|
Day 1 of the ride took us from Onawa to Lake View. This was exactly the same as day 1 from our 1996 ride. It began as fairly flat terrain but progressed into the hilliest part of the entire week before the end of the day.
All five of us began the ride together this morning. We knew, though, that we would get separated as we tend to ride at different speeds. We planned to meet up at different stops along the way, for rest and refreshment. Jeff tended to ride ahead of everyone else, followed by me, and then Brian, Josh and Ryan tended to ride together. Brian would sometimes ride with me, then go back and find his boys and ride with them.
We found out after the fact that three riders took separate spills at the same location during this first day. Apparently, they got their front wheel stuck in a crack in the road and fell from their bikes. One person ended up dying from his injury. It was very sad. We heard of no other serious injuries for the rest of the ride.
Lake View had a nice entry set up to their town. They made an arch over the road,
Josh was pooped after the first day of riding. As soon as we had set up camp, he laid down on the ground and snoozed. We camped in a park, almost right next to the lake that the town is built around.
Shortly thereafter, we went to the shower. As you can see from the pictures, it was just a plywood walled area set up on the cement, with PVC pipe carrying water from a tank to a number of shower heads. Pressure was low and the temperature was low too.
As soon as we returned from the shower Brian and boys all laid down on the ground and slept for a while.
We got our first taste of how each of the overnight towns was going to be set up here in Lake View. The downtown area had a number of food stands set up, offering all imagineable treats. The food wasn’t cheap. You could spend $2 on a Gatorade, $4 on a sandwich or taco, $6-$8 for a platter type meal, etc.
|
