July 4, 1999
As I sit here on my 25th 4th of July, I realize I thoroughly enjoyed my
day. I woke and and found the Tour de France in full swing on OLN and turned that on (ok, I didn't 'find' that it was on, I knew it was on and turned it on right away) It was an exciting morning on the course with a breakaway lasting all but 2km of the race. Unfortunately, however, one of the "new" favorites left the race in an ugly crash that left him with a broken collarbone. Alejandro Valverde was probably succombing to some of the heat (it was 99 degrees, with a road temperature of 122 out there) and someone in the peloton may have tapped his brakes, sending Valverde into this guys rear wheel, and thus to the pavement, snapping the right collarbone. Oddly enough, he wasn't the first to break his collarbone on this day.
The day continued by watching the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, and the Italy/Germany World Cup game. Lots of good TV on this day for the 4th. I then headed off to Kim's for the pool and some more food. Thanks to Courtney (Kim's roommate) I learned that plain potato chip are for "whitey's" as she put it. She laughed really hard when she realized I actually heard that. But I grilled, so she can't complain. And finally on my drive home, I saw fireworks over the horizon.
So while this 4th was nice and relaxing, there is one 4th that sticks out in my head as the best one ever. It was the summer of 1999. Many of you don't know me, but for those of you that do, and for some background for those that don't, in the summer of 1999, I biked across the country (started in Seattle and ended in New Hampshire. We cheated in that we took a ferry across lake Michigan, but otherwise, it was all bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic)
On this particular 4th of July, we were in Montana on one of our longer days. Well, for me, every day in Montana was a pretty long day. Not as long as the ones in Washington as I was quickly getting in shape, but still. So anyways, that morning we had woken up to some rain, so packing everything up wet wasn't exactly "fun" so to speak. That morning it started off pretty dry, and we stopped for lunch in a small town, and then the skies opened. It rained for the better part of the afternoon. It was raining so hard at one point, that we actually all stopped and hung out under an overhang in hopes that the rain would let up a little. It was getting a little depressing in that waking up wet, biking wet, and going to bed wet isn't exactly... well you get the idea. So once the rain let up some, we hit the road again, and the skies actually started clearing up some, and as the afternoon wore on, there were tons of clouds still around, and partial clearing allowing for the really amazing oranges and reds to reflect off of the clouds to create colors you never thought possible. I remember suspending my down-trodeness, if only for a minute or 2, and taking in the amazing sites I was able to see.
Riding along, I saw ahead of me that the group was beginning to congregate, and when I joined, I found out that someone had stopped us. This person's name was Jane. Jane is a name I can't ever forget because she told us that she had seen us in the supermarket earlier in the day (where we stopped for lunch), saw us as we huddled under the overhang, and then was driving home later in the day and recognized us on the road. A cyclist herself, she offered her house as a place for us to stay for the night. This was awesome as it was. She then told us that we would have an opportunity to sleep inside. Amazing. She then she would cook dinner and breakfast for us, and that if we wanted, we could all go with her to a barbeque, have some beers, and watch the fireworks with her friends. Words couldn't possibly describe the way we felt that night.
For someone to offer their house and food to us, is something I won't ever forget. It's people like that who leave a lasting impression on people's lives. Jane could have kept driving when she saw us coming down the road with the sun finally peaking through. Jane could have stopped us and said "good luck." But she didn't. She is one of the more memorable people that we met across the country, and I won't ever forget her. (Oh, we didn't make it to her bbq, beer and fireworks with her friends. We were biking across the country after all).
It's amazing to my how I can have such a vivid memory of this day which was now 7 years ago. But somehow, I don't think I will ever forget that. Jane is a person I won't ever forget.
And as the complete opposite, my worst 4th of July was the year before on my bike trip from Seattle to San Fransisco. Let's just say primitive campgrounds, rain, and ramen. Not a good combination. And that's all I feel like saying about that.
