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CHRIS FIGUREIDA: IDAHO TO SALT LAKE
Chris Figureida
October 26, 2008
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September 27th
It's getting colder in the morning now. Both my rise in elevation and my slow slide into the approaching Fall season are changing the feel of this trip. It takes longer to warm up, maybe 20 miles or more before I feel like I can command some attention from my muscles.
I stopped at a local cafe in some boarded up window town; which was dying of thirst from civilization’s social water. As opened the door I could hear the friendly conversation inside, but the moment I stepped in and came into view, all chatter stopped. And though I've grown accustomed to this sort of response I never know what to expect next. Now I know that in the 70's and 80's, Richard Simmons made some great fashion statements with spandex, but I would have hoped that Lance Armstrong or Maurice Green could have repaired some of that damage. But I'm finding that the news doesn't seam to reach these dried up specks of human habitation.
I could tell that everyone was holding their breath; mouths wide open with half chewed food, forks loaded with eggs and pancakes held hostage in motion just above the plate. So I spoke up and asked where the coffee was, and right on queue the chiming of forks hitting plates and conversation picked up where it left off as if their was some sort of time warp and no one wanted to admit that they had been staring at me for the past 10 seconds.
During the day, I have a lot of time to figure out the problems and questions of our world and surrounding universe. But usually, I talk to myself - pretending I am talking to someone else. Or I play with the GPS and watch it analyze ever inch of my movement in 100 different ways, but lately I've been thinking about food. The worse is when I ride through residential districts on the weekends. In the morning I can smell the bacon and eggs, and by the afternoon everyone has their barbecue's filling up the air with all kinds of delightful and mouthwatering aromas. My fantasy is that a beautiful young girl will come running out from behind one of these garages and down the drive way. Holding out a glass of ice tea as she calls out to me "hey mister bike rider, would you like to eat with us?"
It's very quiet here in southern Idaho. It's a shame that silence is not a common experience. I passed into Utah at the top of a 5338-foot pass, my highest so far this trip. From the pass there was 18 miles of downhill, odd thing to be going downhill for nearly an hour - it gets boring. But at least I could watch the grasshoppers try to jump through my spokes. I figure it's payback for them jumping up and kicking me in the face. As I cruised lower into the valley, a hot and dry wind burned against me. It got so hot hat all I wanted was a Slip-n-Slide or at least a sprinkler to go through.
When I stopped at the cafe this morning, I was only 11 miles into the day. I stopped because I was not sure when I might see the next morsel of civilization. Well, I was 49 miles away from that cafe, and I know that I can only go about 48 miles without a full meal before I fall over. As the miles wore on into the 40's, I started to drink large amounts of water to hopefully trick my stomach and make it think I was eating something. Now don't get me wrong, I carry extra food but that is more of an emergency use only. Standing at the top of the hill over looking the town Snowville, I could see the next cafe - which is great because all the water I was drinking was giving me stomach cramps. Mollie’s Cafe in Snowville Utah, took amazing care of me. In her 70's, Mollie was taking orders and remembered the names of nearly everyone who walked through the door. I had salad, tuna sandwich, french-fries, and a root beer float, plus all the free refills on my sprite. It was so hot outside that they offered to let me plug my computer in next to the air conditioner and this is where I am sitting now. After pitching my tent in the public park behind the restaurant; I came back, and I was treated to my first piece of rhubarb pie.
I rode 63.8 miles in 4 hours, with 824 feet of climbing up to 5316 feet above sea level.
September 28th
It's very rare that I ever deviate from my meticulously planned route. I keep my head down and stick to business as usual. But today I was riding along and for some reason I really wanted to change course and head down this long valley. I figured that it would get me off the Interstate and out of climbing a lot of hills. I could see the valley narrowed to a small notch about 20 miles away and was downhill all the way. On the map, it potentially could lead to the very northern edge of the Great Salt Lake, which I really wanted to see. The risk I was taking was that most of the roads in this area are dirt or turn into dirt after a few miles. I didn't want to be stuck with having to turn around and retrace my steps, wasting a lot of time and energy. But I took the chance.
