Friday, May 28, 2010

remind me again why i'm here..?

scratch what I said yesterday, today was the most miserable day yet! We woke up with good spirits in our comfortable motel room, had a great breakfast at a little diner on the outside of Lincoln, then hit the road.. We knew it was going to be miserable as we left town because it was drizzling and about 39 degrees.. but we had no idea..

We had about 18 miles till we got to the continental divide and the closer we got, the worse the weather got..! As we got closer, the drizzle turned into a little harder rain, then it started sleeting, then it started snowing.. On top of that, the temperature started dropping.. By the time we got to the top of the continental divide it was 30 degrees with a 20 mph wind in our faces, and snowing..

Initially we were pretty pumped to have reached the top of the pass, we ignored our numb fingers and toes, and soaking wet clothes as we took pictures by the signs and ate some cookies that Jeff's mom brought for us..

Then it hit us, we were freezing.. and we were about to descend from the pass, into the wind..
We started bombing, and almost simultaneously began shaking uncontrollably.. As it turns out, when your soaking wet in 30 degree weather, biking downhill into a headwind, your body doesn't warm up easily..

We kept on biking.. but soon we realized that we were running out of options.. Our initial plan was just to camp in Simms, which was about 30 miles over the pass.. But we quickly began to realize that if we tried to camp, we would almost certainly all get hypothermia, which would not be ideal..
The problem was that the next closest city with a hotel was great falls, which was another 35 miles past Simms.. We were all getting pretty wore out due the constant shivering, and none of us could imagine doing another 60 miles.. So we took full advantage of our resources for the day.. And got in the the Koehler's van!!

Jeff's mom was nice enough to shuttle us to great falls.. I realize that it seems like we really chickened out.. but we discussed it, and it was pretty easily decided that none of us really cared about being considered a chicken while being rained/snowed/sleeted on, sitting on the side of a busy highway in windy 30 degree weather..

For dinner we ate at the golden corral.. and naturally, we all ate till we just about threw up.. We met another biker, Abel, in Lincoln yesterday, and then caught up with him on the road again today.. So we invited him to stay with us!
He is from south dakota and has been biking up the west coast and then across to the east.. so he is about done with his trip.. It has been cool hanging out with him..!

The weather is supposed to be the same tomorrow.. so we got another motel room in the next city (which i forgot the name of).. We saw on weather.com that the city we are in, Great Falls, is currently the coldest city in the United States..! That allowed us to regain a little of our hardcore-ness that we lost during the van ride..

Gonna go jump in the hot tub here at the hotel right now! pretty pumped about it! (and there goes what little hardcore-ness we have left)...

1 comment:

The Browning's Blog said...

Sam, We thought you were in a rain storm. You were almost going to bomb out, but I thought that was kind of crazy, but I didn't know what that was like. Why could somebody's mom keep following you? Jumping in the hot tub?? Most hotels don't have a hot tub. (?)
Man, that was crazy!

--Colson

Sam, Your trip closely resembles that of Lewis and Clark. Pretty sure we read about Pocahontas following them in a mini van with the promise of cookies and hotel rooms. What an American explorer!

--Peter

Sam, Don't listen to what they say. I'm impressed that you're hanging in there. Hopefully, it will warm up a bit. Take advantage of the warm place to stay and food. :)

--Gretchen