Mileage: None
Terrain: Irrelevant
Conditons: N/A
Today, we relax. Finally. After a long hard two weeks of riding, we earned a day off in Park City, UT.
We woke up and got our jerseys on as if we were riding, but then just staged up and double pace lined to a different Whole Foods Market for breakfast. We had great bacon, eggs, potatoes, fruits, coffee, biscuits and gravy, and more. We feasted - enough said. After that we went back to the hotel and changed, then headed out to the Olympic Park, where the Winter Games were held in '02. We got to ride a toboggan course. It was a metal cart with wheels that went down a metal slide course that was about 1/3 of a mile long. It was a roller coaster, without the safety.
At the bottom of the toboggan ride were ski jumps that led into a pool. There were people practicing there so we got to watch them do flips and tricks for a while. The whole park was really cool, and it even included an interactive museum.
We then headed to lunch at a local deli. The sandwiches were fresh and included local ingredients, so needless to say it was pretty tasty. We then went to a bike shop, and I picked up a pair of much needed leg warmers. Afterwards, we went to a friendship visit at the National Abilities Center. They're very well funded, and their facility is more like a campus. They have soccer fields, baseball fields, a stable, equestrian arena, bicycling grounds, running trails, and more. A bunch of us brought our bikes knowing that we'd have the opportunity to do a ride along with some of the clients there. A few other guys and I rode with a boy named Martín. I don't know his disability, but it seemed more social that sensory or mental.
We all rode a nearby trail, and Martín was a speed demon. He wanted to play "Cops and Robbers" the whole time, so we would switch off pretending to be the cops or the robber. He loved riding behind us yelling at us to pull over for crimes like "eating all of the donuts" or "throwing a bottle at his head." If we pulled over, he'd ask for our driver's license and then pretend to arrest us. It was great riding with him and we all had a great laugh.
After the friendship visit, we went back to the hotel for pizza and an early bedtime. Tomorrow begins a pretty difficult stretch of rides, but I'm ready to get back on the bike.
Left to right: Me, Martín, David, Collin, Hayden (NAC employee)
Center: Derek testing out a recumbent bike.
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