Day 27: Abilene to Topeka (July 4th celebrations, tornados and tallgrass prairie)

Got some excitement last night when the tornado warning sirens start to wail.



Of course I rush to the window ... I mean if one is going to take me out I at least want to see it first.



A big thunderstorm had come through just north of Abilene. We're surfing around for information listening for the roar of a freight train that would signal running for the bath tub for cover. Word of a touchdown due west of Abilene and heading East ... Everyone on the top floor of the hotel came to the lobby. People came in off the roads to wait out the storm - it was blowing hard, pounding rain and lightening was popping. Very exciting.



Then it passed. And I went to sleep.



Gorgeous and very fun ride today. 108 miles and we finally broke out of flat farm lands into rolling hills that turned into the Flint Hills, the largest remaining preserved tall grass prairie. It was beautiful, emerald green rolling hills and valleys, wildflowers. Locusts sang from the trees so loudly we couldn't believe the sound came from insects. Check out the National Geographic spread and photos
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/04/tallgrass-prairie/klinkenborg-text.html



Cattle rule here - acres dining on beautiful tall prairie grass - a very different site than the cattle stuffed in feedlots near Dodge destined for Big Macs. Here people take pride in their animals and have their name on the farm with Hereford breeders on a sign in the front.



The rolling hills - so fun to ride as you fly down a hill and try to keep up momentum to reach the top of the next roller with minimal effort - becomes a game and it's own rhythm.



As the rollers became actual hills that required buckling down into climbs. the terrain became more rugged, more green (an unbelievable emerald green of healthy vibrant grass), less cattle, more open prairie. It was exquisite. Totally recommend anyone take a trip to this area. Who could think grass could be so beautiful? It's such a shame it's gone now. You can imagine the buffalo and prairie critters running amuck. It just looks like bounty. You can see why settlers were so eager to plow it under and plant but if you've read Tim Egan's The Worst Hard Time (you should) you know that the green prairie grass and ecosystem can't sustain the rigors of agriculture easily (i.e. dust bowl). As I rode through here I also kept thinking of Willa Cather's My Antonia which I'd not like to go back and read again.



We passed through many small towns decorated for Independence Day. Flags hung from the light posts of 4 block main street in White City. Bunting from the town Gazebo in Dwight was set up ready to host the afternoons celebration. We stopped in Eskridge at their main park where there were picnics, 3 legged races and other games for the kids and local folks on a squealing speaker singing from the gazebo. Bob looked over at Hans from Switzerland and said "see Hans. This is what 4th of July is about. Community and family getting together to celebrate for a day."

Day 26: McPherson to Abilene, KS - HALFWAY POINT

Dinner lately has been pretty blah. It's not hard to please this crowd ... give us edible food and lots of it. An occasional vegetable is bonus. But lately it's been pretty tiresome - the same restaurant in different cities three nights in a row. Insurrection was brewing.

Tonight we were fortunate that the restaurant where we were supposed to have dinner was closed up for the month of July. So instead we went to this old 1870s hotel turned restaurant that was great. Family style, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits and gravy ...

As we were elbows spread on the table chowing on chicken the waitress came by and said - would you like some more sides? No? OK I'll bring you the rest of your chicken. Huh? Our eyes got huge ... you get half a chicken each. Wow. I started to look around me at the other patrons of this restaurant ... they were all very large people. Several of our crowd rose the chicken challenge, but I was thinking it's really incredible how much food gets served in the restaurants that the majority of Americans frequent. In many ways places like the Golden Trough (Corral) and Sizzler with its huge salad bar and spread of food works is mainstay for most Americans, while for most of us they are places we haven't gone in years.

Today was a beautiful and fun ride. We were on country roads winding North and East. Going North we had a partial fabulous tailwind. Going East we had a whopping angled headwind. Tree flapping, grass laid flat headwind. Make yourself as small as possible on the bike in the aerobars to minimize the wind. But that's OK - it was still a fun ride. At this point very little is phasing me on the bike - you just hunker down and ride through it.

