Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for July 6th, 2009

Friday, July 3rd – Tuesday, July 7th – Hanging out in Denver

Thanks to Cindi who was ever so kind to let me borrow her car from Westcliffe, I have made it up to Denver. I got in around 4:15pm on Friday and was going to go to a cookout/BBQ with Chelsea and Russell, but it started storming really badly. So we all just waited it out at Chelsea’s – during which that time I started to get really tired and feel a bit hot, so I told Chelsea that I’d pass. Just 15 minutes or so after she left, I felt really nauseas and threw up again – everything from the bottom of my stomach. I then of course had to clean up my lovely mess and then left and went back to crash at Barbara and Dianela’s place (where I’m lucky and able to crash and sleep whenever since they gave me a spare key). So I came back and went to sleep at about 8:30pm and slept on and off the entire night. Woke up eventually for good at 8:30am (12 hrs of sleep)… and felt pretty okay.

Saturday:
I decided to take my bike to Denver Spokes to have them tune up the derailleur – which they did in no time and didn’t bother to charge for it, which was nice. I went back and then after a while went to run to Walmart to replenish supplies for my trip (Heet, soap, toothpaste, food, gatorade, all of that sort of stuff). After my Walmart run, I came back, organized a little bit and then took an hour and a half nap before heading out around 7:30 to Chelsea’s to watch the fireworks at Cheeseman’s Park. First, we had dinner at her place – her roommate’s mom (who’s in town from Ohio) made some yummy turkey burgers and corn on the cob. So I was able to eat and keep everything down which was good. I then headed back to crash for the night after the fireworks were done.

Sunday:
I got up at 7:30, showered and then ate a toasted bagel and left to meet up with Chelsea and her roommate Amanda and her dad for rafting. We headed to the river rafting place about 45 minutes outside of Denver. We got suited up in wet suits and booties and life jackets and all. It was apparently going to be a very cold ride, and indeed it was! We had a cool guide, Nick, who had been doing guided rafting adventures for 9 years now. He seemed to have a pretty good idea of how the river works and was good at giving his instructional lesson to the two newbies, as well as the rest of us. We had a lot of fun, despite the cold… but  I was still a little nervous about getting sick while on the river – luckily that didn’t happen! The ride was good – we had some nice class III and class IV rapids and none of us got tossed out of the raft. Another raft had a few get thrown out though, one lady got pretty beat up and hurt though unfortunately. They got her back in the boat and then continued down to a part of the river where they were able to get her out of the boat and onto land and then called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She wound up coming out in the class IV rapid, I believe and landed hard on some rocks (on her back) and I think that’s where she was having most of her pain. Our guide (who’s a nurse in real life) thinks she may have broken a rib or two. So hopefully not!

After rafting, we went to have lunch in Idaho Springs, CO – just at a cafe place. Nothing to brag about – ice cream was way overpriced there in that town at $3.00/scoop and $5.00/2 scoops. I passed on ice cream.

Back in Denver, I decided to take my bike out of the car and try riding around a little to see how I felt. I felt pretty good – just tired from rafting, but otherwise good. I rode around for maybe 10 miles and went to the REI and borrowed some tire levers to rotate my tires. I had left all my tools back in Westcliffe at Sue and Lockett’s… but thought it’d probably be wise to just get the bike maintenance stuff all out of the way. So I rotated tires – putting my rear on the front and my front on the rear. My former rear tire is really worn down – I hope it makes it to the end of the trip. If it does, I’ll be happy. My chain is also wearing fast again – surprisingly… I’m not sure why it’s wearing so fast since I’ve been really careful not to cross-chain when riding and we were going thru Kansas, not up and down mountains. So I saved myself $14 by swapping my tires myself instead of having REI do it….and they were nice enough to let me do it there in the store. The only other problem with my bike currently is my front breaks squeak horribly – the Denver Spokes store did a slight adjustment and ever since they’ve been really squeaky. I may see if they can take another look and tweak it better – otherwise, I’ll probably go insane with the squeaking!

Not sure what I’m doing tomorrow – still hanging around Denver hoping that my warm weather clothes show up. Otherwise, I’ll have to stay another night into Tuesday in hopes they come. I may drive up to Boulder to check that area out – everyone says it’s really nice, so we’ll see.

Monday:
Best day of the trip – right?! Best rest day of the trip? YES. Today was a really nice day – I drove up to Boulder, did a quick drive-through and then decided not to waste time walking around Boulder, but instead to go back into the mountains where it’s scenic and pretty and take photos. I went up by Boulder Falls, but it was closed due to fallen rock, so I continued on to Rocky Mountain National Park (via Estes Park) and took a rode that followed the mountains and went past Long’s Peak. I was tempted to go hike it – as there was very little snow left and one guy said he didn’t even need his crampons to finish the top. But the ranger said it would take 12 hours, so I decided against that idea, since I wasn’t at all prepared for such a hike anyway. It will be nice to try someday though!

I got into the park around 2-3pm after picking up some chicken and more gatorade at Safeway in Estes Park. I drove back to one of my favorite places, Sprague Lake. I was there 10 years ago and remember it still and have a photo of the lake that’s one of my favorites. So I walked around the 1/2 mile path and took some photos and saw a curious chipmunk who crawled up on my shoe and then my leg…he was way too tame! I then drove further into the park and took lots of photos, saw some Elk (about 10-15 feet from me) and ended my drive at the Alpine Visitor Center (where Mopsie got sick 10 years ago with her altitude sickness).

Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park

I met a couple there from Virginia who said they had a family friend whose daughter was also biking across the country (solo) and I gave them my number and said if they talked to this family friend to pass my info on. Maybe I’ll run into their daughter on the ride – but no telling if she’s ahead or behind me or even on the same route now (to San Francisco) or if she’s heading to Oregon.

Me in RMNP just above the Alpine Visitor Center

So I took lots off photos and missed having dinner with Chelsea, as I was too caught up in the scenery and couldn’t get cell reception to call her… so she probably thought I died. I finally got out of the park and back to Estes Park around 8pm or so and then drove on back to Denver for the night. I downloaded photos and conked out about 11:45pm…

Tuesday:
Got up and ran lots of errands – got my bike re-tuned (the brakes were squeaking like crazy), met Chelsea for lunch, got a tune-up on myself (chiropractor), and then picked up my mail that Torey sent with my warm clothes and lots of jelly belly sport beans!!!

I drove back to Westcliffe, arriving around 7pm or so and then returned Cindi’s car and she drove me back to Sue and Lockett’s and then I had to start the massive reorganization and packing of all my stuff. I got everything packed away again and finally hit the sack at 12:45am… to wake up at  7am tomorrow!