Initially, they had planned on staying with us for two nights, but it turned into three when it was discovered that Kerry had come down with Giardiasis from drinking some well water in Texas. Not realizing that Silver Healthcare had an urgent care clinic open on Sundays, I ended up taking Kerry to the clinic on Monday, thus delaying their departure a day. We enjoyed their company, so it all turned out fine. They are retired teachers and are avid hikers/bikers having done lots of traveling by bicycle and feet. Seems like Dee Jay told me that he did his first bicycle tour in the 1970's??? Anyways, he's been cycling for a while.
They both had Waterford touring bicycles, Kerry's was from Rivendell, but it was a Waterford, and Dee Jay's was a Waterford with all the appropriate decals on it. Beautiful bikes. While touring, Kerry's Rivendell/Waterford's rear eyelet to connect the rear rack broke off, so they ended up purchasing a BOB Ibex trailer from Gila Hike & Bike as well as some new tires/tubes for their trek up the Great Divide Mountain Bike route. While staying with us, Dee Jay took the opportunity to do some catch up work on the bikes, particularly cleaning the drive train on both bikes...something that hadn't been done since they left San Diego, CA, in March. Pretty dirty. I had not seen a setup like they had...a 20/30 double chainring. Makes climbing very tolerable.
After Kerry's trip to the Urgent Care Clinic and a prescription for Flagyl, she started feeling better...first, just knowing what it was, and, second, after taking a few courses of the Flagyl. On Tuesday, May 1st, Kerry and Dee Jay headed out up Rt. 15 to try to get to Lake Roberts for the night, then to the Great Divide route the next day. Dee Jay forgot some fruit that he'd purchased the previous day, so I headed out in the car to catch them...they'd gotten to Cherry Creek campground, about 12miles from our house, and decided to call it a day. The next stop where they'll have WiFi is probably Pie Town, NM, maybe not until Grants, NM. Welcome to the rural West. These folks are using TrackMyTour.com and you can go to the site and see their posts from their tour. Pretty interesting site.
A couple of videos and photos from the morning they headed up into the Gila Wilderness...
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| Dee Jay and Kerry |
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| Kerry and Dee Jay |
Trying to figure out a tune to go with this post. Hmmm? How about this one: Maple Sugar
