Our cross to carry

17.09.2006

We woke up in Santo Domingo and took our time getting ready as it was again cold, windy, and raining. We did some laundry, and enjoyed a leasurely breakfast, but on this morning our spirits were tired, our bodies were in pain, and Rocinante was wounded. This day marked our lowest point in the trip, truly our cross to carry from Santo Domingo to Burgos, a 45 mile trudge up the Montes de Oca.

On the previous day, from Los Arcos to Santo Domingo, Nathan experienced some frustration with how slowly Allen was riding, which conversely expressed itself as Allen´s irritation with how fast Nathan was riding, but as Tom Waits said, eventually the 2 will settle on agrees, and todays ride to Burgos marked that agreement. Nathan, the mountain of a man that he is settled into Allen´s steady pace and acted as a windshield as best he could as we trudged on through the headwind. Eventually, our friend Fritz, who we first met outside the church in Logroño a day earlier rode up behind us, and together we rode, laughed, discussed life, and drank his wine (where we got the wine-water bottle idea from - thanks Fritz) and the miles to Belorado although very painful for Allen and mostly done on one knee were slowly traversed.

We left Fritz in Belorado, although we are sure to see him again, and proceeded to Burgos. Just outside of Belorado Rocinante blew a tire and Allen, who was running on very little sleep, took a nap while Nathan changed the tire. We eventually reached the town of Villafranca Montes de Oca, where Allen laid his head down on a bar table and slept some more as Nathan ordered lunch causing some concern to the bar owner, but Nathan assured him that all would be well. Then we hit the Montes de Oca, one of the Many Faces of the Devil, a 6% grade on 3 good knees, 3 good wheels, and 2 tired bodies. We made it to the top of the 6% grade only to discover a series of rolling hills that seemed to go on forever and can best be decribed by this picture.

Then all of the sudden, on a long flat stretch, 15km outside of Burgos we looked around and discovered...

the storm had broken, and the sun that shone through lifted our spirits, made us forget our ailments, and guided us all the way into Burgos, the most hard fought and welcome site yet.