Day 23: 4:13 AM Wakeup

Today we left Wheatland, WY and headed towards our last stop in Wyoming, Cheyanne. The day was really tough, everyone’s body was so fatigued from the 115 mile day yesterday. Last I checked I wouldn’t be jumping back on the bike the next morning after going over 100 miles the day prior; however, this is the Journey of Hope and pushing our bodies to their limit is part of the trip. Also, the early wake up due to one of the guys missing curfew the night before didn’t make things any better. The sun wasn’t even up when we awoke and we were on our bikes starting our day at 5:15 AM, I call that crazy. I could tell that everyone was struggling today, my body was repeatedly saying no and the mind saying yes. To make matters worse we had a steady head wind all day that gradually picked up every hour. Guys were racking because of knee, ankle, and achilles pain. Sometimes we will have a rack point for the day, this means that if the team doesn’t make it to a certain mileage by a certain time then the team will be racked. This only occurs if we have a sponsored event that we can’t be late for. We have had rack points in the past and thus far the team has always made rack point, meaning we get to finish the day on the bikes because we were still on schedule to be on time. Today was different though, rack point was set for 70 miles by 11 AM. Even though we got an extra early start the combination of the strong head wind, fatigued muscles, and little sleep the guys just weren’t able to push through. We were averaging 12 mph for the day which is sluggish at best. The rack point was 60 miles by 10:30 which in normal circumstances is an easy task. The day was just so tough though, the team hit mile 50 at 11 AM so we were all forced to rack. Even though the day was tough everyone was in high spirits. After getting all the bikes on the racks we all piled in the vans and drove the rest of the way to Cheyanne.
We had a scheduled lunch with the Cattle Women at a local ranch. The lunch was pushed back an hour because of our late arrival. After showering we headed to this famous ranch where the Cattle Women hosted a feast for us! The ranch is known as Wyoming Hereford Ranch and is famous for showing and producing prize winning Bulls. The place was established in 1883 and used to own 1 million acres. As you could imagine the amount of history here was ridiculous. The ranch was notorious for having some of the best Bulls in the country, people would come from all over to buy a Bull from them and only the wealthiest could afford it. Currently they have a herd of about 100 and the ranch is open to the public. The bidding room where we ate is no longer used because of how the evolution in buying Bulls and cattle has progressed. It was a great stay and the Cattle Women there were really neat people and all had some very interesting stories while living in Wyoming.

Picture: Here is Mary, she made sure we were good friends by the end of the visit!

Later this evening for lunch we met the The Arc of Cheyanne who is a disability organization that combines a bunch of different disability communities together. All together The Arc has about 135 people total and many of them were at the park! I got to meet many of them and we all had a great time joking around and getting to know them. One lady, Mary, is 46 years old and is very cognitent of her disability. She told me I was lucky not to have one and she wished she could be more like me. It is tough hearing these kinds of things sometimes beause there is nothing I can do about it but be an encouragement. She went on to tell me her mom was an alcoholic and was drunk when she birthed Mary. Her dad had diabetes and refused to seek medical help for his condition. Now she lives three roommates and has some mental disabilities that she is very aware of. She is a slow learner and has a hard time comprehending. What a sweet lady though, she really made me think about how important it is to be there for my family and friends. What a great visit!
Tonight I tried to catch up on some blogs and get my bike tuned for the next couple of days. I am really excited to get into Fort Collins, CO tomorrow. Getting into a new state is so exhilarating for some reason. Oh yeah I almost forgot, today we had one of the crew members return to the team. Half way through Washinton he had to go home because he was breaking out in hives. Its great to see him back with the team and now healthy. Also, Dan recked today and was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully he was ok and only had some road rash. He hit the ground when he rubbed the back tire of the guy in front of him, he and his bike was alright. Safety is the number one thing out here on the bike and seeing that the crew guys are taking care of us is encouraging. They have been doing a great job sticking to protocol when someone is injured or sick.