DAY 10

Ray left Vernal this morning at 8:30 riding out on the same road he’d traveled the previous two days.  He rode for two hours on his own before the RV caught up with him.  Since Vernal closes down on Sunday’s,  the needed oil change, Post office run and loads of Laundry had to wait until early Monday morning. 

It was 75 degrees when Ray started out and when we caught up to him 2 hours later at 10:30, it was already around 95 degrees.  Pretty cool when you compare it to previous days, but today the heat took its toll on him.  Ray said he was feeling a bit faint at one point and had to stop riding for a moment.  (We’re thinking it was the Porterhouse steak and 5 hamburgers he had yesterday, but we can't be sure!)

Some exciting moments for Ray today were: Almost being hit by a deer; consuming a bowl of spinach pasta from Rose’s kitchen and running into our English friends again in Dinosaur, Colorado who had us stop to make a donation to Bike for Bread.  Thank you!

As for the Colorado terrain, we are seeing green grass, rivers, and trees for the first time since California.  That makes for a nice visual change of scenery for Ray. 

Ray rode 90 miles today.  It was an intentionally shorter day as he had gained mileage over the weekend in Vernal. 

We stopped in Steamboat Springs for the evening.  Dinner was Chinese food.  Our server was from Sutton, NH and we discovered Ray knew her mother! 

The only persistent physical problem that he expresses is that his toes feel tingly. 

Well, that about does it for Day 10.  Tomorrow we set out for Walden, Colorado.  Ray remembers it to be the Austin, NV of Colorado, so we’re eager to get there!  He’s rather nervous tonight as he supposes he will be facing his highest climb on Day 11.

Till tomorrow!

DAY 11

We were glad to be leaving Steamboat Springs this morning & tackle the 1^st major leg of the Rockies.  It was cold starting out with a temperature of around 55 degrees.  Ray began riding at 8:15 a.m. and it was 21 miles straight up hill from there to Rabbit Ears pass.  Rabbit Ears pass sits on the Continental Divide at 9,324 feet with a sign pointing to the Atlantic and a sign pointing to the Pacific.  Ray, Cooter and Barb had to stop to 'pay a visit' to their respective coastal lines before making the downward decent.

The temp during the ride in the afternoon stayed in the 70 degree range, which at times seemed slightly cooler in the shade of the evergreens with the wind blowing.  It was bizarre to us to see snow on the 4^th of July, but appreciated.  The Rockies have certainly been a nice change of landscape from the deserts in Nevada & Utah. 

Ray received many encouraging thumbs up & honks from passers by.  He also hit the 1,000 mile mark today!  Only 2,300 to go!  We don’t mention that to him though.  He tries to take it day by day.

We stayed in Walden, Colorado for the night, but Ray rode 16 miles beyond its border to finish out the day with a total of 73 miles ridden.  He said that he felt good today, even after his huge climb up to the Divide. 

You may be wondering how we celebrated the 4^th in Walden.  We were planning on first of all going for a dip in the very inviting pond across the way until our new friend Mike told us it was ‘huck full of leeches’.  Mike then directed us to a nearby river. 

We may have taken a wrong left somewhere because we only found a creek. There were so many mosquito’s flying about that we could only open our eyes for a split second to see where to step next. (Side note:  Walden will be 'bombing' itself next week because of this incursion.)  

In spite of feeling like we were in spin-off Hitchcock movie called "The mosquito's", the Creek (crick) was great!  And so cold that it took the breathe from you!

After the crick swim, we ate dinner at the recommended town restaurant called ‘The Coffeepot’.  It was more of that down-home Americana experience. The quality of the food was only surpassed by the quality of the service. We truly enjoyed ourselves and all agree that Walden is more fun than Steamboat Springs!!  In fact, we had so much fun here we completely forgot to light our Sparklers.

Ray receives word of the warm responses for Bike for Bread from parade viewers in Willimantic’s Boom Box Parade, including 2 young girls that sold over $400.00 in Bike for Bread T-shirts and hats in Columbia in only 2 hours!  The support, excitement and most of all awareness that these events have generated are a daily motivation to him as he continues eastward. 

Ray also thanks everyone for following along with him as he makes his way back to Willimantic.  The website interest has been very exciting.  Bike for Bread is apparently 6^th in ECharity’s contest to win $10,000 for your favorite charity.      

Let us know if there’s anything that you’d like to know from our daily reports that we might be leaving out and we’ll try to include it. 

See you at our next stop - Ft. Collins, Colorado!

