Day 23 - Well, it didn't go quite as planned

STATS	DAY	MILES	CLIMBING	CALORIES
DAY	23	107.38	1401	2870
TOTALS		1319.72	54,912	70,889

BLOG INFO PLEASE READ:

• You can view previous days blogs by selecting the one you want from the ARCHIVE list on the right side of the page down a bit.
• You can post a comment to the Blog itself, but not everyone will see it.  I set up the Facebook Group to allow all to post comments and share in the fun.
• You can see a bigger version of a picture by clicking on it.

I had a little trouble falling asleep last night.  I think it was jitters about it being the last day of riding and distance of 112 miles.  I did finally get to sleep and awoke about about 2:30 to find that it was raining quite heavily.  The weather forecast was for a 50% chance of showers, but there was no percentage given for heavy rain.  I eventually fell back to sleep only to wake again at about 6, then again at about 7:30 to find that it was still raining.

We got up and looked at each other and agreed that this was the last day, if we weren't going to ride for ourselves, we should at least ride for all those unsupported riders we met.  We suited up, had another great breakfast of pancakes and bacon (perfect century food), broke camp, and headed out into the rain.

(Side note:  You see and meet all kinds of folks on the roads and in campgrounds.  This morning, while I was taking care of business so to speak, someone entered the stall next to me.  Encounters such as these usually only involve a visual of the persons shoes.  Fortunately, that was the case here.  The strange thing was this guy was wearing wooden shoes!  Honest to God those wooden shoes from Holland with little tulips painted on them, and they were well worn.  As near as I could figure, he was expecting more rain than we were and he was going to be prepared.  I was going to take a picture, but then I thought that it may result in me getting to know this person more than I wanted, so I passed.  Honest to God, wooden shoes! )

We get on the road and Mike takes off like a man possessed.  He was, afterall, packed up and suited up with helmet on a good 45 minutes than the rest of us.  Joe gives chase, I keep Joe in range with and eye on PTR (Preserve The Reserves).  I eventually catch up with Joe and say that we should keep a reasonable pace, and that Mike is on a mission to get the ride over and get into thearapy.  We stopped for picture to give a flare for what were riding in.

 The rain drops are not visible here, but they are pelting us and that is the Alaska Mountain Range

We get to the first break at around 15 miles and Tom says that Mike is about 3 minutes ahead and wanted to keep moving to keep warm.  We take our break and move on.  There was a lot of small car traffic today with much less RV and trucks.  It started raining a little harder and we were counting the miles.  At the lunch stop at around 30 miles, Tom said Mike as about 5 minutes ahead.  We had a nice lunch with hot chocolate, and moved on.

Shortly after lunch we crossed the Richardson River and there was a lot of ice still present.  I snapped a few pictures.  It was quite pretty, though the pictures do not do justice due to the lighting.

 I bet Banal wishes he was headed this way.

Speaking of Banal, I checked his facebook page last night and he is down past Rancheria on the stretch we got caught in the hailstorm.  His is making about 35 miles a day.  Peace be with you my friend.

As we progressed it started raining even harder, and was in fact pouring.  By around 45 miles, a head wind had come up that was easily gusting to over 30 mph.  It was slowing us down to sub 10 mph and we still had 65 miles to go.  Joe said "I don't like riding in this."  I said that Tom should have another break for us any minute and at 47.5 miles, here is the van in the pulloff.  As we ride up, soaked to the marrow, Tom gets out and says:  "Mike has thrown in the towel".  That was enough for us.  The head winds were so strong that we were easily looking at another 6-8 hours on the bike in the rain.  So two more towels were added to the pile.

We loaded up the bikes and got in the van.  Mike was not smiling.  Tom turned up the heat and we proceeded towards the end of the highway.

We got to the visitors center at the end of the highway in Delta Junction and got out for pictures.  We discussed getting the bikes out, but decided no.  Within a minute of being outside, the three of us were shivering uncontrollably.  It was unconfortable.  We went into the gift shop at the end and it was not warm enought, so we went out and took pictures and piled back into the van.

 We made it!  Wet, cold, shivering, and a little assisted, but we made it.

It was a little anti-climatic, but hey, we just rode almost 1300 miles in the past 3 weeks and easily rode over 95% of the way, and a 95 is an "A" on most curves, so we took it and felt good about it.

We made it!  And we were cold!

Joe and I did stop for about 10 seconds to get pictures of each other with the famous mosquitos.  Hopefully this will be my last mosquito bite of the trip.

 I haven't said much about the bugs this trip, but these guys were on the small side.

Actually, the bugs were not too bad.  There were some bad days and others not so bad.  On the bad days, Tom put up bug nets around the canopies, and that kept it comfortable.  The last week or so were were in horsefly territory, and these things were voracious.  We would be riding along at 20 mph in a group and there would be a dozen or so horsefly's flying along with us landing on the bikes and us as if we were standing still.  You would look down at your shadow on the road and see them buzzing behind you.  We all lost some skin and blood to the horsefly's.  (An info board said that during the height of the insect season a Moose could loose a pint of blood a day.)


After getting back into the warm van we decided that we would go to Fairbanks and hotel it rather than camp in the rain in Delta Junction.  Along the way, we stopped at a old road house that is turned into a state park.  Very interesting how travellers rested back in the day.  They did not have an on site restaurant back then, but Mike found it and they had hot soup.

I don't care how long this crab bisque has been in the crock pot at this deserted state park gift shop.  It is hot and I am eating it.

This is the first time today Mike smiled.  (I had the same soup and it did help)

We got back on the road and saw the Alaska pipeline

There's oil in them there pipes, our nations lifeblood

The hotel we are staying in for the last night was booked tonight, so we found another place that was a little more pricey, but turned out to be very nice.  We are in essentially a 1 bedroom apartment.  We immediately set up the tents to dry out in our living room.

Just like in college, but without all the accoutriments

I don't think the manager would be too pleased with us, but we'll put it all back together before we leave.

I am meeting my sister in Fairbanks and she is here on business and was free tonight, so she came and picked the four of us up and we went out for a very very nice meal at the Pump House

Good eats here, but bring your credit card.

So the day didn't turn out as we planned, but it was a great day with a 50 mile ride in the rain. 

WE MADE IT!!!!

Tale of the tape