Today was a whole mish-mash, but in the end, I’m very proud of how I handled the day. The team ended up scattered a bunch of different places, but most of us including me woke up in a hotel in Williams, about 60 miles from the park. We had a team breakfast in an old timey sports bar with a waitress from the 50s and then I got a dip in the hot tub. It was all very pleasant, which made it even harder to then get in the vans and drive back up into the wet park back to our campsite. I had a plan: I strapped on my new windbreaker, loaded up my bike and headed out to re-do the last ten miles I missed yesterday. Of course I had to do 20, to get out and back. It was really a bit scary because it was still raining off and on and this time I was unsupported; nobody was coming to help me. I rode super hard and got it done; the way out was uphill and into the wind, and the riding would have been great except it was still cold and sprinkling. Finishing that, I ate, blogged a bit, then sit in for a nap in the van. But it was so cold I couldn’t nap, and now the rain had come in much more strongly and I feel t stuck in there. Sunset was rapidly approaching, and finally the rain stopped. I made a snap decision that it was safer to head out on my bike out of the park to a teammate’s hotel room 6 miles away. I’ve never ridden so fast in my life because light was dwindling. But I made it, and got to have dinner with him and then bunk out on the floor of a hotel room in Tusayan. This whole trip hasn’t been quite the adventure I thought it would be, and sadly the Grand Canyon was a bit of a dud because of the rain. But I’m still glad to be here, just to overcome the challenges. And I did get to see the canyon, just not very much!
