After a brief stop at the trailer, Dad and I treked 7 more miles to El Centro. Sag picked us up and took us back to the trailer for the night.
Tired and sore, we took a dip in the hot tub at the park (livin' the high life) to try to cater to our aching knees. Had a great chili dinner, shot the bull a bit with Paul, John and Tyler and retired for the evening.
Paul, takin' 'er easy
Paul, John and Tyler left this morning. It was great to ride with those guys for a few days. It meant a lot to me to have John there because he too has his heart in this thing because his daughter Ashley has Friedreich's Ataxia.
And so we carry on, a few more pedal strokes closer to Memphis and a cure for Friedreich's Ataxia...
http://rideataxia.org
http://firstgiving.com/rideataxia
6 comments:
Wow--Kyle--you write so creatively I felt like I was about to be run over by semis!
May there be a hot tub at every stop!!
Tell the "sag" to have a glass of wine for me.
Suzie
keep up the good work man! it's great to see your posts and keep informed. i'll drop you a line this weekend about finalized plans, etc.
-gary
Hi Kyle!
We've taken note at Firstgiving all the great work that you have been doing via your fundraising page, bicycle, and blog!
An easy way to promote your fundraising goal is to post a Firstgiving widget on your blog. That way everyone can see a real-time presentation of your fundraising goal.
To grab a badge connected to your Firstgiving page click on "promote this page". After that, all you have to do is follow the instructions and you can post the widget on your blog! Also since you've reached your goal, you might want to consider changing your goal on your Firstgiving page to inspire more supporters!
Good luck, we love what you are doing!!!
Holy cow!! I'm not only going to say a prayer for your safety, I'll pray EXTRA hard for your poor Mom that has to witness the conditions you've described so exquisitely for us (I actually was cringing while reading your blog today)!!!
Thanks for "keeping it real" for all of us back home! GO KYLE GO!!!!!
Kyle, I hope your knees are holding up. What a whirlwind of a send-off you had on Monday. I'll think of you cruising steadfast towards the the rising sun tomorrow as I sit crawling in traffic on my way to Los Angeles tomorrow morning to visit family. I'll be wearing my "Ride Ataxia" shirt as lead-in to tell the story of your journey, and hopefully to inspire my younger cousins to think about what it means to do something for the greater good.
Hope you, the family, and any other riders are doing well and have a great weekend. I look forward to your next entry.
Ryan
Kyle - again with the WOW! Rumble strips & Semis, I would have ... crash & burn comes to my mind! Glad that your good - hope my mom dosen't read this , PRAYERS!!!
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