 The day went up and down for me. In the early morning, when we first rolled out of San Diego, I was full of anxiety, wondering who I was kidding thinking I could actually ride my bike across the country. After about ten miles I relaxed a little, thinking, "This feels like a bike ride. I know how to do this." After that, I wanted to exclaim to each random person we passed, "I'm riding my bike across the country!" |
After anticipating this ride for so long, I can't believe I finished the first
day of PAC Tour. I'm beginning to feel a little more confident that I might
actually be able to pull this thing off.
 First rest stop of the trip. |
All in all, the day could have been much worse. We spent the last twenty-five
miles of the day riding through a desert. With a cloud cover, the temperatures
got to only 103 degrees when they normally rise about 110, so that part of the
day was much easier than it could have been. Also, blistering side winds during
that stretch kept the temperature from being too searing. During the day I did
get two flat tires and my odometer/speedometer stopped working at about mile
100. Unable to navigate, I missed one of the last turns of the day and put in
about an extra six mi, having to head back toward San Diego several miles
to get to the hotel .
 Repairing my first of two flats for the day, although I only got five flats during the entire trip. The record for trip was eighteen flats, I think. |
Tom L. loaned me a saddle for the trip. |
I still felt pretty chipper about the whole thing until I realized that I was
going to have to get up the next day and essentially do the same thing over
again, and then again every day for an entire month. When I did make it to the
hotel, however, I felt like I had got off pretty easy compared to other
people. One guy puked at the last rest stop. Several people had cramping from
dehydration and electrolyte loss. Several people had also had multiple flat
tires and even two catastrophic blow outs, where their inner tubes had burst through cuts in
their tires. Someone else said he had more mechanical problems with his bike
today than during entire previous cross-country trips. During dinner two people
kept massaging their hands and legs and even had to get up and walk around to
offset cramping. All together we were a pretty sorry lot. After hearing
everyone else's stories I felt pretty good again about my day -- at least
physically I had been pretty much fine, and physical discomfort is far more
difficult to deal with than bike problems. I even was far less saddle sore
than I would normally get on my training rides, probably due to the excellent
saddle that Tom L. lent me at the last minute.
 Tom "Team Optimist" from Minnesota at some random point in the trip telling yet again what another excellent day he's having. |
So the camaraderie on the trip I think is what's going to get me through. In
the morning as we rode out of town, cyclists counted down the mi, saying,
"One mile down, only 2999 to go" and so on until about the third mile. It was
pretty funny. At lunch, Tom from Minnesota lent me a spare tube to make up for
the two I had flatted. As I pulled back out onto the road, he yelled out,
"Sarah, ride AROUND the glass!" as if riding THROUGH broken glass was
something I had thought would be GOOD for my tires. Each time I flatted other
riders stopped to help and one of them even indulged me by taking a photo of me.
During the long, windy, hot stretch through the desert in the afternoon, three
riders took pity on me for my earlier tire problems let me draft off of them for
about twenty miles without seeming to mind that I always sat in the back and
never took a turn pulling. In the morning, Susan helped me find a secure place
for my route sheet, and Bisti served excellent duty as Morale Officer, letting
me scratch between her ears and licking my face at the rest stops. I can't
imagine doing such a ride on my own or even with a friend or two; sharing the
experience with a group of strangers somehow makes all the calamities seem
humorous.
Tomorrow is supposed to be an easier day, shorter and with less climbing, so
hopefully we'll all fair a little better. By the end of the day we'll be a
stone's throw from the Arizona border, having crossed the width of California
in just two days.