As I approached the end of the valley, this large complex of grey buildings, and high security fence started to loom in the distance. At first I thought it may be a prison and wondered if I should be riding around this place. But then I realized it was some sort of government facility and began to wonder if the men in black were going to jump out and grab me. After nearly 10 miles of riding around this suspicious area with windowless, 3 story tall, cubed buildings, pyramid shaped mounds with large steel door entrances, and other strange things; I could see what looked like a rocket - it was a rocket.
 A piece of American history–The Golden Spike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK7FS7_YvP8
I finished the afternoon riding with the wind along the north shore of the Great Salt Lake. Amazing flies, sometimes traveling as fast as 23 miles per hour, were able to keep up with me. No matter what I did, I just could not out run them as I came into Brigham City. At the local grocery store, I made friends with the deli girl, who that night after getting off work, gave me a locals tour. She dropped me off at the Brigham City Fire Department where I was camping on the grass.
I rode 75.8 miles in 5 hours and 15 minutes, with 2416 feet of climbing to 5329 feet above sea level.
September 29th
I was looking forward to an easy ride into Salt Lake City, but just as I was getting ready to leave I got a call from the American Heart Association, asking if I could be available by 12 30 to go live on the noon Channel 2 news. It was 9:30 and I had over 50 miles between me and Salt Lake City. I jumped off the phone and ran into a McDonalds. With a dry razor I shaved as fast as I could in the bathroom, not realizing how much that would burn when I started sweating.
I rode as fast as I could for an hour and a half, getting me to within 20 miles of downtown. Not wanting to show up too sweaty or even late, I called the American Heart Association back and asked to be picked up. Jennifer Merback, the AHA's communications director, showed up just in time to pick me up and rush me to the news station.
The short and beautiful weather girl came out as the cameraman fitted me with a mic. With the point of a finger I was on live TV. Graciously she interviewed me for what seamed like a really long time but was about 2 minutes. And with a "thank you" it was over. I loaded my bike back into Jennifer's car and graciously took me out to lunch.
That was the begging of turned into a warm welcoming into Salt Lake City by the residents and local businesses.
That night, the most elegant hotel in town, The Peery, comped me a beautiful room with a king size Tempur-Pedic bed. There was also a Jacuzzi bathtub that was so big and deep I could nearly swim in it. I took a bath with bubbles and everything, but the funny thing is that I had never been in a Jacuzzi bathtub, so when I pushed the button to turn on the jets, I guess it was premature. Soapy foam shot out everywhere, all across the bathroom and all over me. Looking like the marshmallow man under attack, I frantically tried to push on anything to get it turned off. But to see just how excited I was to have a bed to sleep on, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fokOXzbw-ts
I rode 31.4 miles in 1 hour and 52 minutes with 753 feet of climbing.
 Speaking to students at the Neighborhood House After School Program
September 30th
I went to Edison Elementary School this morning, where PE teacher Cathy Hernandez had wave after wave of classes visit me outside while I was giving my presentation. Every few minutes I would start all over and try to answer any questions as they came up. Cathy was so excited have me at the school, she asked if I could ride over to the Neighborhood House After School Program and speak to the kids there as they arrived from multiple schools in the area. Again, I spoke to dozens of students as they came through the door ad spent nearly 2 hours talking and answering questions.
Cathy was so grateful for all the time I gave, she called the best seafood restaurant in town, the Market Street Grill, and they offered me a free dinner. It was wonderful and the staff was very interested in what I was doing. After dinner I walked around Salt Lake City. The setting sun lit up the steep mountains to the east in bright pink, and from all the days heat, a thunderhead grew from the top and fanned out thousands of feet over the city. The cloud was so big it looked fake, and with the setting sun, it lit up in every shade of pink, orange, red and yellow.
I walked into Squatters, a famous microbrewery and restaurant. The staff took notice of me and not only was I given free drinks, they kept me company and I made a lot of new friends.
Chris
www.cycleforheart.org
www.youtube.com/cycleforheart
www.cafepress.com/cycleforheart
www.myspace.com/cycleforheart
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