We are in farm land. It looks a lot more like the east coast now that the plains. More trees. Smaller fields. I watched a farmer loading up huge round bails of straw cut from a recently harvested wheat field into a truck fitted with a huge pitchfork front. He would spear the huge bails and drop them into the slanted truck bed. Pick up 5 bails then fly over the field release the bails and let them fall in a line. Fast, efficient. A special truck designed to the task.

We rode through several small towns with one paved road - Roxbury and Gypsum. Small stores on main street along with the post office, fire station and city hall of various sizes. Maybe 2 blocks of houses behind main street - often with dirt roads.

We came into Abilene, Kansas. Their biggest claim to fame is it is the home of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and hosts his presidential library, a museum and house he grew up in. He's buried there. We went there and made the mistake of going into the nice air conditioned theater for a very softly spoken 20 minute film ... kept nodding off. His home was interesting - a modest house on the wrong side of the tracks. And the library had many of his famous orders and speeches from D Day which was interesting to see his hand written edits.

Abilene is worth a stop on any travels. It had money in its day and still seems to have a community that will support interesting restaurants downtown. Much more affluent than Dodge cities and many of the towns further West. It has beautiful old mansions build by early cattle barons and later bankers and investors who moved here. At one point they thought it would be the capital of the state. Somehow this part of the state has survived the changing agricultural economy better than it's western neighbors.

We only had one washer and dryer and so it was the laundry scramble when we got in. Various stalking and moving everyones laundry along ... we all know each other so well that no one things twice about handling the others underwear. Maybe that's wrong ?

Tomorrow we have a 108 miles ride to Topeka. It's July 4th, and we're riding through many small town and probably right through the Independence Day celebrations. Should be fun.

Happy 4th!

What it's like to bike on I 80

This is the first video I shot in California on I 80 ... a test for posting

Day 26: Great Bend to McPherson, KS (Kansas ... the longest state in the union?)

Well, not every day is a home run.

Today we rode 64 miles due east into a stiff headwind/sometimes when we were lucky crosswind through ... Kansas. Yep, we're still here. Kansas.

Other than putting my head down and pedaling, my only interesting stop was to check out one of those oil wells that was by the side of the road. The kind where the horse headed shaped lever bobs up and down endlessly. And that's all there was to it.

The territory is looking more and more "back East". Smaller farms. More hardwood trees. More diverse agriculture. The ground is rolling. There is the smell of hay as we pass freshly harvested wheat fields, and I'm seeing alfalfa and other legumes.

Got in pretty early and cleaned my bike. I noticed what looks like a small horizontal crack in the top tube ... bad news on a carbon frame. Hopefully it will be OK, but I documented it for the warranty, sent photos back to Redmond Cycle where Brian is taking care of my bike and am holding my breath. That could be expensive to replace the frame. No idea how the crack got there - I hope it's just a scratch in the paint.

We watched bad movies this afternoon and goofed by the pool. That was a nice change from rushing around worrying about laundry or other tasks that pile up on long ride days.

Another short day tomorrow.

Day 25: Dodge City to Great Bend, KS

We've been biking past these huge grain silos for days. I've been calling them the Kansas skyline, showing up reliably in every community. Finally I can't stand it, I pull off and decide to check one out.

I start of carefully ... not knowing how these actually work I don't want a ton of wheat dropped on my head or to get sucked in to some wheat vacuum. So as I'm standing in the middle of one of them in my helmet and spandex looking perplexed out comes a tall skinny guy with an ADM hat. So I just say, "Hey there. I've been biking by these things for days and I was wondering how they worked?". It's like the magic door opened ... Off I go on the tour. By tour I mean the 10 steps to look at the scales where the trucks pull in to be weighed before and after they drop the wheat. The grates where they dump the wheat and it falls through to an underground compartment. The conveyor belt that runs up to the huge towers to carry the wheat up into the towers.

Learned all about the harvest - it's almost over. Lost 800k acres to a late season hail storm so they are short. Most are owned by big companies like ADM, but there are still a few community co-ops. Most grain from this facility will be shipped by train to Louisiana, Mexico or Galveston for processing. Any local farmer can deposit their wheat for free in the ADM granary for 30 days and then there is a charge by the bushel per day for storage.

