Day 35

I slept real well last night, almost didn’t wake up at all. When the alarm went off Jerry headed for the shower and I stretched in bed for a minute. I showered and thought about about washing my clothes but worried about rain. 

We left the room hoping the cafe attached to the gas station back on Route 1 had breakfast. In the lobby we saw a older gentleman with a touring bike. He turned to see us and was very excited. He spoke little to no English but was vey excited to hear Jerry’s French. They chatted with hand signs, phone maps and broken French. He told us about his trip from LA to Montreal. He mildly bragged about the tail wind helping him hit 200 KM yesterday, more then 120 miles!! It’s brag worthy. We said our good byes, took a photo and hit the road. 

Route 1 was 5 miles up the road. But this road was some magical wind block. Last night as soon as we made the turn all the wind stopped. So I wasn’t that worried about these first 5. I was also in a much better state of mind. 

When we got to the gas station the cafe did not look promising. As we got closer we could see a hand written sign ‘Lease Cafe’. Few two word combinations hurt as much. We walked into the gas station hoping they would know of another option. The gas station guy said there was a place to eat one hour to the west, or one hour to the east. We asked, one hour by car? Yes. But we have breakfast items for sale, right over there, and you can eat them in the cafe. So we bought a muffin and a half to split, coffee and some juice, as we walked toward the cafe the guy told me the hole story… A woman leased the restaurant with her boyfriend, but they fought too much. Then last week he left, it was too much for her so she left 3 days ago. Do you know any one who wants to lease the cafe? I chuckled and joined Jerry inside the cafe. While we ate our breakfast one after another lots of people came through the cafe to use the restroom. The first few, what ever, but one or two were… uh, loud about it. I started to think about how there must always be people coming but how many just walk through the space where other people are trying to eat. I’m not sure this was an ideal situation. 

After breakfast we headed to out knowing that we’ve already knocked out 5 miles. Yet another good feeling that today would be a better day. 

As we headed down the road we talked about how much better today is then yesterday was. There was some wind, some clouds, but it all felt much better. Then the enemy of the wind came. It was a few drops at first. So light we really weren’t sure anything was really even happening. Soon, it poured. And just like that, it ended. We had enough lead time to put on our jackets but it was so quick my socks were only wet and not filling my shoe with water. 

The road had some bumps, not like other days but enough that I could see sometime in the recent past my GoPro mount has clearly been damaged. I feared the mount breaking and decided to take the camera down till I can repair the mount. More zen and maintenance… or being broke and handy, you know what ever better describes where you’re at. I just wish I could make a quick repair right now to keep making photos today. But I’d rather get going while I know we can and loose maybe a photo or two instead of making a repair and finding a wind storm later in the day. 

We rode on a for a bit longer, and we heard the screech of a hawk. It sounded close, and it continued. I looked up to see it was keeping pace with us, about 20 feet over our heads. It swooped down toward us. At first I thought it was stalking something in the grass just off the road, and we just so happened to get in the way. We stopped for a second. It came around and we soon saw it was making a second pass. We said, we should go. It screeched and dove at us again. We are under attack! We rode trying to keep in our lane while not hitting each other, while looking up, back, left and right, hearing this angry bird. It screeched and dove again, this time so close to my head I heard the wind passing through it’s feathers. We continued riding questioning if this was happening. I turned back to see if this bird was still coming for us. When I looked back I saw the hawk maybe 5 feet behind my head, with it’s gaze zeroed in on me! I ducked my head hoping to protect the back of my neck if it grabbed hold of my helmet. A moment later I heard it to the right. We looked to see it had gained some altitude and was to our right. Was it going to leave us alone now? It made it’s was to a tree branch a few yards from the road. My heart was beating fast. I don’t know if it was territory, or the helmet, or rain jacket colors but that hawk did not like me, and it showed. We rode for a while, still looking for attack from above. 

The sun got warmer and we eventually took off our jackets. I questioned if this was going to keep me safer from the birds or leave my skin more open to attack if another come after me. 

We saw a small quick guy, I’m not sure if was a prairie dog or a ferret but that kind of shape and size. It was cool to see a new animal really in it’s natural habitat, not the fenced in area made to be like their natural habitat. And then shorty after a fox, running across the prairie. You might see some of this stuff from the car, but you could easily miss it too… And I doubt you’d be attacked by a hawk in your car. 

The rain came again. And again with enough lead time to gear up. Yesterday was so painful and annoying and today we’re gearing up for rain a second time, and yet no real problems. Again the rain passed by fairly quick, with no real hardship. What a difference a day makes.

We rode a bit further and saw the machine that puts the round hay bails on the truck! There was a small flat bed behind a tractor. On the side of the flat bed was an arm that stuck out the side and bent 90 degrees toward the front. The tractor pulled alongside a round hay bail till the arm wrapped around the outside of the round hay bail. The arm lifted up, and the hay rolled up the side of the flat bed till it plopped on. It was so simple. I mean the simplest solution is usually best, but this is surprisingly simple… it almost looked like something he rigged up himself, except it was clearly a store bought piece of farm equipment. 

Down the road the rain was gone, the hay machines were working well behind us. We talked about taking off our jackets again. Suddenly we heard a familiar screech. We searched the skies and saw a hawk. We questioned if theres anyway it could be the same hawk. It came closer. We stopped. I think it was taken aback that we stood our ground. The hawk made a few loops looking, screeching and watching us. We went back and forth to leave, or hold our ground, while it circled. I looked as if it questioned if it dove on us would we flee. I really felt like we were being sized up by a bird! We waited long enough that we weren’t running from fear, but we also didn’t want to stand there all day. Once we knew were we stood, us and the bird, then we proceeded. 

The road quickly lead us into town. We were going to go to the far side of town, less miles tomorrow and it was right near the Boston Pizza… quickly becoming a favorite, for those once in a blue moons of having pizza. However, I saw the name of our next town on a street sign. We stopped to look at the map. I saw that road was where we wanted to go tomorrow, and there was a hotel right here, just out of view. We road ahead to find the hotel. When we pulled in we saw a wine store across the street. Cheap room, hot breakfast, wine store across the street and Boston Pizza delivered! Everything feels like its working out. 

Week 4

Total Distance      : 2398.7

Average Speed     : 11.1 MPH

Maximum Speed  : 28.6 MPH 

Elevation Gain      : 74,938  Feet

Max Elevation      : 2,736 Feet

( All stats were obtained using Map My Ride) 

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MikeDiazTheFirst

Mike was born in Queen, New York to a blue collar family. An avid self educator, artist, and traveler he’s traveled around the globe three times while immersing himself in the culture of 48 different countries and counting.  Read about his journeys and musings here.

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