Share the Road - On the road - Day #3

Day 3 Glamis, CA to Quartzite, AZ Tuesday, June 28 The ride today was very smooth. Got up early - 4 AM and got on the road at 5:30. I would have liked to have gotten going more like 5 -- the light was good enough by then -- but as this was a team get-out-the-door-all-as-one type of deal, I let it flow. I think tomorrow I’ll let the guys take off -- no, I take that back...I’ll just shoot them on the 3-chipper (that's my Sony TRV-900 - the main camera I'm using to document this trip) taking off, then I’ll get the show on the road myself. 5:30 AM start -- 11:45 AM finish. I finished well ahead of the team (with a serious commitment on my part to stay out of the heat by pacing and taking very brief pit stops in the RV). I ended the ride up at a Subway where I had lunch while waiting for Chris to catch up to me. It’s a great feeling - this ride today; it restored confidence in my body and mind and the ability to complete this trip (though I'm really forcing myself to be one day at a time right now -- looking too far ahead at the idea of actually crossing the entire country via bike might just stop my heart). There was a serious question in my mind about my ability because of the amount of pain I was in yesterday -- my knee was part of it. I'm pretty sure now much of the overall discomfort was about the heat. It was truly a stressful ride. It’s work either way -- don’t kid yourself. I’m sweating, I’m grinding, I’m logging miles. I feel burning in my feet in a major way. I’ve got some rashes in my groin area -- I’m using the “butt butter” and I assume that’s helping (though I’m not going to test what it feels like not to have it). My feet are probably the worst right now. My knee is the other question. I just don’t know what is the deal with it. Today it was almost a non-factor in terms of pain. There was a little bit of throbbing in the 42nd mile, but it subsided. I think rest is a key there and I’m getting more of that today and plan on getting a good night’s sleep tonight. I may pitch the tent and go out there (could be hot...). We’ll see. My eyes are really red -- I think it's mostly because of the heat and wind (even with riding glasses). That’s kind of funky to look at. I enjoy looking at the pictures I’ve take so far. The video is good in pieces. I had a great rack focus shot today on Gary and Geoff (followed by the curse out -- Gary blew up at Chris and I for checking in on them to make sure they had water and what they needed for the last couple of miles of their ride versus having the camp ready for them when they arrived). The heat does things. As does stress. I'm okay with it as I didn't take it personally. I was interested in what it did to a piece of my "little boy" psyche. He was scared. He felt like "daddy" (projecting Gary as daddy because he's the leader/authority figure on this trip) was mad. We did our best to make sure the camp site was ready when they finally did show up. I think we did well. The funny thing is -- it’s not like I didn’t do the ride, too. It’s not my fault I was able to complete the ride 1.5 hours earlier. Anywho -- I’m here now and it’s all good. Being in this RV park is a gentle reminder of humanity -- not because of the place, but rather, because there’s a lot of nothing to do right now (nice). This free time and space is allowing my head to cool. I’m feeling some flow. It’s nice just to be sitting here typing. It would be good to get internet service, but that may not happen (through my computer, anyway). We’ll see. I leave a lot of things open to faith. That’s good, to me, because I sure don't know what's going to happen next and I'm not going to try to pretend to control it. Intake: Breakfast: Cereal, banana, 3 multi vitamins, 1 cq2, 2 mushroom (anti-inflamatory) 6 Ultimas 1 Gu 1 Apple 1 Clif 1 Veggie sandwich (Subway) 1 Recovery drink 1 Bowl Veggie Chili Lots of water Tuesday