Tuesday, May 22, 2007



The Flying Surly:




It was a wonderful day for flying. Bright blue sky, perfect cycling temperatures of around 65f this morning and low 70's this afternoon. We pulled out of Holbrook AZ this morning and cruised the 89 miles down to Gallup NM at an average speed of 20.7 mph. making the ride in 4:17 ride time. Yes the "Surly Long Haul Trucker" had wings today. Cruising down the interstate was easy and there were lots of times where I would look down and note that I was going over 30 mph. In fairness I guess that I should give the wind some credit as we did have a decent tail wind most of the day.




About 25 minutes into the ride we are out on the I-40 and I got hit in the head with a rock from a semi. I didn't even see it coming. It was probably pretty small as it went though one of the vents in my helmet and hit me in the forehead. It hurt like heck and broke the skin but it didn't bleed much. The spot is a little tender but I'll survive.




At about the 60 mile mark Frank had stopped to fix a flat. So Jim and I stopped to give support. While we watched Jim is looking down at his tire and noticed that there was a little wire sticking out so he got his tweezers out and grabbed the little wire and pulled it out. It was at least .75 long and had worked its way through his tire but had not punctured the tube. It was probably only a mater of a mile or two and Jim would have been fixing a flat. I was lucky today with no flats but I know there were quite a few.


Today's picture is of a school bus which has been stuck up on this butte. I think that it is some sort of novelty which is suppose to draw people off the interstate to see this and go to the tourist trap below. Along this stretch of highway there is a lot of nothing. In fact there is miles of it (good thing they were going by fast).



Thanks for visiting my blog and thank you for all your great comments.



Terry

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Terry, I guess it's nice to have a couple of good cruising days to offset the uphill-and-against-the-wind days! Interesting(?) to note how exposed cyclists are to debris on the road and falling from passing vehicles. I really enjoy checking your blog every morning. Thanks.

chuck2000 said...

Hi Terry,
Congratulations on even attempting a ride like this!!!
Its beyond my comprehension so I'll just say, always keep your tires well inflated and don't hit any pot holes along the way.
Best Regards,
Charlie L.

Anonymous said...

Hi Terry, although i thourouly enjoy your recent pic's, I felt the first ones (bikini vollyball championship) had more merit!! Please head back to LA!! Cheers, Julian

Anonymous said...

Terry, keep it up, ambitious trip and I'm checking up every day or two. keep the eriting coming. enjoyed the jackrabbit pic
robert c