I think most of the Salt Lake area is under construction. Is this our stimulus $ at work? Today was slow going - lots of navigating, convening with a GPS to find alternative routes and we even had a bridge to nowhere. The route sheet had roads that were shut down for construction and routed us over an overpass that had been knocked down. Seattle Bob has a GPS so he's great to ride with - besides his wonderful company - it lowers your chance of getting totally lost dramatically. Maybe it's time to figure out that GPS application on my blackberry ...
But it was a beautiful day. Sunny, 70s, and ... a good 20 mph headwind the first couple of hours. But the wind didn't matter too much as we were stopping every few blocks in Salt Lake suburbia and heading south through neighborhoods and subdivisions for the entire 68 mile day. The Wasatch mountains were on the left rising sharply. Tons of the neighborhoods we rode by had amazing views at the foot of the mountains. There is still a lot of snow up there. We rode right through Brigham Young University Campus ... a beautiful campus. Huge stadium ...
I did get a hotel flat this morning ... always mysterious ... like little hotel imps run around and let the air out of your tires. You wake up in the morning with a flat tire ... mine was caused by a piece of copper wire that are apparently all over the sides of the interstates from blown out tires. They sneakily work their way in and you have to use tweezers to pluck them out. Luckily Wonderful Shawn our mechanic changed it in all of 3 minutes. Not that I can't change my own flat, mind you, but it takes me closer to 20 or 30 minutes and usually a fair amount of dirt, colorful language and the occasional bruise (my tires are super tight on the rims - really difficult to get on.)
Our 13 new riders were with us much of the day. Seem like a great group of folks. There are 4 more women now ... I find this exciting for some reason (don't know why - I often seem to ride with the boys though I miss my Heidi and Emily and Christina and TNT gals for training rides.) Based on today it looks like I'm faster than all the new gals, too, so maybe no gal ride buddies on this stretch either but we'll see how they climb. I may well take this back after I get left in the dust.
Tomorrow sounds really challenging. Beautiful if we can take our eyes off the road long enough to see. Tons of construction. We leave at 5:45 am to try and avoid as much traffic as possible.
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!!
10 years ago
