Day 17: Burley, ID to Snowville, ID

Actual Kms: 146 km

Overkill Kms: 4 km to go the Post Office this morning.

Road Stuff: Two dead hawks, dead dog, dead smaller birds, dead bunny, and lots of buys (at least four of which I swallowed).

Money Spent: $3 on Gatorade and Potato wedges in Malta (80 kms from camp), $6 on Pecan Pie (I thought of you Dad) with ice cream, coffee and 25 Gummy Bears.

Wipeouts: 0, but fatigue set in and we had to take 2 half hour breaks, one in Malta, one at Walter Vink’s RV.

Interesting Person Pick: Ed’s wife. Not even sure of her name but she has two young kids in a camper and is hauling them all across the country for us and I think that is pretty amazing. Also, from what I can see, she’s a pretty good mom and generally, a kind person.

Favourite Part of the Day: Being done.

Worst Part of the Day: Realizing that headwind and long, straight roads of nothing equal time for one to become discouraged and play mind games. I’m hoping Utah isn’t full of long, straight, nothing roads.

I had the toughest day since Stevens Pass today (which makes it my second toughest day). And I’m positive that I am getting sick. So sick (coughing, running nose and I think, a fever) that when I took a nap from 5-6 today, I couldn’t sleep because I was coughing so much. The only thing I get when I’m sick is angry and frustrated that I’m sick. And also, I want someone to rub my belly and my mother or Tim is not here. As I sit here in the gear truck, I’m starting to get the cold/hot flashes and I’m definitely not a 50 year old woman. This is not good.

This is Len, our Chaplain. He is drinking from the container because I lost his cup, gave him a new one and then he lost that one. It's still not found. Me in Utah.
Team Sweet (today) in Utah.
It is 7:00pm and there are still a few riders and sweep team that haven’t gotten to camp today. A few riders (about 5 or so) didn’t make it in, and took a SAG wagon to camp. The conversation around camp is like this: “How did you like that ride (headwind, barren road, 80 km’s after Malta, etc.)? And the answer, aside from Josh and Reuben (who made it to camp in something like 4 hours and a bit) is “Yeah, I didn’t (sucky, what a ride, I’m glad I’m here, etc.). So I don’t feel to bad about not enjoying it.

The first 50 kms were two big hills and the second was worse because it was a slow, gradual climb. So although you were trying to make good time, you weren’t really because it was mostly uphill. The next 80 or so kilometres were pure, flat, desert with nothing, and I mean nothing in sight. It was killer, so killer I was forcing myself to think about things that I could think about-namely Tim, my classroom, what Mom and Dad are doing at home now, some more Tim, how many kms I’ve done so far, what I was going to do when I got to camp, etc. I rode today with Matt and Brian and almost all of us felt useless when we finally reached Walter Vinks RV at 105 kms in. Matt had heatstroke and almost bonked (reached the threshold of no water and wasn’t able to keep going), I felt like I was about to bonk and Brian said he had gone too hard and he isn’t feeling well now. He just ate veggies for dinner because he said his stomach isn’t feeling well.

This is Matt Z in Malta-80 kms from the campsite, eating yogurt with the lid. We are resourceful.

After we got here (we were within the first 25 people in), we were rewarded with tarp showers. That’s right, no regular showers, we set up a huge tarp into a room and had a hose. It was cold but refreshing. I set up my tent and went to Mollies, an old red and white diner that looks like it came straight out of Grease. It had Coke decorations everywhere and the waitresses were friendly. One of them was a teacher that was a friend of the owner. She was just called in because it was so busy. After I told her our story, she asked if I wanted to teach gr.4-5 in Snowville next year. The class has only seven kids and the reason she was asking was because the previous teacher left, and they couldn’t find anyone else and she was afraid if they didn’t find someone, she would be the K-5 teacher (she’s K-3 now). I declined and said I’d pray for her and for the school to find a teacher. I bought some cheap post cards, continued to drink my coffee (and feel like a “regular”) and write some post cards. Then I called Tim and that was nice because I heard he finally got my first letter.

After that I tried to take a nap but I couldn’t sleep because I kept coughing, which made me really frustrated. So I had some dinner and now I’m off to find Betsy, the nurse, so she can give me something to sleep tonight. I don’t want to wake up my neighbours and I do want to get a good nights sleep for tomorrows 100 km.

I just met Jo Tipple (she’s late fourties-fifty something) who just came in 20 minutes ago and I am amazed by her persistence. I told her how proud I was of her that she finished and how I was amazed at her persistence. These are the kind of people that I think are the real hero’s of the group. These are the people that make me beam when I see them riding in. Oh, and Hank (the professor from Calvin Sem.) says to “Tell them hello from me”. J I’m also very proud of that 73 year old struggler. And Matt Zantingh just offered to take the mail to the post office for me because he’s sending you more cards Lynn. Yes, what a great guy.