Hav4Africa.com: My Journal

Day Eight of the 56 days of bicycling:
The sun and heat are relentless and just sapping my strength. I write this sitting on the gym floor of Sun Ridge Middle School. Before typing, I just laid on my side and took a nap. I am looking around and seeing another 32 people of which 10 are flat out exhausted like I am.

Today, I had my first flat tire. Bert stopped and assisted. I needed his help because the extra tube I was carrying did not work. The stem was not long enough. Most days, as a group we experience 15-25 flat tires. I am under the average.

I rode 69 miles today, starting at 7:00 A.M and arriving at our destination at 2:00 P.M. We climbed a total of 2,777 feet. We started with a huge head wind. It must be a known feature of the area since there were dozens of huge wind generators on the mountain ridges along side of the road.

This trip is no joke when it comes to putting out the effort. Tomorrow will be another tough day climbing over 4,500 feet. Fortunately much of the climbing also includes a fair bit of downhills.
Today I started my day sitting in a porta potty and suddenly realized there was no toilet paper ... unfortunately it was one of those times I needed it. Thank the good Lord, there were two people who came to my rescue when I started beating on the side.

Big news: We crossed the border into the state of Oregon. Total miles completed to date is 388.
Upon arrival, a man came up behind me, stopped, and toppled over. We had a good laugh. Every day, we will have 3-6 people who fall and/or crash. My turn has not come yet.

Lou