It made me reflect on a couple of things I believe are fundamental about human nature. When you show genuine interest in a person's life or craft or interests, they are usually more than willing to share what they know, generous with their skills and time, and it's almost always more than you could ever hope to learn on your own. I think it's in human nature to respond positively and generously when presented with the opportunity - and most folks will respond that way if you let them. That's been my experience as we've been welcomed in every community we've come though. It's been one of the best gifts of this trip.

Today we kept our eastern trek through farmlands ... less prairie now and more agriculture. Fewer feedlots and passing livestock trucks with that acrid, rancid, unmistakable smell. More corn and wheat fields all huge ... some for as far as the horizon.

We had a rest stop at Midway, USA which billed itself as the official midpoint of the country between San Fran and New York. It's not the midpoint of our trip, but made for a fun photo stop anyway. They had a great little community museum there. Three rooms of stuff donated by community members, including an old John Deere wooden wagon - the precursor to the tractor (still with the green and yellow logo), a permanent machine for ladies hair that looked more terrifying than an electric chair and someones diligently organized barb wire collection mounted on the wall of all different styles of barb wire. They had built a sample sod house and then furnished it - complete with wall paper to make it look nicer even though they say that may not be so common.

Our ride today was supposed to be 85 miles, but the Tornado-chaser Lady from Dodge City had suggested that I try to get by Fort Larned which was sort of on our way to Great Bend. This added about 15 miles - getting me and the 2 others I talked into going with me - Hans from Switzerland and Brian who is great about exploring everything - an even 100 miles today. But the extra saddle time in 95 degree heat it was worth it.

The fort is run by the National Park Service and is an un-walled open fort built by the Pawnee River and only active for 20 years to protect the Santa Fe trail, trading, the mail and to play various unsavory roles in the Indian conflicts and tribes were being forced into treaties and onto reservations. No buildings were destroyed after it was abandoned. It's been re-furnished with the hospital equipment, bunk beds, armaments and officer quarter furnishings of the period. It's pretty interesting. The park service folks were a little bored and so spent a lot of time answering questions. One of those pieces of history you've never heard of that's so relevant to place when you are there.

On the way in we saw wheat being harvested ... for enormous combines sweeping a huge field and shooting out grain into an enormous tractor trailer ... they must have completed that harvest in under an hour. Amazing the massive scale of today's agriculture.

Tonight is the last night for our staff mechanic, Sean. He's a talented bike mechanic which we have all noticed and appreciated, and a super nice guy. He's off to fly around the world for a few months - Sweden/Europe, South Africa, India, Australia. But he's nice enough to say he's sorry to miss the end of our trip and not see it through. We get a new mechanic in a few days, so everyone is eying their bike skeptically.

Tomorrow we are still in Kansas. In fact we are in Kansas for a long time more ... big state I guess. I hope no-one gets tired of hearing about wheat.

Day 24: Garden City to Dodge City

Biking along we saw a little sign that said Scenic Overlook - one mile. Odd ... There was a slight rise in the flatness down the road but what could you possibly see that you couldn't already. The horizon is so large you feel you can see the curve of the earth.

Our curiosity peaked we pedaled on and came to the turnout. The scenic overlook was - I'm not kidding - looking down on an enormous feedlot full of cows being fattened up for slaughter. Yep ... Cows. Pretty funny.

For the last few days we have followed the Santa Fe trail that connected the East with the South-west. Freight caravans were lucky to advance 12 to 15 miles a day across the ruts and pits in the trail. The Arkansas River just to the south of the trail was the international border to Spain and in 1821 to Mexico after Mexico gained independence. In 1846 the US sent troops down the trail to take the territory from Mexico and move the boarder south. In the meantime the trail was a huge trade route, and you can still see ruts from the wagons in a spot about 7 miles west of Dodge City. The trail was still heavily used till the 1860s when it was replaced by the railroad.

