we thought we left the tornados in kansas, turns out we were wrong. the colorado police told us, hours after crossing the state line. we sought shelter in Yang’s gift shop off route 50 on our way to Las Animas. tofu, sausage, and chicken wings were on the menu for that unexpected rest stop.

with full stomachs, we returned to the road to outrun the storm. lucky for us, Las Animas welcomed us with open arms. to date, i’d have to say Las Animas and Witchita are my two favorite cities. david and sharon and their friends were so nice and i felt immediately comfortable. after a nice shower, a delicious meal, and some good conversation, i enjoyed my most restful night’s sleep of the trip.

yesterday we started into the mountains, i zambonied with andy. if i haven’t explained it yet, we rotate the “zamboni” position. Zambonis sweep the group, we are the last riders in the group. if someone flats, we help. if someone’s having a bad day, we power positive them to our destination, or make the call as to whether or not they have to sag. we climbed 2000 ft yesterday so we weren’t alone at the back.

we found ourselves in rush hour traffic in rainy 50 degree weather. the group decided to call it a day and head to rei for warmth and discounts. 2 hours later, meg, carly, lorig, and i found ourselves still at rei “watching the bikes”. lucky for us, martina, tess, and tess’s dad arrived to whisk us away to Boca de Bepo. after loading the bikes, we enjoyed a glorious meal, boys free, except for the lovely company of Mr. Evans…although we did bring leftovers home for andy.

today we road almost entirely downhill to denver. although it was cold, the ride was so enjoyable, and it was only 44 miles. i spent most of the day overhauling my bike…the pink tires are on! since learning andy’s plans to leave us at jasper, i’ve become his mechanic understudy.

i’m just hearing plans for monday’s ride to estes park…quite a climb. makes me tired just thinking about it. i’m feeling great, but worried about the mountains.

we’ve got a mail drop coming up…my last two have been empty. notes of encouragement would be greatly appreciated, we are nearing bear country, don’t you know?

no time to type, but i wanted to let anyone who’s been trying to call me know that i don’t have service right now, nor have i for the last few days. i’m alive and well and staying with great hosts in las animas. today marks two tornado sirens i’ve ridden in. i’ll call you in pueblo. love, lib

Hey all,

I’ve almost made it through Kansas and let me tell you, the wind is not kind. I was the ride leader today and so drove the 12 passenger van with trailer proving support for my team. Lucky for me cause we passed many meat packing plants…the odor still crept through my closed windows. We’re in Syracuse, KS tonight and lucky to be inside cause there’s quite a storm brewing. I’m finally able to post some pics and so I’ll write a little ditty for each. I wish I could tell you all everything that I’ve experienced, but there’s so much to tell and my typing fingers are out of practice. The ditties will follow a chronological order…

This picture is sunrise in Italy, TX. We stayed at the community center and showered with the hose at the fire station behind us.

We stopped for some shade in front of the tv station in Ardmore, OK, waiting for our police escort to take us through town to the YMCA. Shade is a precious commodity. Soon after I took this picture, I was talked into climbing the tree that shaded us…

Brett, Meg, Carly, Laura, and I rode together in the rain this day. On an 80 mile ride in warm weather, rain gear offers little protection…our feet were pruned and we had a lot of flats. Carly wore the first mustache by accident, wheels and tires are dirty and changing them will leave one undoubtedly smudged. Brett and Meg improved on the first mustache during an extended rest stop.

We were in OK City when Carly decided to shave her head. I’ve realized that I use this as a time marker for the trip. She had been talking about it for some time and both the girls and guys on the team offered encouragement while leaving her the option to back out. She followed through and has been the envy of the rest of the girls since. Carly cut the first lock and each girl continued. Before we let Bredt use the clippers, we gave her a mullet and rat-tail, I laughed so hard that night. I laugh so hard every night…and day, Paul and I are working on “yuking our way to better abs.” We’re all agreed that Carly’s haircut suits her, I’m waiting for the next girl to break…

Martina and Laura froliced in the wheat fields our first day in Kansas. Golden fields for miles, they are so beautiful. Kansas is truly big sky country…and tornado alley. We’ve had several run-ins with the weather while in Kansas. Through them all, I’ve never been scared, it’s been so surreal.

The Snyders (members of the Witchita OZ cycling team) were our fantastic hosts for our two days in Witchita. They reserved space for us to camp out at Cheney lake, about 25 miles from their home. We headed out there after swimming, canoeing, eating, merriment, and bike maintenance lessons.

The next day was our day off, I spent it with Carly, Meg, and Lorig, running personal and team errands. That night the tornado sirens went off in East Witchita, where we were making a bagel pick-up at Panera. When we reached Cheney lake that evening, our teammates hadn’t experienced any of the same weather we had. After showering, Carly convinced me to go night sailing on a catamaran with a real Cheney Pirate.

We grabbed Mike and the three of us set off with Cap’n Mark on the catamaran entitled “Arrrrrrrr”. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was scared. It was dark on the lake, the only light coming from the lightening which was said to be hundreds of miles away, and the wind was strong (as I was to learn it always is in Kansas). I held the jib line with all of my strength, wishing I had my cycling gloves on. We headed swiftly back to shore when the lightening seemed to be quickly approaching. I was in bed by 11:30pm that night.

