bran: calloway to dunning

day one of the ride. larry and i pulled in late to calloway because we'd gone to andrea and jason's wedding in springfield that afternoon, so we missed all of the opening ceremony stuff which was fine with me. i met up with cara and alex and we hit up the local bar for a red bud light (it was delicious - the perfect blend of tomato juice and beer). we headed back to camp just as it started to rain and shortly after we'd settled into our sleeping bags (in a puddle of water because we'd left the tent open when we went to the bar) sirens sounded and the whole camp was directed to the high school gymnasium. The rumors of hail that sent everyone into the gym turned into rumors of tornados, and we were all stuffed into the locker rooms for about half an hour. turns out the rumors were just rumors and everyone was free to go back to camp. because our tent was full of water, cara and i opted to remain in the gym. i didn't sleep very well.

alex, cara and i left calloway around 8 am after eating breakfast burritos in the school cafeteria. compared to the food we ate the rest of the week, they weren't very good. larry left long before we did, as he would every day of the ride, so i rarely saw him during the trip. we rode 54 miles on day one. it was a good day to ease into riding - no wind and cool weather!

i'm not sure how this happened. later the same day, as i pulled in to the sandhills high school at dunning, i scraped up my other leg because a bolt had come loose in my cleat and i couldn't get the cleat to release from the pedal. i took the shoe off while i was still on the bike, but somehow managed to fall anyway in front of a bunch of people who thought it was very funny. ha ha. all of my scrapes and cuts occured on the first day of the ride. obviously i wasn't very comfortable on my bike yet.


just outside of arnold was a steep climb, and this is the view from the top. aside from the niobrara river valley this was probably the most scenic part of the trip.



the bran ride is ultra organized! vehicles were stationed every 10 miles with water, bananas, apples, oranges, and various other treats (the good stuff ran out after the first few days). we almost always stopped to eat and drink and talk with other riders. we weren't very fast the first day, but as i got used to my bike, i got much faster. even so, were were still the latecomers into camp every day because we spent so much time hanging out at the aid stations and small towns.