Today was an easy ride day (51 miles, mostly flat), so besides brushing up on my history I also took the time to really look around. First thing I noticed is that the highway parallels the railroad and most every town has huge grain silos that are organized into community co-ops. The silos are placed right between the highway and the tracks and there is a series of them as we head east. They tower out of the ground and can be seen for miles before you get there.

The second is that all those trucks and many cars going between the feedlots and silos don't give a hoot about cyclists. No slowing down, no giving an inch. We had a narrow shoulder the first 25 miles, and between huge trucks passing at 60+ MPH without moving over and 2 idiots passing and coming head on in our lane (it is still our lane, you know, even though we ride on the shoulder) my life passed before my eyes 3 times and I considered a dive in a ditch once. Can't ever remember being so nervous about traffic.

But luckily that was over soon and as we rode into the little town of Cimmaron – a crossing point where the Santa Fe trail branched off into two alternate routes heading to New Mexico - tales of Clarks Pharmacy and their yummy milkshakes had taken over my grouchiness at idiot Kansas drivers. Amazing what a strawberry milkshake can cure (strawberry because since it was still morning I though a fruity thing might be a better excuse than my normal chocolate). Clarks is a great old drugstore with an old fashioned soda bar. Shake for $3, sandwiches for $2.50. It was full of locals when we invaded,and the gals behind the counter took us in stride. Oprah passed through here on there on her Oprah and Gayles great adventure on the great plains ... And they apparently ordered a smoothie which was (nope, you wouldn't want actual fruit in a smoothie in Cimmaron) Orange sherbet and Sierra Mist. Hmmmm ... Actually pretty refreshing when I tried it.

Pedaling on I was in open prairie land with slightly rolling hills. Lots of wildflowers popping out - reddish orange small daisies, sunflowers, yellow purple and white flowers mixed in with knee high prairie grass and dandelion seed balls as big as baseballs. At the historical marker where you can see the original tracks for the Santa Fe Trail I walked out onto the prairie. Wildflowers. Different shades of green. The remnants of the trail and an irrigation canal some investor tried to dig that failed. Enormous grasshoppers were hopping everywhere. (Random aside: The day before we also saw grasshoppers - different species - on the roadway. They were a little freaky - you try not to hit them because they are big enough to have a disgusting crunch/squish. But they are fearless - just sit there and watch you. And cannibals - they go eat the other squished ones. Perhaps the result of years of pesticides? The grasshoppers are still there, fearless and hardcore despite years of being bombarded with chemicals.)

Heading into Dodge City I had high expectations. This was the home of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. The TV show Gunsmoke was set here. I had big expectations of some sort of restored historical street with just enough cheese to keep it interesting (think Tombstone)...

But ... what we got was a fake old street owned by a hotel that you had to pay admission to go look into fake old merchantiles and stores. Bleh.

I did bike around and there are lots of old houses, many run down, with a grid of streets with the original brick pavers intact. There was a wax museum of gunfighters. I didn't go in. Sigh ... very disappointing. What a lost opportunity for a city that really needs a lift.

I retreated to a coffee house and chatted with a woman and her son instead. She has lived here for 13 years. They chase storms for fun. The ones with Tornadoes. Not kidding. Get in the car and chase storms. Apparently you can pay people to take you out storm chasing here. She said they did it long before the movie Twister came out.

She was telling me about the area which was great. 80% Hispanic, lots of illegals. Farm based economy. Struggling community.

The climate has a huge impact here. A huge tornado rolled through and wiped out a town just south of here. They are rebuilding it as a "green" town ... which should be interesting to follow. She was also talking about how radically the climate had changed ... they used to get a lot of snow but now hardly get any. She's concerned about how the dryness will impact agriculture, which she sees as struggling anyway.

She confirmed all the farms here are huge agribusiness and small farmers are long gone.

Day 23: Lamar to Garden City, KS (Newsflash: Kansas is not totally flat)

Prairie Dogs are funny little critters. There were a ton of them scurrying around in the miles east of Lamar. They live in colonies on the high plains and are constantly popping in and out of their dirt mound/holes and dashing around doing whatever prairie dogs do early morning. Don't really see them once it gets hot ... they are much more sensible than we are and get out of the heat.

