T1 Day 23 (Liz)
6/29/23
Sand Springs to the Flowing Wells Rest Stop, MT.
We packed up quickly this morning, eager to get out of the grasshopper infested greenhouse. Unfortunately, minutes later Kayla started to break out in hives :(. So we sat outside the convenience store/ post office with our kitty cat friend and waited for the Benadryl to kick in. Shoutout to Kayla for being a tough cookie, staying calm, and getting on the bike when the hives started to die down.
In the morning, I felt at peace biking through the landscape. It is beautiful in its own unique way. The long grass bends in the wind. Cacti line the road. Eventually, the grass became sage brush and the rolling hills became wind carved mounds with exposed rock layers. Apparently, tons of dinosaur fossils have been found here, I can picture dinosaurs roaming around these plains.
30 miles in we finally came across something, the town of Jordan! We love to loiter at grocery stores, but today we were fancy and biked our groceries to a picnic table for lunch.
Then we were off again. We knew there would be nothing but untouched landscape until we got to the rest stop 35 miles away. Not even trees to shelter us from the sun. Unfortunately, there was 7 miles of road construction. It was a rough 7 miles of biking on loose gravel with cars throwing up dust and rocks at us. It honestly really sucked.
It’s just the three of us out here so when things get challenging (heat, freezing rain, thunderstorms, bike troubles, bad gps navigation, construction) we dont have all that many options. We can take a break to assess the situation, phone a friend for advice, and keep on biking. Ultimately we always have to keep on biking. Sometimes that sucks. But by the end of the day I look back and think about how badass we are. And I try to laugh off the bad stuff so I can do it again tomorrow.
Of course that wasn’t the end of it, and by this point I was in a mood. We just kept climbing. And then it started to rain. And our warm showers host cancelled on us. And there are so many grasshoppers on the road that they hit your legs as you bike.
And then… I got a flat. I was in the back and I yelled for Kayla and Keelin (turns out Kayla can’t hear while biking), and they eventually noticed and helped me out. I wanted to cry, but Kayla and Keelin were so helpful I don’t know what I’d do without them.
After all that, we made it to the rest stop. Its just a rest stop, there are bathrooms and water. The sunset was beautiful. And our mac n cheese with peas was yummy. Keelin even split her snickers with us (it’s no ice cream but it still hits the spot). We’re covered in rashes and bike grease and were a little smelly. But hey! We’re biking across the country. What else would I expect?
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