Day 21: Dinosaur, CO to Craig, CO

Actual Kms: 150 kms

Overkill Kms: 4 kms off the road to a park, meandering, to Taco Bell

Road Stuff: Lots of dead deer and a live fox right in front of me into Craig.

Money Spent: $20 for a Maybell Colorado t-shirt, gatorade, and ice cream, $4 Taco Bell, $20 for music downloads.

Wipeouts: 0.

Interesting Person Pick: All of the seven Sweep Team C-Reuben, Matt Z, Matt R, Jason, Melinda, Greshem and yours truly. We were an awesome sweep team, patient, steady and we had a good time on a long day.

Favourite Part of the Day: Having a beer in the park and listening to Death Cab for Cutie and the Once soundtrack that I downloaded of the internet.

Worst Part of the Day: The last 10 kms of the trip had a wicked headwind, we were late for dinner (got in around 7 pm) and we were going very slow with the last few people.

Today I was on sweep, so we loaded the gear truck and it started to get hot. So hot that the kitchen offered us ice cream at 9:30 in the morning. It was kind of a nice morning though because I got to hand sanitize everyones hands in the breakfast line and tell them "Did you know that Colorado is the biggest biker state? They're going to love us here!"


When we finally left, we took our time for photo opprotunities with the unique street signs. All of the signs had dinosaur names (hence the town of Dinosaur). We also found the only coffee place open and spent about an hour there with Bill, the Harley driver on tour. He brings people water in a bind and encourages them when we they are climbing hills. Generally, he's our tough guy on tour.

Melinda in the corner, Matt Z, Jason and Harley Bill.

We finally left around 10:30 and had a headwind, so we set up a good pace line and tackled about 60 kms of the long and winding road. I listened to my new music on my Ipod.

Then we took a rest and clocked another 30 kms. We met up with Gail and stopped at a park about 45 kms outside of Craig. It was in Maybell, Colorado-the smallest town ever. There was one general store which had cute t-shirts so I caved and bought a really cute tie-dye shirt. It was so nice that Betsy, our nurse and SAG (support and gear) wagon driver went out and bought the same one. Here's a picture of Betsy looking jealous. Also, Jason bought the team a beer and we enjoyed our "waiting for others to finish slowly" time. I called Tim at the payphone since it was already 3:30 our time and 5:30 his time. Cowboy Jim in the background was watching. :

We took off and biked about 25 kms and then caught another cyclist. We had to go slowly into camp, it took about 2 hours to do the last 20 kms...so very slowly. This was difficult for the team because we were biking at a 30 km/hour pace and slowing it to 10-15 kms was hard. When we finally got into Craig, Matt and I took off to find a Taco Bell and we saw a cyclist 2 kms from the camp. Matt was like "You have got to be kidding me! MAN!" I laughed loudly. The cyclist had had two flats, so I gave him my inner tube and we took off to the Bell. When we got to camp, we ate, showered and basically went to bed after Peleton. Also, during my small group, we decided to do small groups twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) because we are so tired at the end of the day, which I think is a good decision. Sorry for posting so late, it was a very long day.

Day 20: Duchense, UT to Dinosaur, CO

Actual Kms: 158 kms

Overkill Kms: 13 kms getting lost and moseying around town.

Road Stuff: All kinds of road kill imaginable except for moose. Too many to count.

Money Spent: Taco Bell $3 for cheesy potatoes (I made a deal with myself to stop at the next

Taco Bell I saw for those potatoes. They are a college-time love) and soft taco. Dinosaur Ice Cream place frappacino $5. At the gas station in Dinosaur $2.50 for Coors Light and chips.

Wipeouts: 0 but Jake Kuypers (Clara Bierman’s brother) took a big fall today because his carbon seat posts just broke and he flipped over his handlebars into traffic. There was no traffic, so he’s just pretty scratched up. He even finished his ride today.

Interesting Person Pick: None for today. Sorry folks.

Favourite Part of the Day: Having a beer in Dinosaur with Matt Z and George VanderKurr at the local park because we couldn’t find a pub. I was singing for about 2 hours after that.

Worst Part of the Day: The last 10 kms we had a wicked headwind, were going uphill (deceivingly) and it was in the middle of nowhere. We all just wanted to get there.

Today I rode by myself and it was beautiful. I left “late” at 7:20 because I was tired. Last nights sleep was still leaving something to be desired….namely a good nights rest. Also, Alida (the nurse) re-bandaged my leg wound. The ride was beautiful…it left me lots of time to think about a little bit of everything. The first 90 kms I averaged just under 30 km/hour.

