Thursday, October 11, 2012

Nightmare

Today was an absolute nightmare. The road that I slept on last night started getting traffic way to early, well before sunrise. I got into town early hoping to be able to take care of everything and head right back out. Unfortunate things didn't work out that way at all.

The library didn't open for several hours so I had to wait on that to start the day. When they did finally open they didn't have wifi. I asked to use a computer there to get online and they made me go through the process to get an actual library card, rather than just use a guest account.

When I finally got online I looked at the town map for a bike shop and a grocery. The closest thing they had for either was a kmart. I did end up checking the kmart for inner tubes, which they did have, just not in the right size. Instead I decided to try out a bit of "slime" which is supposed to clot out leaks in tires.

Next stop was the post office, and three different people told me three different directions to get there, all in different places.

When I finally got ready to leave town I found out that bikes are prohibited on the freeway once you get passed town. Legally this is only allowed if there is a suitable nearby alternative route, so I spent some time riding around looking for that alternative. I didn't find anything so I went back to the library and got back online to get directions. The new route took me a ways out of the way and onto some private roads, etc, so I'm not sure it was any better. Halfway through that route put me back on the freeway, with more "no bicycles" signs. This time I asked some locals, who said to just go for it, and it wasn't a problem to ride the highways.

I rode the highway to the next exit and got off there, again where there was supposed to be an alternate route. This time the back roads involved an extra 1000 ft climb, and then dropping down that distance on an unmarked unlabeled gravel road at probably 15% grade. I had to stop several times to give my hands a break because they were cramping from holding the brakes down. I was also skidding and fishtailing the whole way down, which was exciting. Once that whole descent was finished I was right back on the freeway. Fortunately that was right where I wanted to be, since I could pick up a different north south route from adventure cycling that passed through the area.

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