DAY 12

It was an early morning in Walden for Cooter who did some maintenance on Ray’s bike.  The brake’s needed adjusting from the hills and the chain needed cleaning.  It was about 9:30 or 10:00 before Ray started out for Ft. Collins, Colorado and it was still in the 50’s. 

Fifteen miles and two hours later he reached Cameron Pass, which sits at 10,276 feet, the highest elevation that Ray will tackle along the Bike for Bread route.  The air was thin and he said he found it hard to catch his breath - even still, nothing really seems to slow his pace or stop him! 

The next 60 miles were downhill.  Yippee!  The Poudre River paralleled our course to Ft. Collins while overhead Ray was shrouded by the Rocky Mountains that sheltered him from the heat of the sun. (Ray’s gag reflex must be just working overtime with all of this blah scenery.)  Barbara took so many pictures that her camera privileges were taken away until Nebraska.  It would have been just perfect were it not for the intense wind working against Ray.

At mile 43 we jumped into the Poudre River (the coldest water in the whole wide world) for some refreshing hypothermia.  Then at mile 65 it began to rain, but Ray kept on going.

When we arrived in Ft. Collins, Ray inhaled some of Aunt Inez’s pasta from Rose’s Kitchen in Avon, Ct. and everyone got ready to go into town to meet some friends of Ray’s from home.

Lance Siviski, Liza, their son Kobi, Steven Bowen and Denis Killeen drove up from Denver to meet up with Ray wearing their Bike for Bread T-shirts and hats in full support!  Also joining us at Coopersmith’s for dinner were Amy Ryan and Chris (Ft. Collins next Mayor!) Martin who live in Ft. Collins. 

Ray said it was great seeing everyone and nice to relax with friends after a long day of riding.  He was thrilled to see the support for Bike for Bread reach as far as Colorado. 

We will be staying in Ft. Collins for one more evening.  Ray is planning to ride out east on the 14 for about 25 miles tomorrow and then back. 

Fort Collins is the first sizable town we’ve encountered so far on the ride, so we’ll do some food and supply shopping, develop film, clean the RV and do laundry.  We are also looking forward to visiting the Local Soup Kitchen in Ft. Collins tomorrow upon Ray's return from his ride.

We’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how it all goes!

DAY 13

Thursday was technically an off day.  However, Ray still put in 59 miles biking. Evidently Ray intended the rest days to be for his crew and not for himself! 

Ray said on his afternoon ride a dog chased him, but apart from that, nothing else out of the ordinary took place.  He rode east out of town for 30 miles and then rode back.  Based on the description of the scenery he took in, we are definitely out of the Rockies.  It’s going to be just miles & miles of Fruited Plains from here to Pennsylvania!

While Ray was on his ride, the crew developed film that you will hopefully see on the website today.  We also got the laundry & shopping done and ran a few other errands. 

Upon Rays return we paid a visit to the Ft. Collins Food Kitchen where Ray used to volunteer several years back.

It was otherwise, a peaceful night.  We were all pretty tired.  Cooter (Eric) & Aaron filled up the RV’s gas tank and stopped by a Volkswagen Bus & Bug dealership for kicks.

Barbara went for a jog and a swim.  Ray took some time just to be quite and then cooled off with a swim.

For Dinner, at 10:00 pm we walked to the Waffle House.  Ray filled up on Carb’s for $2.99!  What a great place!

Tomorrow we are back on the road and headed to Sterling, Colorado.  Thanks for tuning in daily as Bike for Bread continues on!

DAY 14

Ray took out this morning at 8:45 for Sterling, Colorado.  The terrain was an unchanging expanse of parched pasture and grain fields with hardly any trees to block the unfavorable wind.  The temps remained around 95-98 degrees for most of the day.  But it seemed hotter than any desert we’d come through.

At mile 28, the wicked spoke demon rejoined our trip after 10 days of carefree bliss.  Ray rode the back up bike for a few miles so as not to lose time while Cooter replaced the wheel on Ray’s primary bike.  In case you’re just now tuning in, both wheels for the primary bike have suffered from broken spokes, and though repaired, one of those wheels has already broken another spoke. 

From the RV, we phoned ahead to Sterling and found Jimmy G’s Bike Shop.  Jimmy, the bike shop owner, was fortunately able to track down a new wheel for Ray's bike, not an easy task actually.  Jimmy, having the same size wheel on his personal bike, offered his own wheel if the ordered wheel didn't make it on time! This is the sort of amazing people & support we’ve met with along the ride. 

The backup wheel did make it through Day 14, which pleasantly surprised us.

