Eat, Sleep, Ride.................

6/17/09-Mile 551: I've underestimated his mileage due to the fact that SPOT or "spotty" goes in a straight line from point A to point B after it figures out it hasn't been working for 5 hours. He pulled into Lincoln today still no power in his legs. He's ditching weight left and right. I think he has just pushed himself too hard and he needs to SLOW down and take it easy. Like Solo says "this is a race for the tortoise, not the hare". But he is learning as he goes and he says there are about 10 things he would do different next time. Those are not words I really want to hear right now. He got a room in Lincoln, did his laundry and has been working on his bike. Both computers are dead. Magnet feel out. He will have to hit the bike shop in Helena first thing. He's got one of them rigged and I hope it last till then. He ran into 4 other guys in town. They are all pretty wiped out but they have decided to move on for a couple more hours. Oh yeah, he says he has "cankels" Not sure what is causing that. His knees are feeling fine. Told him to prop up his feet and chill. He's planning on hitting it really early in the morning.

6/16/09-8:00pm, he's finally hit his first wall. He got in less than 50 miles today. His SPOT was not working all day so I had no idea where he was. He called this afternoon from Seely Lake area and was riding with Jeremy. Neither one of their SPOTS have been working. Called again tonight from Ovando. He says he's not tired but he has ZERO power in his legs. He has to walk every climb and that has taken it's toll on him today. He said he's going nowhere and going to have to stop in Ovando. Called back after he bought more minutes on his phone card. Just chowed down on a big cheese burger and he says he feels better. He's got a giant blood blister on his toe from being in wet socks and shoes forever. Says he is still going to change out his gearing. He will have to wait until Helena to do that. No bike shop in Lincoln. He's sleeping in a tee-pee tonight and he already sounds about 100 times better. Doing 400 miles in 4 days is going to take it's toll on anyone. He has been pushing himself for 4 days now. He has got to be tapped out. He didn't even sound like himself the first time he called. He ran across several bears today. Ran up on a black bear and that spooked him so he bought some bear spray. Then he saw a mama Grizzly and her cubs. Of course he thinks he is going really slow and that he is the last one out there. But he's just really tired right now and it will take a few calls for him to listen to what I'm saying.

6/15/09-9:45pm, just called and he said he wishes he had a geared bike. He is having to walk too much stuff. I told him he needed to get back on his bike if he had anymore daylight and ride at least 15 more miles. This would bring him back up to his overall goal of 100 miles per day. He said he's feeling good and he would take off while it's light and call me back later. He ask about Cricket again. I told him she was not far behind him and she was doing ok.

6/15/09-7:00am, called from Whitefish again with lots of plans for the morning. First plan was to go to the post office and mail back to me some of the things he did not need. He didn't elaborate on what these things were. Second call, he was going to wait on the bike shop to open to change out his gearing. Called back and said the post office didn't open till 9 and the bike shop till 10. I told him it was probably not a good idea to change his gearing right now because he had about 45 miles of relatively flat, paved road ahead. He decided to take off. Apparently he did not eat all day yesterday and now he has learned his lesson from that. Stocked up on food for the road and took off. Looks like the SPOT decided to take another break again. Not sure what is going on with that thing. But it's driving me crazy thinking he is stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He is going to have to sleep on the ground tonight. No towns close by.

6/14/09-10:15pm, called in from Whitefish. He got off course for 4 hours this morning and blew some serious time. He was planning on making it past Whitefish today to get his 100 miles in for the day. Getting lost, there is no way to make up the time at this point. He is going to have to change his gearing in the morning. Says little old ladys are passing him on the climbs. Going to hit the bike shop in the morning and restock and get rid of some things to lighten up. The next section is going to be tough and they will have to cross a snow drift. His SPOT has stopped working for some reason. Going to try and reset it tonight and test it again in the morning. He is worried about Cricket. Said she is having some problems out there.

6/14/09-8:55am, call in from Eureka. He spent the night on the ground last night just across the border. He said he was not going to stop until he made it across last night. Apparently the re-routed section before the border was a pretty awful section and he ended up pushing his bike. There was no food to be found after 6pm in Sparwood, so whatever you had on you was what you had for the evening. He said he was pretty tapped out last night. He said it's cold and wet but he just puts his wool on and goes. His butt is sore and his legs are tired after a 150 mile day. He eat a big breakfast and he's off again this morning. He saw bears yesterday and was hoping that the people that didn't make it to the border stayed in cabins last night. Of course he is second quessing his choice to take the single speed, but he would not have been happy out there on a geared bike.

6/14/09-12:55am, he's made it to the border crossing. Looks like the couple of miles before that must have been a pusher over some tough terrain. I don't think I've ever seen him going 2.3 miles per hour. Only 10 miles to Eureka and it's on the shoulder of the US93 so he should get there pretty quick. No calls today either. Must not be getting a cell signal.

6/13/09-No calls last night or this morning but I did get 2 "OK" messages from him spot. Looks like he made it to Elksford last night and stayed at the Elksford Inn and went to eat pizza. His ATM card will tell us the rest of the story! I'll be glad when he out of Canada, stuff is way too expensive there. Looks like he got some sleep last night and started out early this morning, not as early as I thought he would, but he's going to have to get a routine down. Looks like a few of the guys only slept about 3 hours since they are well on their way to the border. Hopefully, he can make up some time in the next few days, but considering he did not have a full day to ride yesterday, he made his goal. He's doing good.