July 11 Crossing America

Our one and only day of REST and long over due in my opinion.  It felt so good.

Slept in until 6:30  but did wake up at 5:00 AM, what a pleasure to roll over and continue sleeping.  At 7:15 Trish phoned to say she and Aaron were ready for breakfast.  We went to the Aspen Street B&B at the suggestion of the desk clerk at the Mountainside Inn, his folks own the place.  We met his mom Heather who gave us a gracious welcome and a 50% discount from her normal buffet price.  Everything was prepared as we ordered.  I had three eggs over easy, blueberry pancakes, sausage link, breakfast potatoes, OJ and coffee.  However this large breakfast was put to shame by Trish the eating machine, are you ready for this?  Trish had scrambled eggs, potatoes, Bagel,OJ , coffee, waffle, pancakes, cereal, fruit and I don’t know what else.  Trish has become an eating machine and still only weighs 124 lbs.

After breakfast it began to rain and I came back to the motel to catch up my journal
which took most of the day.  I did pick up Spirit from the bike shop and dropped off my S-Works for a cleaning and lube job.  Finally connected with Joyce, a high school classmate who is going to do as much as possible to help me get down the Pacific coast for Stage 2 of my 65^th birthday celebration.  I can hardly thank you enough Joyce for jumping in and helping me with the logistics on the West Coast.  I owe you girl!

Another surprise of the day my friend Vince who lives in Montrose returned my calls
from two days ago.  He drove all the way from Montrose to take me out for dinner and drinks tonight.  He spared no expense in taking me to a fine Italian Restaurant  for one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.   We had before dinner drinks, like 8 Margaritas each at the Llama before walking down the street to Vince’s favorite Italian Restaurant.  The food was fantabulous and the decor was traditional Italian, reminded me of the restaurants in Italy where I went a number of years ago.   Vince spared no expense as we had appetizers, salad, the best tasting Veal Scaloppini I’ve ever tasted, a superb bottle of Chianti, plus an extra glass of another fine red wine and finished off this feast with a d”To Die For” Tiramisu.  Gees Vince, you blew me away with how much you spent on us for the evening, easily somewhere north of $300.00 for the evening.  I felt like a true VIP for this great evening out with an old friend.   When I thanked Vince for pampering me with such a luxurious dinner and drinks, he said he was the one honored to see an old friend and be inspired by what I’m doing.  Wow!  Thank you Vince you made my day.

One of my primary goals with this adventure is to let folks know you can live your dreams with the right attitude, determination and burning desire.  JusIt is my hope to inspire folks to live their own dream.  That said I did lose one of my journal readers and a friend today, a gal I respect and admire for her tireless work to help anyone and everyone to rid our  world of MS.  She commented in my journal, that I needed an attitude adjustment regards to this adventure as I’m the only old geezer who is complaining.  I replied to her that this
is my journal and I share my feelings both the good and bad.  Perhaps I was a bit to abrupt with her but I finshed my reply with, “If you don’t like what I write, please don’t read my journal”.  I shared what had happened between this gal and myself with with my fellow
geezers three of them said they would be glad to let her know the conditions on this ride across America is tough on us older riders and I’m not the only one complaining.  The
difference is I write about it.   Still losing a friend hurts and I’m sorry she was offended by my reply.  I’m not sorry for sharing my feelings about the ride.

My last task of the night was to help get the gear of all us old geezers back to the
campground and have Bridget drop me off at the hotel in order for her to have the van in the morning.  I finally made it to bed at 10:30.  I very much needed this rest day.

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