The road was fraught with rigs carrying oversized loads & rigs of average size.  The cumbersome semi's on a particularly small state road made it challenging not only to follow Ray but also to find a place to pull off so that we didn't get too far away from him.

Ray looked absolutely wiped when we arrived in Sterling.  He said that he would prefer a course loaded with mountains than to have the wind he had to shove through today.   

After an appetizer of Pringles and Buffalo Jerky in the RV, Ray ate spaghetti, German sausage, and mashed potatoes at Bummer’s, one of the few restaurants in town. 

Following dinner we went back to the Motel 6 and climbed on top of the RV to watch the lightning show going on somewhere fairly north of us.   Then Ray turned in early, having had a Benadryl tablet that made him a little drowsy.  He seems to have developed a heat rash, we think. If it doesn’t subside in a day or so we will have to drop into a clinic for antibiotics or internal cortisone.  As for now, we have him on Benadryl, cortisone lotion, and powder, but the heat and sweat continue to contribute to the rash and frustrate our best efforts towards healing Ray. 

Tomorrow Ray will start out early without the RV support crew. They will need to stay behind and pick up the wheel from Jimmy's as soon as it is delivered via UPS at 10 a.m.  We're hoping that he’ll manage fine on the repaired tire, but your thoughts would be appreciated, as we couldn’t hold Ray back if we tried.  Till tomorrow then!

DAY 15

Ray rode out of Sterling, Colorado unaccompanied this morning at 8 am. It was already in the 80’s. Cooter, Aaron & Barbara were left behind to pick up the new wheel for Ray’s bike from Jimmy G’s Bike shop. Jimmy was great and if you’re ever biking through Sterling, Colorado be sure and visit him as well as the Hot Java Cafe! Heather explained to us that there’s no such thing as Iced Cappuccino. Sorry 7-11.

Ray made great time in the morning. He phoned us from Holyoke, CO at 10:15, which meant that he traveled 45 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes! He said he met several folks he described as the meat and potatoes of our country while he was riding solo, really nice people. The wind was an asset, at least for the first 90 miles. After that, our direction changed slightly and the wind was again a great challenge.

Willimantic felt a little closer today as we entered Nebraska, the Central Time Zone and finished out our 1,369th mile!

Ray rode a total of 133 miles today, his longest day yet. We stopped in McCook, Nebraska where we stayed the night. Ray had some energy-inducing spaghetti for dinner – again, a necessity in his nutritional regimen for maintaining his stamina. The crew enjoyed a variety of other food groups including ice cream and tater tots, necessary for sitting down 12 hours a day.

We did some quick sightseeing after dinner. In this town of less than 8,000 people there stands a house built in 1906 for Harold Sutton that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of few built west of the Mississippi. Sightseeing took all of 10 minutes then we called it a night.

We anticipate more wind tomorrow as people keep assuring us it’s going to be windy pretty much till the year 2006. But, we’re close to halfway home! We’ll be back with you again tomorrow from Nebraska!

DAY 16

Ray was somewhat tuckered this morning from yesterday’s long, gusty ride, so he went back to bed after Barbara woke everyone up at 7 a.m. looking for Superglue.  He got underway at 9:30, which was sensible as he had considerably fewer miles to complete today.

The RV stopped in Cambridge, Nebraska where Barbara was taken to see Dr. Warren Jones, a wonderful dentist who sacrificed rest on a Sunday morning to quickly repair a broken crown for her. The good doctor advised that the mouth is no place for superglue.  Who knew? 

The people in Nebraska have been overwhelmingly friendly.  So many folks here are honking, cheering and waving at Ray as they pass him and the RV on the road.

The temperature was already in the late 80’s before 8 a.m. and was around 105 degrees for probably 85 of the 93 miles that Ray biked.  The wind was in the north – not the direction we happened to be heading, unfortunately.  There weren’t a whole lot of newsworthy goings on today, which makes for a happy biker, but not for very interesting commentary. There was this one car that was trying to get chummy with Ray.  Oh, then there was the cattle stampede that Ray incited.  He also had a bike sprocket graze his ankle & open up a little hole that was quickly doctored up.  Other than that – it was a slow day.

We ended the day in Minden, Nebraska - a town of nearly 3,000 people.  Quite a little pot of historical soup here though. Cooter and Barbara checked out the Pioneer Village Museum while Ray showered and Aaron checked the BFB email.  We ate dinner and watched the movie ‘Twister’ which seemed appropriate being in Tornado country.  We’ll still be in Nebraska tomorrow, so I may just copy and paste this info – we’ll just have to see what happens.  We hope that you’ll check back with us tomorrow!!  Till then!

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