Frank’s Coast to Coast Ride for Justin – Day 13, May 9
Editors note: the following is shared from Frank Watson’s blog at: Frank’s Coast to Coast Ride for Justin
CORTEZ, CO – Ok, pop quiz. What is Cortez Co.known for? Hint it is called “The Miracle in Cortez” – On Aug 4th 1959 Maj. H.C. Hun was piloting a U-2 spy plane out of a Texas air base on a “weather recon mission “when at 70,000 ft sufferd an engine failure at 10:30 p.m. – in the dark and descending into a cloud deck , with no idea where he was broke out of the clouds at 4,000 ft and saw lights! The lights were the city of Cortez and among these lights, he saw airport lighting . He dead stick landed the plane and walked into the office in his space type suit and asked “Where am I?” Nice.
Hearing the rain on the hotel roof all night I was in no rush to hit the road. I left off in a cold rain with hands & feet wraped in the now standard issue plastic bags wraped with duct tape. The rain continues all the way to Mancos 20 miles down the road. The temp steadily dropped to 39 degrees at the top of the first climb. Frozen once again I swung into a diner for coffee and to dry out. I waited out the rain and in an hour the sun started to peek out. I left out and headed east to Durango. After stopping at the base of each climb to take off jackets, then stop and put them back on at the top. I finally made it into the busy town of Durango. Tomorrow’s weather calls for 30 degrees in the morning with rain and thunder storms. I am tired of fighting these conditions. So with that information I decided to take Tue. off and recharge. Durango is a perfect place to do this. I made a trip to the local bike shop for some bike supplies and some warmer cloths!
Half way through today’s trip I met a guy going west. We both stopped and talked about our travels. He is from Boston and had been on the road for six months and is on his way to the northwest. I don’t think he has a regular job!
So far I have 894 miles in with a 75 mile per day average. Given the challenging terrain so far I am pretty happy with this. I know the Rockies will be tough but I hope to get closer to 100 mile days when I hit the plains. This rough math has me finishing in the first week in June, kinda on schedule.
My home boys/tech aids J. Perry and Coach Steve Willams are mapping out a route that will get me from Rt6 in northwest Pa., to the Lock Haven area then up through Canton . Many miles to go before then but it will be here sooner than I think!
Remember to say a prayer to Justin, & please take time to go to the bone marrow registry site & sign up! Deletebloodcancer.org
Follow this journey on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/frankscoast2coast4justin
And on Instagram at:
coast2coast4mayorkline
Donations may be made by visiting:
https://www.gofundme.com/rideforjustin
For more background information on this effort see our earlier story at: Canton Man Riding Coast-to-Coast for Justin Kline