We got into Vernal which was a bigger town and I missed the first road to go around the city, so I went into town and stopped at the Taco Bell and enjoyed the people (especially the kids) looking at me and smiling. I ate well, rested and headed out to the next SAG-Walter Vink’s RV where I enjoyed juicy watermelon.
The next 35 kms were difficult. The headwind, the emptiness of the road and the fact that it was the last piece was killer. A bunch of people stopped at a rest stop, so I did too. They were a group of the older crowd, all of which were concerned about my cough and proceeded to discuss with me how to get better. The conversation went like this,

“Were you the one hacking up a lung last night Sarah?”
“Yes, sorry if I woke you up.”
“What are you taking for that? Got any Vitamin C?”
“Here, have an orange.”
“I have cough syrup if you need it.”
“Maybe you want one of my sleeping pills?”
“Here, have an orange slice.”
“Thanks guys.”

Here’s a picture of the false advertised sign. Colorado (so far) is not visibly colourful.
When I got into Dinosaur (so named because lots of fossils are found here because this is where they died…and I can see why) and found a homemade ice cream place. I got a frappacino and sat with fellow bikers in the “misted” canopy. I was probably within the first dozen in.

Then Matt Z, George and I scanned the town for a bar but it was closed so we went to the gas station and bought our beer (you can buy a 24 ounce for $1.29 here…it is crazy) and enjoyed it at the park. Then we headed into camp, singing a tune. I showered and now I’m blogging. Tomorrow is about 141 kms and two 1000 foot climbs. Not too bad except that I am on sweep and it will probably be a long day. Thursday is long too but Friday is the day everyone is looking forward too-only 55 kms. Yes!
Tim...sorry about the phone connection yesterday. I'll call you soon.

Day 19: Salt Lake City (Park City) to Duchense, UT

Actual Kms: 148 km

Overkill Kms: Probably 2 km when I go call Tim after this.

Road Stuff: A live real moose right in front of me! A live deer, dead dear, dead snakes, dead racoon, lots of live and dead grey chipmunks or are they moles? Also, singular shoe.

Money Spent: Sunday: $32 shorts. I know, I know on Sunday. Today $8 for night time cold and sinus medication, lip balm (gave my other stuff to Corinne), coffee and cheesy brocolli soup.

Wipeouts: 0

Interesting Person Pick: Bill and Rita Wybenga who are riding tandam together. They are about 65 and flew past me near the end of the day shouting, "Come on Sarah, let's go!". Also Rita gave me a hug when I entered camp today because I was so tired and just wanted a nap.

Favourite Part of the Day: Taking a nice shower and long nap in the coolness of the building.

Worst Part of the Day: Dreaming all day about when I would get to camp and when I could take a nap...I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night due to my coughing and hacking.





Today was a challenge. Last night we went over the route and we didn't have an elevation map so we didn't know what to expect. However as Ed said "We are in the mountains Sarah, so expect a lot of climbing." Ok Ed. He was right.





I left around 7 am after walking all the way back to the gear truck. The state camp had our tents and gear truck about a 1 km walk apart because they didn't have enough space for the tents any closer to the truck. Brian and Matt and I set off and moved quickly through the first 30 kms or so. Then came the climb. I met Eritia and paced with her for a while but we were frustrated because it looked like we were going downhill and we were only moving at 15 km/hour....it was an optical illusion, we were actually climbing. We climbed up and up for about 15 kms straight. Not a nice winding climb, a lowest gear, going 10 kms an hour kind of climb. It was brutal but beautiful. Here are some pics.




I kept dreaming about cresting the hill and getting into camp to nap. I was so tired and cranky because of too many factors...hill, no sleep, coughing, noisy sound in the crank of my bike and 120 kms to go. When I finally got to the top, Lois was there to greet us with gatorade. It was beautiful...an almost 10,000 foot summit.



Brian, Matt and I (Eritia had already passed us as usual) raced down the hill for 20 kms...and I mean raced. The boys were hitting 70 kms an hour, but I sheepishly used my brakes to slow myslef to at least a 60 km/hour pace. We almost ran over some sheep that were crossing the road!
Riding downhill at 60 km/hour. :)


After that, there was a lot of slow downhill and we sat back, talked and enjoyed the 30 km/h ride. We made it into a little town about 100 kms in and had some lunch. After about an hour, we reluctantly got back on the road and found one more medium hill (4 km) to challenge us. After that hill, I booked it to Cory's SAG (about 30 kms from camp). When we hit the last road, we had a great tailwind, and although the road was pretty busy, we went at our own pace and I kept a steady 45 km/hour into camp. When I finally got to camp, Eritia saw me and asked me if she could set up my tent for me. I love you Eritia! We set up the tent, I showered and napped (finally!).



