A Flat, A Wreck, Tar Stains, and Heat Exhaustion

8/26/2006: Day 7, 39.7 miles; Total 236.7 Miles

We left The Dalles too late at about 9 AM after clearing out the Motel 6 room of just about everything we had in the VAN. I had two bowls of oatmeal and a bowl of cold cereal. Then the TB wanted eggs; but they had frozen in the refrigerator he turned up to the highest setting to assure nothing spoiled. Nothing did, but the eggs were cracked! He threw his hands up in the air, and said now we have to throw a whole dozen away. But we decided we could hard-boil the whole dozen like Earl Shaffer used to do on the Appalachian Trail. I then had two slices of toast and two hard-boiled eggs. So I surely had adequate caloric intake, but I do hate hard-boiled eggs. I hope he can eat the other 10.

He had to drive me, as my stopping point yesterday was 10 miles north of town. That’s one reason I left so late to assure we had some motel time and he didn’t want to double back. He was not happy that I left so late, but I do have trouble getting going in the mornings and I know I can’t pedal all day anyway.

Not far into the ride I saw the dead buck shown in the photo in the bush along the road. About 10 miles later I had a front flat tire. It took me 32 minutes (not bad for me) to change the flat. I sat on the edge of the guardrail and inflated the tube as I had been taught 4 days previous at the bike shop. Inspection of the inside of the tire revealed that a simple home staple (again) had sent both prongs through the tire and into the tube. Now, just how could that happen twice? About 15 miles later I spotted TB half mile ahead waiting at an exit. Just then something moved beside me over the guardrail and I saw 5 Big Horn Sheep, also pictured. I then stopped with TB and had a cold drink, as it seemed to be getting hot and my cycle computer read 102 degrees and in the Gorge there was no shade. As I got off the bike my butt stuck to the seat and we found I had tar over the back of my shorts, apparently from the guardrail. So we used olive oil (now I know why we carry it) to clean the seat and changed to different shorts. I sat for about 10 minutes, as I just didn’t have the energy today. I drank a quart of my sports drink Conquest and a 12 oz Grape Drink.

I pulled out onto the interstate and started again and did well for about a mile when I wondered if I had closed the trunk bag that rides behind me. So I reached back to feel it, pulled to the right off the pavement into soft gravel, and flew over the handlebars onto the blacktop on the I-84 shoulder with the bike spewing out from under me. I was probably only going 5 miles per hour by the time the front tire sunk in, but it was another miraculous event that an old guy like me wasn’t injured. A car from I-84 saw it all and pulled over, but I waved them away. Somehow I blocked the fall with my hands and arms and only lightly scrapped my knees, but no blood.

All of this consumed more energy but I continued on to the 39.7-mile mark at exit 137 where we planned to meet. At the exit notification sign 1 mile from the exit I stopped for 5 minutes for shade behind the sign as there is no shade otherwise. I had planned to go 10 more miles to the next exit, but when I saw there would be a walking uphill we stopped for the day. I had mentioned earlier that chocolate milk sounded great and the TB had bought a quart for me. What a crew boss. I fell into the van and guzzled down the whole quart in no time. He already had us a room and the motel owner said it was 110 degrees! I never knew that eastern Oregon was like a desert, but I know it now. I drank 4 quarts of Conquest, four 12 oz drinks, and a quart of milk today. The book, “Bicycling the TransAm,” says the following about the local area: “If your image…is all green, this day will change your mind as you peddle through the suede-colored, dry…fields.”

Tomorrow I must start early as the hardware clerk said it would be about 60 in the morning, and 100 by noon.