Blue Skies

Day 34: York to Fremont

One thing that I forgot to mention on the Day 33 post is that while at York we stayed at York College, a private Christian liberal arts college with an approximate enrollment of 500 students. They let us use a dorm block for showers and washrooms, as well as two nicely air conditioned rooms in which to sit around in.

On the route from York to Fremont, we were joined by Jonathan who is one of the media personnel on the tour. He joined us in order to get some nice new shiny pictures for the website and publications. I had driven the van to empty the day before so the first order of business was to fuel up and find some nice strong coffee. Once those needs were filled, we rejoined the route and set off to hunt cyclists.

Continue reading Day 34: York to Fremont…

Some semi-recent pictures

Click on the thumbnails for the larger image…

My sweep team loading the truck on day 25

The canyon we went through on day 26

Celebration service in Denver

The grain silos where we had our SAG stop on day 32

Day 33: Minden to York

I slept with the fly off again last night, and when I woke up I initially thought it had rained. Heavy due had soaked the tent, and all the stuff I left outside got pretty wet too. Leaving the tent to dry as best it could in the hour and a half before I was to be on the road again, I got my breakfast and got the water jugs ready for the SAG van. The school at Minden let us use their ice machine, which was pretty great - the ice I loaded into the jugs kept the water cold all day.

Today I took over a SAG van for the day while Betsy took my bike for the day. Before I was even ready to head out, I got a call that a cyclist had fallen and required the use of a first aid kit. It was only about three klicks out of town, and I arrived there shortly after receiving the call. The cyclist had a bad gash on his arm and some other scrapes, so we patched him up and he made the rest of the day alright (getting a new bandage from one of the nurses halfway through the day).

After going back to camp to finish packing my tent, I headed out with an assistant to mark the route near York, since there were a few confusing turns over there. On the way there we stopped at the first SAG stop, which was near the halfway point, distance-wise, for the tour. Someone had made signs that people were using to pose with, with the distance covered listed in miles and kilometers. Thanks Justin for “Is it the halfway point in kilometers too?”.
Continue reading Day 33: Minden to York…

Day 32: McCook to Minden

I was woken up early this morning by the sound of tent poles being folded and packed away. By now I have developed the proper protocol for dealing with this situation: ignore it and go back to sleep until six. To the best of my knowledge, we had people getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready for the day and to beat the heat by getting out early. Later in the day while talking to some cyclists, I found that some had left camp as early as 6:05, or 5 minutes after breakfast usually starts.
Continue reading Day 32: McCook to Minden…

Day 31: Wray to McCook, Nebraska

Wednesday started off a little differently than I had expected. One of the cyclists had hurt themselves in the previous evening when arriving in camp after being in town. This required hospital attention (the cyclist is doing fine now, and didn’t even miss a day of cycling, so don’t worry), and kept Betsy up until the wee hours of the morning. Three hours of sleep isn’t enough for anyone I know, so I ended up taking charge of our SAG wagon for the most part in the morning while she got a bit more rest.

On our way out of time, we stopped at a 7/11 for coffee and a bathroom break. I was standing at the counter with Stephanie who was helping us for the day, and while we were waiting to pay for our coffee and snacks a woman came up to ask whether we were part of the Christian cycling group that was in town. After answering in the affirmative and telling her more about the trip, she insisted on paying for our items, which was just great!

As we were waiting in the parking lot, the woman came back from her car that she had been about to drive away in, and told us that God had told her that she had to pray with us. She prayed for the tour, praying again and again for safety and angelic protection for the cyclists. It was very timely, considering the cyclist that was hurt the previous night and the injuries that had occured in the previous few days.
Continue reading Day 31: Wray to McCook, Nebraska…

Still behind

Don’t be too confused by the blog - I’m a few days behind in my posting still. I have stubs and partially written blurbs for each of the days since the last post, but they’re not up yet obviously.

I take privacy issues seriously, and sometimes I find it desireable to ensure that I have permission to mention certain things before posting them. Also, SAG driving has left me with less time than before. No worries though, it’ll all be up there soon enough.

Day 30: Fort Morgan to Wray

On Tuesday I rode as assistant SAG with Betsy. I was initially supposed to be dropped with some water jugs along the route, but there was no real shade at my stopping area (no trees in general, really), so Betsy ended up staying with the van. I got left in the sun on the side of the road for about 30 minutes when she had to go out with the van, but for the rest we got to sit in the shade generated by the van. Shortly before the sweep team got to us we got a call for helping with a flat, since a new tube and tire was needed. As we were about to leave, our last cyclist to come by needed some help with replacing a tire, so we did that first. After dealing with that call, we hovered (not literally) near the route waiting for any other calls.

Continue reading Day 30: Fort Morgan to Wray…

Day 29: Denver to Fort Morgan

The first monday after Denver I got to try my hand at acting like a full SAG driver. Cory was off for the day, so I got to drive the potty-wagon, a 12 passenger van pulling a small trailer with a portolet (portable toilet). The SAGs got a bit of a late start, however, since they had their scheduled oil change that morning. Volunteers came to pick up the vans, had the oil change done, and brought them back when they were done. I had two people check to ensure that the potty got reattached properly to the van, and off I went.

Continue reading Day 29: Denver to Fort Morgan…

Day 28: Celebration Service at Denver

The celebration service was in the morning again, at another high school a few blocks away from the one where we were staying. The cyclists biked there in groups again, just like at Boise, but the directions were even easier this time, so no maps were required. I got a ride in to the service in a Mustang, so that was kind of fun.

The service was held in the football field, utilizing the spectator stands for pews. The celebration service matched the reception we got the day before, with a lot of things done in grand style. They had a podium with a praise and worship band for the service, which happened to include a number of brass instruments too.
Continue reading Day 28: Celebration Service at Denver…

Day 27: Snow Mountain Ranch to Denver

So I’m a little behind in my writing, but I fully intend to have an entry for each of the recent days, since there’s been a lot of stuff going on.

Saturday morning we had breakfast in a semi-open shelter at the camp where we had held our group meeting the previous night. Its always great when this happens since it means that there are picnic tables available, a treat  for those who didn’t bring a camp chair along.

After helping fill water jugs for one of the SAG wagons, I headed out with Betsy who dropped me about halfway up the major climb for the day, the last pass that had to be crossed for the tour. The pass was over 11,000 feet, but fortunately the grade was relatively easy compared to some previous climbs.

Continue reading Day 27: Snow Mountain Ranch to Denver…