After 3 hours rest including 2 hours sleep on the Shell Service Station forecourt, we headed off from Mexican Hat at first light. Mexican hat is in a dry dusty river valley, which is on one hand ugly and barren, and on the other hand quite beautiful although we wouldn’t want to live there. After about 3 miles we found how the town got its name, with a rock formation of balancing rocks in the shape of a Mexican Hat!
The sunrise was spectacular as we passed alongside the Valley of the Gods, which was truly beautiful with elements of Monument Valley and elements of the Grand Canyon. Mickey was moving well in the cool morning air as we moved quickly to Bluff, which seems straight out of the movie “Cars”. The road then roughened with a tough 5-10mile section of gravel road making Mickey work very hard.
The team in the support car used some of the time waiting ahead of Mickey for an impromptu calisthenics session lead by Celine, causing the occasional passing vehicle to stop and ask “What ARE you doing??” – 4 people in yellow shirts doing roadside exercises on a back road in the middle of nowhere. At least no-one pulled a gun on us!
The RV team used clever navigational skills to take a “long-cut”, finding a place to shower and clean up. Stan felt great negotiating a $28 deal for showers for 4 people at a local motel, although the maintenance man joined them to take the shifting spanner off the shower tap. The boys were new men. Stan was no longer Stain, Roger was no longer the Artful Dodger, and Rusty was no longer Crusty!
Mickey pedalled on through gradually bigger rolling hills until we caught our first glimpse of the big snow capped mountains in Colorado as we entered Cortez. The first two stores in Cortez were a pawn shop which also sold beer and liquor, on the left hand side of the road , whilst there was a gun shop and gun range on the right hand side of the road. Probably best to steer clear on a Friday night!
The mountain backdrop was lovely and Mickey downed hamburgers and chips to celebrate a hard mornings ride. He impressed a European rider whom commented at a stop about Mickey’s speed on the hills – “zat Mickey, he is very good on ze hills! Celine, Greg, Gary and Dave then beat Stans’s $28 deal paying only $10 at a pretty good motel.
We pushed on to Durango the first cut-off point for the race. Mickey made it with a number of hours to spare, then pushed onto Pedrosa Springs, a real mountain town. Mickey arrived around 10pm, and decided to call it quits for the day rather than tackling the 10,000ft climb which started just out of town. Although it was quite cold, Mickey had an ice-bath in our Wal-Mart blow up pool. Roger dangled his feet to keep Mickey company and also to be on hand to supply him with a big hug and lots of bodyheat to keep Mickey warm – it makes for interesting photo’s. We celebrated Mickey making the Durango cut-off time with fish and chips!
Celine and Dave did a great job to create a sense of order in the RV, and actually turn it into a place that felt like home. We also had a Truth session, where the MickRooCrew (without Mickey) shared a few home truths about our processes and each other to improve our performance. Both events have been pivotal in improving our teamwork, our changeovers and dynamics.
Given it was cold we went to bed early for an early start. Greg got a promotion from sleeping under the table at Oceanside, to sleeping on the table in the RV. We were all very cosy and Rusty and Gary showed their toughness by opting to sleep under the stars, under 500 layers of clothing – perhaps that was to keep the bears at bay. Roger also showed he’s trendy by demonstrating planking across the front seats of the RV!
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