Here's to some great 4th's in the future!
still waiting,
-wait
day. I woke and and found the Tour de France in full swing on OLN and turned that on (ok, I didn't 'find' that it was on, I knew it was on and turned it on right away) It was an exciting morning on the course with a breakaway lasting all but 2km of the race. Unfortunately, however, one of the "new" favorites left the race in an ugly crash that left him with a broken collarbone. Alejandro Valverde was probably succombing to some of the heat (it was 99 degrees, with a road temperature of 122 out there) and someone in the peloton may have tapped his brakes, sending Valverde into this guys rear wheel, and thus to the pavement, snapping the right collarbone. Oddly enough, he wasn't the first to break his collarbone on this day.The day continued by watching the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, and the Italy/Germany World Cup game. Lots of good TV on this day for the 4th. I then headed off to Kim's for the pool and some more food. Thanks to Courtney (Kim's roommate) I learned that plain potato chip are for "whitey's" as she put it. She laughed really hard when she realized I actually heard that. But I grilled, so she can't complain. And finally on my drive home, I saw fireworks over the horizon.
So while this 4th was nice and relaxing, there is one 4th that sticks out in my head as the best one ever. It was the summer of 1999. Many of you don't know me, but for those of you that do, and for some background for those that don't, in the summer of 1999, I biked across the country (started in Seattle and ended in New Hampshire. We cheated in that we took a ferry across lake Michigan, but otherwise, it was all bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic)
On this particular 4th of July, we were in Montana on one of our longer days. Well, for me, every day in Montana was a pretty long day. Not as long as the ones in Washington as I was quickly getting in shape, but still. So anyways, that morning we had woken up to some rain, so packing everything up wet wasn't exactly "fun" so to speak. That morning it started off pretty dry, and we stopped for lunch in a small town, and then the skies opened. It rained for the better part of the afternoon. It was raining so hard at one point, that we actually all stopped and hung out under an overhang in hopes that the rain would let up a little. It was getting a little depressing in that waking up wet, biking wet, and going to bed wet isn't exactly... well you get the idea. So once the rain let up some, we hit the road again, and the skies actually started clearing up some, and as the afternoon wore on, there were tons of clouds still around, and partial clearing allowing for the really amazing oranges and reds to reflect off of the clouds to create colors you never thought possible. I remember suspending my down-trodeness, if only for a minute or 2, and taking in the amazing sites I was able to see.
Riding along, I saw ahead of me that the group was beginning to congregate, and when I joined, I found out that someone had stopped us. This person's name was Jane. Jane is a name I can't ever forget because she told us that she had seen us in the supermarket earlier in the day (where we stopped for lunch), saw us as we huddled under the overhang, and then was driving home later in the day and recognized us on the road. A cyclist herself, she offered her house as a place for us to stay for the night. This was awesome as it was. She then told us that we would have an opportunity to sleep inside. Amazing. She then she would cook dinner and breakfast for us, and that if we wanted, we could all go with her to a barbeque, have some beers, and watch the fireworks with her friends. Words couldn't possibly describe the way we felt that night.
For someone to offer their house and food to us, is something I won't ever forget. It's people like that who leave a lasting impression on people's lives. Jane could have kept driving when she saw us coming down the road with the sun finally peaking through. Jane could have stopped us and said "good luck." But she didn't. She is one of the more memorable people that we met across the country, and I won't ever forget her. (Oh, we didn't make it to her bbq, beer and fireworks with her friends. We were biking across the country after all).
It's amazing to my how I can have such a vivid memory of this day which was now 7 years ago. But somehow, I don't think I will ever forget that. Jane is a person I won't ever forget.
And as the complete opposite, my worst 4th of July was the year before on my bike trip from Seattle to San Fransisco. Let's just say primitive campgrounds, rain, and ramen. Not a good combination. And that's all I feel like saying about that.
Here's to some great 4th's in the future!
still waiting,
-wait
mindless ramblings by wait at
11:05 PM
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