Around 2am I woke up to fierce winds tearing at my tent and frequent flashes of lightening. Tess was still sleeping, but I began to wonder if I should be worried. Just then Brett came in and told me that we were moving to the boat house. I put on my headlamp, gathered up my belongings quickly, and ran to the boat house. Soon 20 headlamps were battling the winds (which we later learned gusted to 60 mph) and breaking camp in the middle of the night. Within 15 miutes we were all safely inside the boat house, watching the TV for weather updates.

Needless to say, the next day was a bit rough as we didn’t sleep all that well. 10 riders met the Snyders (members of the Witchita OZ cycling team) and Roger, another OZ member at their home in Witchita before cycling out to Cheney lake. The Snyders had cleaned and lubed our chains, buffed our frames, and were pumping our tires when we arrived. The weather was still touchy at Cheney, but okay in Witchita. Meg (one of the ride leaders for the day) asked me to make the call as to whether it was safe for us to ride. We decided to ride… 10 miles later a storm hit us with winds so strong, they threatened to run me and my bike into a ditch. We sought shelter at a farm house and they kindly let us put our bikes in the chicken coop while they put on a pot of coffee for us until the storm died down.

The storm died down and the rest of the day was beautiful. We met the rest of the team at Cheney lake and together we battled the cross-winds on the way to Pratt.

Yesterday we scored some free ice cream from the Schwan man…did I mention it’s great to ride with the girls. Carly, Tess, and Meg worked some magic. We usually have at least one guy that tags along in our group…besides our speed, free treats are nice incentive.

Today the team rode a century, they’re hardly winded at the last rest stop. This is the group I usually ride with.

Gotta jet, I’ve been an Internet hog, Mountain Time bought me an extra hour tonight. More from Colorado…

Hey all, I found wireless in Stillwater, OK, and so I’m finally on my laptop again after a 9 day break, it feels so good.

The day we left we added organization to an otherwise chaotic trip, this meant that three people are designated each day as ride leaders. My day is Tuesday and so yesterday I, as well as two teammates, were in charge of mapping the route from Norman to OK City, making sure the van and trailer were packed, parking at turns so people knew where to go, contacting hosts and food donators… Needless to say, yesterday was BUSY. It is really hard to mobilize 20 people and even harder to catch them in city traffic…I arrived at our destination with two riders and spent the next 20 minutes locating the rest, I don’t know what we’re gonna do without mobile phone service in the Yukon. We began the day with a wonderful meal and karaoke, after riding and some chaos (making the impossible, possible) we spent the afternoon at the Oklahoma Capitol Building – taking pictures sitting in the senators’ and justices’ seats (we met Senator Johnny Crutchfield in Ardmore, where I was also on the news), and we finished the day off by shaving Carly’s head. All the girls looked on in awe and admiration as I think we all have dreamed of chopping our mops off, I even talked to my sister tonight who admitted that she had considered it before, but would never do it. Big Paul Williams, my match in scathing retorts, feels that we should now call the group Texas 4000 for women’s liberation.

The girls have been so great on this trip, I’m glad there are 8. We ride in packs and are starting to give some of the stronger boys a run for their money. Two days ago, on the ride into Norman, Carly, Meg, Laura, and I averaged almost 20 miles an hour for the last leg of the ride, 17 for the day. We really look out for each other and know it’s okay to tell the group to slow down 1 or 2 mph.

It rained all day today…rooster tails of water arched back from the wheels ahead of you, I can still feel grit from the road in my teeth, my group added 15 miles to our trip by “hammering” ahead of the rest of the team…in the wrong direction, 20 mph crosswinds and hill after hill, all the while Carly gloated about her care-free do.

Tomorrow we ride 80 miles, Friday only 44, and then Saturday is our first day off. I wish I could share my excitement, but words just aren’t enough. I won’t have to worry about hydrating Friday night for the Saturday ride and I won’t have to wake up early. No hurrying, just relaxing, ahhh.

Our hosts have been so accomodating and generous, we’ve been so lucky. Yesterday we gave some food to a man and his son outside the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial. We’ve also been giving some awareness talks and we visited cancer patients in a hospital in Ardmore. I like talking to random people throughout the day about what we’re doing. A great guy at Al’s Bicycles in Norman helped me with directions and he had battled with skin cancer. Yesterday while I was gassing up the van (picture me driving a 12 passenger van with a trailer attached to it) the man who was filling up in front of me told me that he lost his wife last year to brain cancer right before calling me out on my Chicago accent.

I’m having so much fun, I wish I could tell you everything that happens, but the truth is, I can barely remember what city we left this morning. And, to be honest, I’m enjoying my break from technology.

It’s only day 6, but it feels like we’ve been on the road forever. I got my first private shower (the rest were with my clothes on with a water hose or some other watering implement) and good night’s rest last night which made the hills into Oklahoma so much better. My butt still doesn’t hurt, but my quads sure do. I rode 60 miles yesterday and sagged the rest, I’m a little embarrassed to admit…but my mind and body needed a rest.

All of our hosts have been so kind and the food that I was once worried about is plentiful. So much so, in fact, that we’ve all put on some weight despite the 400+ miles we’ve ridden so far. Just had a yoga class at the YMCA in Ardmore, so I feel relaxed and stretched out, ready for the 80 miles ahead of me tomorrow. My spirits are still high though the 5:30 wake up is leaving me constantly in search of nap time. Paul fell again today racing for the Oklahoma border…his chain fell off the top chain ring. But, he’s ready to ride tomorrow!

Love and miss you all.