Our ride today was fun. Spent most of the day riding with Gerard who is on the staff and Seattle Bob. With Chris joining us in the beginning till he figured out he could break his record for a hundred mile ride and left us in the dust.

These (mostly) flat lands make it tempting to see how hard and fast you can ride. Today I set my all time best record for a century ride. Averaged 18.5 mph for 100 miles and got in in 5 hours, 22 minutes ride time (doesn't include stops). That means riding above 20mph for most of the ride. It was the perfect day for a fast time ... four riders made it in under 5 hours which is really fast for a century. Chuck made it his mission to beat Tom in and break Tom's string of fastest/arrive first that he's held since the beginning of the trip. He's pretty pleased with himself. He rode the full 105 miles today in less than 4 hours, 30 minutes. This rivalry should be entertaining as we go on.

And, who knew, Kansas isn't flat as a pancake. I knew of hills in East Kansas, but we rode through 25 miles or so of bonafide rollers A few miles east of the Kansas line. How exciting!

What we are seeing is farm land ... a lot of it. As we pulled into Syracuse I joked "Look, there is the Kansas skyline." This would be the huge grain silos and ag processing equipment that rose way above the prairie and resembled a small version of skyscrapers. We are seeing more corn - all looking good and knee high by the fourth of July. Fields and the dark green of maturing plants, the lighter greens of new growth and shoots and golden fields of what must be wheat that was cut short and left fallow. Most of these fields will have a tree sheltered house and barn in the center of open space.

It's clear a lot of the small towns we passed through are struggling. Closed shops and for sale signs are prominent. And large agribusiness is evident everywhere from the huge Tyson processing plant to semi-trucks hauling livestock, hay and farm equipment. I can't believe the small farmer is faring very well now.

Right now we are staying in a Comfort Inn in Garden City. They are being incredibly nice, including having a bike wash station complete with cold bottled water and oranges for us when we got in. I was chatting with a woman from here and asked us what we could do here and she said "Well. We used to have the largest free swimming pool in the country but then they built the slides and started to charge." Probably won't make it to the pool.

Tomorrow we go to Dodge City. This promises to be full of cheesy touristy wild west wax museums, fake gunfights and who knows what else. Should be a blast. A short ride - only 51 miles - should get us in with plenty of time to be tacky tourists.

Day 22: Pueblo to Lamar, CO

Today we saw a woman who was running across America. LA to NY, 30 miles a day. Raising money for the Heart Association.

You all think I'm crazy ... I think she's crazy. That's perspective for you.

I regret not getting to talk to her ... I was in a heat induced haze and trying to get done with our 121 mile day before you could fry and egg on the top of my helmet and didn't fully clue in to why this really skinny woman was shuffling along through Las Animas Colorado. Oh well ...

Today as we headed east we were in farmland that reminded me of where I grew up in Eastern North Carolina. Except it was all bigger. That's one big difference between East Coast and West Coast ... out in the west there is still a sense of vastness and ranches and farms have had many fewer generations to be divided up among siblings.

We had a long day - 121 miles. I had a good pace - averaged 17.5 mph. The first half I rode with a group and we did some pacelining to cope with the headwinds. After a bulging sidewall on my front tire followed by an immediate flat in the back (darn Goatheads - bane of all cyclists - evil little thorny bastards) I cut them loose and ended up riding the rest of the way in on my own. Which is kinda fun ... go at your own pace and aren't tied to others needs. Kinda like my life. Anyway ...

We started out through horse country and then moved into farm country. Started passing huge farms with corn and other food crops. Then back into grasslands. We are on the high plains - still around 4000 feet of elevations. It's flat. Rivers are drier and trickle instead of roar. Small houses and barns dot the landscape. We road through several small towns with names like Manzanola, Rocky Ford and La Junta and Hasty that look like small towns all over America: post office, small store with a porch or area where community members gather, little houses along the road.

