Day 27: Wray, CO to McCook, NE

Actual Kms: 160 kms...yes one more American Century under my belt.

Overkill Kms: Today was only supposed to be about 150 kms but it turned into 160. I only did a few kms in town, so the rest must have been winding and stops.

Road Stuff: Dead racoons, dead foxes- very flattened, dead pigeon, lots of grasshoppers again.

Money Spent: $7 Orea Shake at Baskin Robbins and batteries for camera. $0.95 coffee at Sehnert's Bakery in McCook. $8 Shampoo, brush and gatorade. $2 Post Office package. $2.50 pint from last night...yes U.S beer is that cheap.

Wipeouts: 0. One bad bump where I unclipped by accident, but no fall.

Interesting Person Pick: I need to socialize more because once again I don't really have anyone. Brian rode with me for the first 2 hours and I spent a lot of time with my music and the open road. Mmm...maybe I need to be more inclusive. The girls at this bakery just got my blog address though...can I count them?

Favourite Part of the Day: After I showered and set up my tent, Brian and I went to the ALCO, which is like Giant Tiger and I got shampoo, a brush and gatorade. We met four other cyclists, including Jono (the photographer who rode a bike today-the whole way) and we sat in the store, eating ice cream and just enjoying the day.

Worst Part of the Day: When I got to Julie's SAG-which was 20 kms from McCook, the sun was really bright-it was about 12:30 and I was pooped. I felt dehydrated, but had forced myself to keep sipping from my camelback the entire day.


These are two pictures from last night. The girl to my right is KAREN (not Lynn-inside joke) who is in my small group. Then we have Renata from Fredericton (ex-boyfriend's sister). A bunch of people went to a bar last night and after I got off the phone with Tim, I asked the 7Eleven girl where a group of cyclists might go to have a drink, sure enough, she pointed me to the very place. When I got there, we discovered it was all Canadians, so Manley turned the jukebox to "You Shook Me All Night Long" and we all sang along. I had a quick pint of Micolob Ultra-a low carb beer ironically enough (I think Neal introduced this to me) and left pretty quicly around 10:30.


Today was a long day. I woke up at 6 (seems I can't make myself get up earlier than that) and headed out with Brian Garrett today. He said he wanted to boot it (go fast) the entire way to camp and I said I would keep up with him for as long as I could. He was gracious and slowed down a little and we pulled each other-taking turns riding in front at around 32-35 km/h for about two and a half hours. Then we got to Walter's SAG and decided that we would go at our own pace, use our arrow bars and listen to music. That's where I lost speedy Brian, but he was very good incentive to go fast for a while.

This is a picture about 15 kms into our journey. We were wondering if Nebraska is the good life, why are their shotgun holes in the sign?

When I got to Betsy's SAG there was shade, so I ate my huge tuna sandwich, piece by piece and after about 10 minutes, took off again. The sun was coming up and the 40 C (no kidding) day was starting to show how hot hot is. I took it a little slower by myself and discovered some hills! YAH for hills. It was nice to use my arrow bars and feel myself pull down the hill and grind up the next one. I rode for a long time and just as I was about begging for a SAG for cool water and shade, there was Julie! I sat in the truck for a while and found out I was near the front of the pack, apparently a lot of people had Brian's idea of leaving earlier and making camp early. We also lost an hour today because we entered Central Time Zone, so it's a shorter day that way. After that, the last 20 kms were slow, there was a nasty headwind, and I felt very silly starting my day at 35 kms/h and finishing it at 23 kms/h. Just goes to show you that you never know what you're going to get. I was also pretty tired for the last 20 kms.

When I finally got to McCook, I realized it was probably big enough to have a Dairy Queen, so after chasing down a few pedestrians, I found a Baskin Robbins and had an oreo/chocolate ice cream shake....the perfect recovery food. What I mean by recovery is, after a particularily hard ride, your body is pretty depleted of calories and needs something to bring your energy back up. A.k.a ice cream. Mmm. That's my version anyways. Today I did an average of 26 km/h which isn't my best, I guess I'll blame it on the headwind.

Then I headed into camp, found a nice cool shower, set up the tent and headed to ALCO with Brian to get shampoo, a brush and gatorade (yep, I was still thirsty...and as Betsy our nurse says, "Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate"). We sat at the ALCO for a while and then I found wireless internet at a bakery. The picture is me blogging this post entry. I also mailed Tim's letter and now I'm going to write some postcards and maybe read before supper in thirty minutes. I really don't want to go outside because as soon as you do, your skin is covered in sweat. So far, Nebraska isn't all that impressive.