| Date: 7/11/02 Hi again everyone. Well, another couple of weeks have gone by and finally pedal the peaks is over and I think most everyone was glad. We did over 41,000' of climbing and that was plenty for just 6 days. The whole week passed without any mishaps until the last 5 miles of downhill into Buffalo WY. A guy who was here from Greece crashed and broke a couple of ribs and a collar bone. He was in the hospital for 3 days. He was really going fast and some bad winds were buffeting him around so he hit the breaks and slowed to about 40 just as a dust devil crossed the road and fliped him upside down. When the rest of us got to him the Ambulance was already there getting him. We came off of Powder River Pass and had a 8% down grade with strong tailwinds and we finally broke the 55 mile per hour barrier. Four of us came into town with a 66.2 max speed reading on our computers. Wow, Was that ever fast. Next stop, 70? Who knows. We are now just 2 days from completing the next tour which is ride the Rockies. We started in Loveland and rode up to Estes Park then the next day we climbed the Highest thru road pass in the continental US and which was 12,183' I am finally getting my lungs back again and the altitude didn't bother me at all. I did our classmates proud as I started out last in a group of 72 riders and I was 23ed at the lunch stop at the top. But I killed them on the down hill getting to the finish in Granby in 5th spot. We don't race or anything but the ride gets pretty hottly contested between the real cyclists and just the tourist types. But, on the climb I felt a couple of sharp twinges in my right knee and the next day I could hardly walk. Yesterday I was in so much pain I couldn't even get out of my tent in the morning. Our massage theripist has been working on me and today I can finally walk again and without much pain. I strained the quad ligament attachments where they attach at the base of my righ kneecap. That damn mountain almost got the better of me. Right now the knee is almost painless by tomorrow I should be able to ride again. That mountain was a 23 mile climb and I wasn't the only one it did in that day. Yesterday we had a fellow who cut thru a parking lot and ran into a little sports car (it was parked) but so low was it he didn't see it in time to avoid hitting it. He said he planted his face right square in the cloth of the convertable top. He said he didn't do any damage to car so he just rode off. We told him they would find him if he did any damage as convertable tops hold imprents just like the shroud of terin so they will have a photo of him to post in the post offices. We really had him going for awhile. Youth is sometimes so gullable, but then arn't we all? I'm setting at a puter in the librairy in the desolute town of Walden, CO. We were here last year on the 2001 tour and in fact my tent is pitched in the same spot in the park as it was then. A fellow setting next to me, who is 20, is on a cross america ride and started in Astoria, OR He is camped in the same park as we are so tonight we will compare notes on our crossings. Well, that's about it for now folks. Hope to be back on the bike tomorrow, no big mts. to climb so I should be OK with the knee problem. Almost forgot, we have a 78 year old man riding with us that hasn't ridden a bike since he was 12 years old and last year the doctor ask him where he planned on living in a couple of years after he let his body completely rust away and after a few moments he ask what should he do. The doctor put him on a diet and told him to go buy a GOOD bicycle and join a cycling club and get on with life. In 14 months he has dropped from 245 pounds to 148, is lean and tough as a railroad spike and is now in perfect health. When he started this program he was a type 2 diabetic and now that has even been cleared up. He is really a tough old guy and he really rips our legs off of the mtn. climbs. He can ride with just about any of the rest of us and even makes some of look bad at sometimes. Amazing what your body is able to accompolish if you give it a chance. I ask him what his worst habits were and he said watching TV while eating butter popcorn and drinking cokes. Then I ask what were the hardest ones he had to break. He said he was only a light smoker but that stuff is so hard to get off of that he almost quit the whole program, then the cokes, TV and the popcorn were next. His response to my next question What do you enjoy most now that you have reached this level of accomplishment? He said he is once again really enjoy- ing life and can now keep up with his grandkids and the wife. Loves the comroderie with all the cyclists and said he's planning to go on a bike tour with one company or another until he can never mount a bike again. He said he is now having the time of his life and is sorry he didn't do something like this a long time ago. YOUR NEVER TOO OLD. Just like Nike says, JUST DO IT!! Talk at you all again in another week or so..... Love to all........Jerry |
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