We actually had tailwind today! In case you don't know what that means, the winds in North American tend to blow west to east. Buuuuut since we're riding from east to west, it means that most of the days, the wind is actually against us. Sometimes the wind is very weak and you can't really notice, but often times it's brutally strong and makes it very hard to go at a steady pace. Once in awhile, either we head east or the wind changes directions to favor us. When the wind is strong, it can make the biggest difference in the world. Today we actually headed mostly north and slightly east (I think... at least definitely north), and we ended up getting a pretty good tailwind. We were incredibly grateful, knowing that it would make a hard day like today go by that much faster.
Compliments to the water van for leaving incredibly early this morning to chalk us out of Boise. Leaving cities is always difficult since there are so many turns and usually a lot of traffic. The water van people (Dan and Emily Lake) left around 4:30AM I believe to go around the streets and chalk directions for us. We've gotten lost or at least very confused every time we've left a major city, but I think this was the most successful one yet. There was a brief stretch where there was no chalking from the van because we were on a path, and of course it somehow turned into gravel. But fortunately we were able to reroute quickly. Quite unfortunately, we had a very very angry pedestrian curse us out and call us "spandexians", or so I believe. While it's somewhat disappointing to have someone disparage cyclists so much, to be frank about it we found it so hilarious that I think we're just going to call ourselves spandexians from now on...
The first local highway we were on for most of the morning made me think about Jamie and the accident. Team Portland 2014 has definitely developed a reputation for fearing highways far more than other teams. But obviously, we have good reason to do so. There have been many instances where I think most teams would have just ridden through a highway with a lot of traffic or a very narrow shoulder or even the interstate, but for our team, these things are usually out of the question. I can't help but wonder if we would be like other teams if we had never gone through the accident. I think back to the roads we road on before the accident in Pennsylvania and Ohio and wonder if we would still ride on them now. Anyway, as you can imagine the first highway was not so great. The shoulder cut in and out (a theme for the day) and there was a lot of traffic, although most cars were quite nice and moved over for us.
We ran into a bit of team problem today. When we arrived at mile 65 or so, where we predicted we would be having lunch, we found out that the food van would take at least 45 minutes to get the town where we were (Payette, ID, just across the border from Ontario, OR). As most teams were already at the lunch spot or very close, we decided that it would be much better for the teams to continue onto the next town, just to cut down on the miles would have to ride after lunch. A major factor was the heat... it was supposed to read over 100 degrees in the late afternoon, and obviously we try to avoid that kind of heat as much as possible. Although this seemed like a great idea at the time, we didn't exactly anticipate what would happen to the last team. Because they had had so many bike problems (mostly flats I believe), they were 20+ miles behind everyone else. When we moved lunch up to mile 77 or so, they ended up having to wait to eat lunch until 330PM or so, and because the other groups ahead of them continued to move to beat the heat, they ended up not seeing anybody on the team for the rest of the day. To make matters even worse, because the vans were tied up supporting the front groups, the last group received very little water van support, at some point I think 30 miles or so without it (although they filled up water at gas stations, etc). This problem was brought up at the meeting tonight and I definitely think there are things that could have been better to support the last group and mistakes were made. But to me, it raises questions about how 4K should be done. How long should the first group wait before leaving water breaks (which were very short today, which contributed to the increasing gap)? Part of me feels like it would be great if the first group waited until at least the last group arrived at the break, but I always understand why groups would really want to not have to wait. As has become obvious, 4K has come to mean different things for different people, and for some finishing the day's ride is incredibly important because it's a completion of their promise to spend the day riding for someone they love. Difficult questions to answer, not sure if there's any perfect solution...
One very very bizarre thing that happened. Although we had tailwind almost all day, we had a brief period when we had headwind... which of course was during our descent from a very tall hill... oops, kind of ruined a descent, but I'm just grateful for the tailwind we got all day.
Tonight we are being graciously hosted by the Cambridge Bible Church. After my group arrived (we were actually first to arrive, which is partially why I'm pondering this question of how long the first group should have to wait). During dinner, I talked to a man named David whose wife had passed away from pancreatic cancer just two years ago. It's discouraging that just about no matter wherever we go, we meet people whose lives have been affected by cancer. However, to see a positive in all this, it's encouraging to know that everywhere we go, we have people who support what we are doing.
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