Day off in Casper

 A minor setback yesterday for me.  I wrote the day before yesterday about the incident with my jacket getting caught in the rear tire.  What I didn't mention was that in keeping the bike upright I wrenched my lower back.  I was able to ride the additional 60 miles to finish that ride but my back started tightening up as we got closer to the end.  I went to the store and got some icy hot patches and put one on in the morning and hoped that the back would loosen up as I rode,  Not exactly what happened.  I started having lower back muscle spasms which got worse as I rode along.  I had to stop at the 23 mile mark and finished the ride in the van.  When we got to Casper I went to the ER.  I was examined and it was determined that it was a muscular problem and not a skeletal issue. I was given pain killers and anti-inflamatory medicine and told to rest in bed with ice on my back. I was given 2 shots and some oral medication.  Everyone is telling me that I was pretty funny last night at dinner although I don't really recall being very funny.  The doctor told me that if I do what I was told to do I should be okay to ride tommorow.  So I am just taking it easy today.From the looks of Casper driving through I don't think that I will be missing too much by lying in bed.  

Day 17 July 6th

We biked 97 miles today from Dubois to Riverton, WY. This was supposed to be a relatively easy 79 mile ride but due to flooding and road closures we got the extra mileage and a couple of really good climbs which I don't think anyone really wanted after the prior two climbing days. The first 30 miles or so had some incredible rock formations with the sun reflecting off them. I had a scary moment about 30 miles into the ride. I usually don't wear or carry a jacket but it was a little cool this morning so I put one on. About 15 miles into the ride of course I didn't need it anymore and I put it in one of my jersey pouches. I was riding along a flat section at about 22 mph when all of a sudden I came to a skidding stop. The bike was going every which way and I had to fight to keep the bike upright and me on it. Somehow I managed to do both. What happened was that my jacket came out of my jersey pocket and got stuck in the rear wheel of my bike in the brake area. The rear tire was badly shredded in one spot but not flat. I managed to ride it into the sag stop and had the tire changed and finished the ride. We are moving quickly through Wyoming with almost 100 mile rides for 3 straight days. We have a 120 mile ride tomorrow into Casper and then a day off that everyone is looking forward to.

Day 16 Jackson to Dubois, WY

Today was an 88 mile ride with spectacular views everywhere you looked. Photo op after photo op was available. Last night my roommate Mike and I went to downtown Jackson. They had a reenactment of a gunfight in the town square and lots of other activities were going on so we decided to stay there and have dinner. It was nice to get out of the usual routine. The big climb today was to the continental divide. this is where the determination of where water will flow. Water west of the divide goes to the pacific and east of it goes to the Atlantic. It was a long climb of 20 miles and we reached an altitude of 9658 feet. There was snow on the side of the road and one of our riders from the Netherlands made snow angels. Our ride tomorrow wAs scheduled for 79 miles but has been changed tom 96 mile route due to flooding on one of the roads everywhere we have been out here the water levels have been incredibly high. Now that we are coming out of the mountains this may become more of a problem. Maybe it will result in shorter routes.

Day 15. Into Wyoming

Happy 4th of July. We made our way from Idaho Falls, ID to Jackson, WY a distance of 89 miles. There were 2 significant climbs during the ride. The first was at Pine Creek summit at the 58 mile point of the ride. The elevation was 6764 feet. The next one came at the 78 mile mark and was the Teton Pass Summit with an elevation of 8431 feet. It is true that it gets much harder to breathe at high elevations especially when riding. A bunch of us stopped in the town of Victor for lunch. The town only has a population of 740 but there must have been thousands of people there for their 4th of July festivities. We got in line for a pulled pork sandwich and just sat and enjoyed the music for a while. Then back on the bikes for the last 24 miles including the last climb. We were rewarded with a big downhill. I cracked the 40 mph barrier during the descent. I am sure a lot of the other bikers got well into the 40's and maybe even the 50 mph range.

July 3rd. Day 14

Today is our last full day in Idaho. We had a short ride of 66 miles from Pocatello to Idaho Falls. Shows just how far gone we are when we think
that 66 miles is a short ride. It was a fairly flat ride with not too much to look at. The roads were pretty rough st times and a lot of people had sore buns at the end of the day. We were told that our rooms would probably not be ready when we arrived. A bunch of us went lunch at a Mexican restaurant up the street from the hotel. Even after that some of us didn't get into our rooms until after four. Early wakeup tomorrow as we head up to Teton pass and into Wyoming.

Saturday July 2nd the heat is on

Our luck ran out today. Instead of the tailwinds we have been enjoying for the past few days we rode into a head wind for all 86 miles of the ride. For most of the ride it helped to keep us cool. I think everyone would have preferred the tailwinds. The temps are starting to rise as we head east. It is in the 90's in Pocatello. Not much in the way of scenery today as we pretty much paralleled the interstate on frontage roads. We did pass through one town called American Falls where one of our sags was located. The town was very depressed with the downtown pretty much deserted. We had one road closure where we had to walk our bikes over the closed road. Tomorrow we hit our last town in Idaho and we will be in Wyoming on Monday.

July already

Today was a relatively short ride from Twin Falls to Burley, ID. It was supposed to be only 38 miles but I think most of the riders did something in the low to mid 40's. Not too bad with the tail wind at our backs. The reasons for the extra miles were a couple of waterfalls that were off the main route and a lot of riders returned to the bridge over the snake river to watch base jumpers. These guys were absolutely crazy. We saw three jump while we were there. They free fall with a parachute and then land in a designated area. The second guy we saw jump stood on the railing, did 2 flips while going down and then opened his chute. From where we were watching it looked like he would definitely end up in the river or in one of the trees lining the river but instead he wound up exactly where he was supposed to. From high above we all gave him a standing ovation and he responded with a bow. We also had a scavenger hunt going on today during the ride and the teams competed after dinner. All the teams did a great job and were very imaginative and we had a few good laughs. Tomorrow on to Pocatello