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Friday, July 18, 2008, Weber Park, Dove Creek, Colorado
Today I got up around 7:00. We took forever to leave, fixing/adjusting the bikes, organizing stuff and playing with this stray black lab who befriended us all morning. It was hot, as usual, when we left at 11:00 am. All eight cycled today: Sarah through Becky, fun, although Sarah only lasted about 6 miles because she wasn't feeling well. My hat flew off once when we were going fast downhill, so I had to run back to get it before a car ran over it. The first half of the ride to Montecello was hot and slow uphill. Fortunately, we were riding into some black thunder clouds which eventually deposited its contents on us briefly, just enough to cool us down. Then we met two cyclists, Chris and Ben Bateman, father and son, who were going the opposite direction, heading toward Watsonville, California, 20 miles from where we started. They were raising money for a new track at Sonora High School in California. We arrived in Montecello around 2 pm and ate a picnic lunch on the grass somewhere. Being the hottest time of the day, we decided to go off to the library, one of everyone's favorite places and where I catch up on the blog. At 5:30, we headed toward the Colorado border and crossed it, another milestone, at around 7:30. It was pretty easy riding from there to Dove Creek, rolling hills all the way, and we arrived around 8:00 pm. The local sheriff said we could camp free at the park since there was no campground in town. So we gathered firewood and grilled up our pork chops and boiled ½ bag of potatoes and a dozen eggs, ate, wrote in the journals and went to bed. I heated up some hot water to take a hobo bath. I can't stand sleeping dirty. 48 miles.