Saturday, November 1, 2014

Tour of Idaho T1 2014: The Day Before

We had to leave Wildhorse a day earlier than we normally would have in order to start my Tour on Saturday, August 9th. I do most of my riding solo and had planned on being completely alone for the Tour of Idaho, but there were a few other groups of riders that were also planning an August 9th start. I believe there was supposed to be one other soloist, a group of two and a group of three. I know it's safer to have others nearby in case of an emergency, but I really just wanted to be totally on my own.

We left Wildhorse and arrived at the glamorous Plaza Motel in Preston a few hours later. Preston is the town where they filmed the movie Napoleon Dynamite. If we'd had more time, we might have driven around town to check out some of the shooting locations, but we'd have to do it some other time. I was very busy with unloading the bike, changing the oil, getting my luggage packed, etc.

Wralf counting down the hours until the start...
That evening in Preston, we got hit with a pretty severe thunderstorm. Lots of wind, lightning, thunder and a really good dumping of rain. Our dog, Auzzie, who wasn't allowed to be in our room, was really nervous, so I spent about an hour in the camper with her until the worst part of the storm had passed. Again I thought, "Go ahead and rain all you want... just as long as you stay away during my ride!". Wrong.

I didn't really sleep well that night. My mind was going a million miles an hour all night long thinking about all the details of the next seven days. The route, the challenge points, cables, chargers, snacks, don't forget your wallet (could have been a deal killer), etc etc etc. I guess that's the nature of preparing -- you're never truly done, but you'll finally reach the moment where the preparation is over and it's time to take the test. I was ready.

2 comments:

  1. Uncle Rico: How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.

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  2. And you'd be living in a mansion and soaking it up in a hot tub with your soul mate.

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