The Road Not Taken

 

"Two roads diverged in a yellow desert, And sorry I could not travel both" well I'm not sure I really wanted to travel both.  I think Robert Frost will forgive my liberty with his poem, but this morning when we stopped at these signs to make some adjustments, his poem popped into my head.  On Saturday, Rich and I knew Route 66 was blocked.  I talked with some locals that said we could probably ride around the construction sites.  Rich checked the Adventure Cyclist site and got the same feed back.  But after talking it over, we decided to follow the detour, 12 miles north and then 60 miles on I-40 to Needles because is was less hill climb.  So this morning Claudia took us to Roy's Café and Motel in Amboy and we began our ride. 

We knew that the first 19 miles would be a steady climb of about 2600 feet; didn't sound that tough.  The first five miles went by fairly fast as we worked out the rust from a day off and had the wind behind us, but when we took that turn to the north, the next 12 miles were not just up hill but into the wind.  We averaged around 5 to 6 mph for that 12 miles.  We then finished our climb on the interstate.  It took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to complete the hill; an average speed of 8 mph.  The next 19 miles were all down hill and we complete that distance in an hour.  As Rich likes to say, the fact that it was down hill and we had the wind to our back had nothing to do with it, it was all in the legs.  We had two more long up hills and two more long down hills. 

We had intended to ride another 15 miles, but the wind turned and was in our face and after the long ride we decided to end early. 

The last few days of riding have been tough for me.  There has not been much to see along the route.  Most of our pictures show basically the same thing - desert shrub with mountains in the background.  The roads have been straight and you can see for ever and there are times your mind says, we should be there, but when you look, the place you want to get to doesn't seem to be any closer.  I try to occupy my self by thinking about a variety of topics from family to work to should I retire?  For work I outline in my mind reports I need to write, or, how I will present a particular topic at the next public meeting I will be involved in - there will be at least 2 Zoom meetings during my travels, or have I given enough guidance to the woman writing the housing report for Central Falls. When my mind is too tired, I just concentrate on the road five feet in front of me.  I don't want to look at my Garmin and see how little I have climbed or how slow I am travelling.  And I don't want to look at my destination because it never appears to get any closer.  

But even saying all of this, every day when we get to our hotel, shower and relax, I'm glad that I have experienced the day and have challenged myself.

Here are a few pictures from today.

In Rhode Island you see the word "Providence" everywhere.  This is the first time I have seen Providence in weeks.  My town.

When we took the turn past this sign onto the on-ramp our hill climbing dramatically improved because the wind was finally behind us.  A little over two miles to go to the finish of the first climb. 

The view looking west from the interstate sign.

I found this shrub interesting because it was the largest thing I had seen in miles.  Need to play with this picture to see if I can make it interesting.  This tree was along the side of the road.  The sand in the bottom of the picture is the road shoulder.  When I stopped to take this picture my tire sank 4 inches.  Dangerous shoulders.

Another bush along the road that interested me.  Will see what I can do with this picture.

Hard to see, but in the distance the real desert begins. Only sand, no vegetation.

There are four Chinese lions along Route 66 near Amboy, no one knows who put them there.  It was intriguing to see them and wonder why.