After I woke up, I read for a bit and then (surprisingly) it was supper time already. We had hamburgers, a lot of salads left over from the Celebration Sunday in Salt Lake and lots of fruit. Now I'm blogging, going to call Tim and head to bed with the promise of a restful sleep due to cough drugs. Yes!
And this is what I just did to my leg. Tripped over a bicycle. How ironic.

The best day and the worst night....Sunday.

Now I normally don't write on Sunday's as they are my day off, however, I have to brag about my amazing billets and show you the Morman Tabernacle. I had a very refreshing day. Here are some pictures.

Here's the Morman Temple Square. Corinne and I went with Lynn.

Here is downtown Salt Lake City, The Gateway. We shopped and I bought some shorts. Also, the very cool rock climbing wall inside a store there.

And that's all the downloading I have patience for now!

Day 18: Willard, UT to Salt Lake City, UT (really Jordanelle State Park near Park City where the Olympics were).

Actual Kms: 162 kms or just over 100 miles which means today...yes today...Sarah Terpstra biked her first American Century.

Overkill Kms: 0. There is no way I'm biking 1 km more than I need to today.

Road Stuff: Dead deer, dead birds, dead racoon, shoe, wire brush, lots of snake skins (again).

Money Spent: Yesterday I spent $17 on multivitamins, bug spray (which I ended up not needing), and vitamin C (Yes Arlene, I'm listening). $4 ice cream and Coors outside the Flying J. It was intentional intergenerational interaction time outside the Flying J. Today I spent $4 on an Arby's cheese and beef melt around 140 kms. Money well spent.

Wipeouts: 0.

Interesting Person Pick: Julia Wissink, who is from Ottawa, Ontario and a teacher (like me). She is a gr.4 teacher who is right now giving me some good advice about what I should do for planning. She is also the person that said "Finally, somebody my age!" when she first met me. When I told her I was 24, she said depressingly "Maybe not." She's 28. She's a great little biker and has a great little dutch pixie face.

Favourite Part of the Day: Calling my parents to tell them that today I biked 100 miles today and having them reply "We're proud of you". Also it was good to hear that they are praying for me everyday and that they love me. Yes, I can be a sap.

Worst Part of the Day: There were two major climbs today, the first was enjoyable for me, the second difficult but I knew it was there. What I didn't realize was the last 20 kms were slightly uphill and there was one 3 km hill right before camp. The last hill I literally had to count in my head to make myself keep going. I said to myself "Let's see if you can do this hill in three minutes." It was definitely more than 400 seconds and I probably starting counting over a few times.
Supper (yesterday) in camp.

Today I woke up at 5:20 and it wasn't the first time that I had woken up that morning. I have a persistant cough that kept waking me up. I felt bad because I knew I was waking others up as well. Time to go back to the medication.

Breakfast this morning-everyone was up very early. When I woke up at 5:20, most of the tents were down and my first thought was "Where did everyone go?"

Today I biked with Stephanie Webb and Julia Wissink. We decided to take it slow for the first 100 kms becuase we wanted to save our energy for the two giant monster hills. We made pretty good time and at the 95 km mark stopped at the First CRC in Salt Lake City, spending about 45 minutes there enjoying gatorade, cheese strings, mini bagels and other delicacies.
Outside First CRC in Salt Lake City. John VanderSTEEN :) two fisting coffee and gatorade.

Then we started the hills and I quickly lost Steph and Julia. The first incline was so bad that I thought I would have to get off my bike (but stubbronly did not). The landscape evened out and there was a persistent 5-7% grade, winding around beautiful homes. I met up with a Salt Lake City biker (there were a lot of them on the hill today) and talked with him about our trip. We kept pace for awhile, but eventually he dropped back and then I made it to the top of the 15 km hill. I made a deal with myself to climb the entire way and I did it. At the top was a beautiful shelter set up by the Utah CRC's (all two of them). A girl ran out to "mist" you and another to give you a power bar and another to get you a drink. There was shade and chairs....basically heaven...or as close to it as possible at 6800 feet.

Also, I had a surprise at the top of the hill. I knew someone in Utah! Cheryl, this is your friend who visited you in PEI. We took a picture together.

