FairBanks – Day 9

07.09.12 Day 9
Fairbanks
11.85 miles, 511.65 trip miles
12.2 avg mph, 19.9 max
58:05 ride time
All pavement
Lots of sun and wind. 70’s
Days of rain: 4

We didn’t get up until 10 am today. The plan was to shop, go to the library, the bike shop, and get pizza for lunch, then dinner and ride 30 miles towards Denali. We go up, organized gear and finally went to breakfast. As we were about to leave the diner Jim from Wiseman who put us up in his yard walks in the door. He sat and ate breakfast with us and soon a local friend of his who looked liked Santa Claus joined us for his lunch. It was a pleasure seeing Jim again. We walked back to the hotel and I wrote post cards and packed my gear. Mike made phone calls and also packed. At 2 pm we headed to the library leaving our gear at the front desk. Note: never ride around with an empty BOB trailer. Their loud and bounce all over the place. I only had 25 minutes at the library and it was only enough to upload 79 pictures to my Dropbox account. (I’m uploading the full 299 pictures now but I’ll get to that soon). Once outside I found Mike once again cleaning his bike, Earl as it’s been named. We made our way to the bike shop where I got a brush, padded gloves, spare bike pump and some Gu’s. Mike got some rags and degreaser to clean our drive trains. We attempted to get pizza but it was closed. At the suggestion of another person who wanted pizza we got directions to another Italian place. It turned out to be super expensive so we continue on towards the hotel as it was getting late. The plan was to just find a place along the way. We found a Mexican place and as we walked in the door we met Dave and Jill. They are both professors who come up from Indiana for the summer to teach. We happen to sit right next to them inside and over conversation they invited us to stay with them. It was on the way out of town and they insisted. We accepted but first we had to get out gear and food shop. We did this and then rode 8 or so miles to their place. Their place, (actually it’s another professor who teaches here in Fairbanks who leaves for the summer) is right on the Chena River. It’s a super cool house. We talked about birds, plants, trees, bugs and more as they’re both teach on these and more. They’re incredibly cool people and so friendly. They are making us breakfast and Dave is going to take us bird watching tomorrow to show me so new birds I’ve never seen. There was talk about fattening us up with a lasagna dinner and us staying tomorrow night as well. We’ll have to see about that. My hip started to hurt on the way over here so staying tomorrow and not riding might be a good idea. Despite my pain the time out here is great. I’m so relaxed and mellow. Tonight Dave and Jill thought I was the mellow one of the two of us. I’m not sweating the small stuff at all. The only worry I have is that my hip or shoulder pain will turn for the worse. This makes me also think we’re not covering enough ground but Mike assures me I’m not slowing him down or holding him back. To give you an example of how little I have to think about and focus on, I forgot my email password which I’ve had for the past year in the first eight days of trip! I swear I loose my mind on these trips. It’s great not having my phone attached to my hip, though I’m back to civilization now so that will change. ; Glove count: 19 Tie down count: 20 Scatman