The second hill had a reputation. It was on Interstate 80 and about 10 kms long. The biker I met on the first hill had warned me that it was harder and he was right. I got of my bike and rested twice and at the top, had Randy DeWolde (from the famous blog "Where's DeWolde?") take this picture of me. That was probably the toughest hill for me so far because the tractor trailers were barely passing us (they were going like 20 kms/hour and we were going 12 kms/hour) because of the grade. You would look to your left and think "If that honking thing can barely make it, how is it possible that my body is going too?" But then, you keep going and you're at the top. It's amazing how much our bodies can take. This is the view from the top of the first hill.

This is me at the top of the second climb. This climb was so rough that I had to take a picture to prove I did it. Even my billets tonight-Jim and Lynn (boys are Will, 6, A.J, 5, Ben, 2) were surprised we climbed this pass.

The view from the road. It had good shoulders to bike on. At that is the end of week 3. On to week 4!

Day 17: Burley, UT to Willard, UT

Actual Kms: 100 kms in and 5 to go...I'm sitting in the Bingham Public Library and we are camped about 5 kms down the road.

Overkill Kms: Notta...and I was mapping everything today. Maybe I do possess better mapping skills than my Dad.

Road Things: 2 deer, 4 racoons (one particularly messy), lots of snake skins, 2 skunks, lots of little birds...and they were all dead.

Money Spent (so far): $6 batteries for camera, $4 for Pineapple upside down cake and coffee (see pic).

Wipeouts: 0 but Jake Kuyper's front wheel collided with an orange road barrel today. It was knocked off the road by a truck, and I for one am thankful he didn't have a spill.

Most Interesting Person Pick: John Vanderveen (?). He's from Ontario, probably weighs the same as me and is about 65. He packed less stuff than anyone here, but is also the one everyone goes to to have their bike fixed. Today when I mentioned that I had lost a strap for my camel back, he said..."I have something that just might work". He's a great biker, always up early and at 'em and very friendly.

Favourite Part of the Day: Realizing at 85 kms that I was in the lead and barely breaking a sweat. I motored today.

Worst Part of the Day: Not being able to download my pictures at the local library because I'm not allowed to put my camera card in their computer. Bummer.

Somedays biking is like playing video games. Today we had a 30 km stretch on the highway (which wasn't so bad becuase they were paving the right lane and it was finished, so we rode on that most of the way). Anyways, I was flying down a hill at 65 km/hour and there was a lot of debris (road tire, wires, road kill and pavement chunks) on the road. I was dodging, tucked down in my arrow bars and it was fun! The Mission Impossible song was playing in my head.

After I got off the highway, I saw the first SAG (Walter Vink and the motorhome) but didn't feel like stopping yet, so I caught up to Jake Kuypers and had a good little talk with him. Mostly about the splendid tail wind, temperature and view. Then we caught up to the "Chatham Team" as Jake called them. This is Barb, John Vanderveen, Cynthia Aukema, and about four others that always leave early. I passed them down some very, very flat and marshy highway. It was very peaceful riding by myself and I kept my pace at 30 km/hour. I finished 85 km from 6:45 to 9:45...3 hours. Which I was pleased with because that is about 28-29 kms/hour.

Then we got into the town of Corinne (I hope Corinne Smienk takes a picture there). The next SAG was there, so I stopped and then the Chatham crew came in so we went to the Golden Spike Cafe and had coffee and cake.

We ate for about 45 mins and then saw some more riders come in. We also figured out that Willard wasn't very big, but Bingham was, so I decided to bike the 15 kms to Bingham and hang out there. I found out that the bike shop here has weird hours 4-6 pm everyday, so it doesn't look like my squeak is going to be fixed here. Overall, after yesterday, I am very pleased to be done so early, especially since tomorrow is 150 km with a big hill at the end.

This afternoon my plan is to write postcards (I have many more to write to my sponsors), go swimming in the fresh water lake at camp (we are staying at Willard State Park), read the rest of my book (Nickel and Dimed), deliver some mail and (of course) call Tim.

Good Day.




Here's some pics from Huntington last week. This is a picture of me with my lovely blue riding sweater on. The people at the table were making fun of my cool looks.



Enjoying the tiny town of Huntington. We always forget to take off our glowing yellow vests for pictures.

First bum-Matt Z, Second Bum-Joel, Third Bum-Sarah, Fourth Bum-Jodie, Fifth Bum (up front)-Hans. Team Sweet as it was meant to be...Brian took the pic.

Team sweet at Shoshonee Falls before Burley. This was yesterday.

Team Sweet a few days ago.

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.