Stopped at a small store/restaurant/gathering place in La Junta and made a dash for the water fountain to fill up on cold water. Bought some chocolate milk cause by then it was too hot to eat - had to drink my calories. This ended up being a 20 minute visit chatting with the store owner and customers about what I was doing. They were very nice.

I must have looked like a freak ... glistening sweaty from the 90+ heat and covered in dirt from the knees down and gnat carcases from the knees up. (Unfortunately the oily sunscreen the tour provides turn out to be gnat magnet when you ride so I get off the bike and look like the windshield that all the bugs find on a summer night. Gotta figure out an alternative way to carry my good, non bug attracting sunscreen.)

Anyway, my La Junta visit ended with a chat with a woman who wanted to know how I could ride in this heat. I was telling her about electrolytes and she is off to stock up at the bike store in Colorado Springs. Score one more for better fitness for America.

Did pass one of the huge feedlots. Thousands of cattle stuffed in acres of metal fences, literally there to be fed and eat all day and fatten up before being slaughtered. It was pretty grim ... just crowded in there being fed and waiting to die. The slaughter plant was next to the holding pens. A look at our modern food production we don't often see on that scale. Even though I grew up in North Carolina near many farms, I don't remember it being so industrial and efficient in production. But then I left NC a long time ago ...

Tomorrow we enter Kansas ... another long ride 105 miles.

Day 20 and 21: Salida to Pueblo, CO and a Rest day in Pueblo

Bye-Bye Mountains. At least till Vermont or so.

Friday we rode 96 miles from Salida east to Pueblo. Literally dropped over 3000 feet down from the Rockies onto the Eastern plain. We're still at over 4000 feet elevation here, but the terrain changed drastically the last 40 miles of our ride to high rolling dry hills of dry, hot country.

We started the first 35 miles through beautiful canyon following the Arkansas river from it source in Salida as it raged down the canyon swollen with tons of snow melt and rains from the thunderstorms that ran though Thursday afternoon. Red rock, green valley, steep cliffs. This is where a lot of rafting happens so we saw lots of raft outfitters putting boats in the water and screaming people filled boats careening down the rapids. Looked fun ... it was hot. If we weren't going 96 miles I was considering walking in on a half day raft trip to cool off. But 96 miles can be a long day in the saddle. The river was running too high to swim in. So a huge chocolate milkshake at Big Daddys diner in Canon City had to suffice to cool off and fuel up for the last 4o miles in to Pueblo.

The riding was easy ... a slight downhill for miles as we followed the river down. One 3 mile climb and them more downhill.

We mountain folks are all gritting our teeth and wondering what it will be like riding for days through flat, hot windy cow country. Kansas ... day after tomorrow. East Colorado ... basically like Kansas riding wise. We've been talking about how to amuse ourselves ... road games? Punchbug on the bike? Judy my roommate says the best way is to meet and talk with as many of the locals as possible. Which sounds fun except with temps over 100 degrees I want to get done with riding by early afternoon everyday cause I can't tolerate heat anymore even though I grew up in North Carolina humidity. I have visions of begging people to spray me with their garden hose as I ride by.

Today we had a needed rest day in Pueblo. I know my legs are fatigued because when I leave my comfort zone at all when riding - like getting out of the saddle on a hill - the lactic acid just burns like crazy. That's usually not a problem. So today was leisurely.

Slept in till almost nine. (If you haven't tried the MACs wax earplugs do - much better than the foam plugs and you can sleep through anything). Then headed to the grocery store and bought some Greek yogurt and raspberries and a peach. Talked the nice girls at the hotel desk into taking the delicious bread and scones Tracey, Neil and the 3 little Snyders sent as a care package (THANK YOU!!!) to the kitchen and warming it up for me, and then I set up Pate's breakfast buffet in the middle of the lobby. Didn't take long for all that bread, jam, double creme, scones and granola to disappear from a lot of happy cyclists with eyes half closed going "oh man, is this good".

Then off with Jack, Chuck and Dr. Shawn to the street rodder car show. These cars have been driving past us for 3 days coming to Pueblo for their national convention. We got to the fairgrounds and there were over 3000 cars pre 1949 and most fully restored with loving owners just waiting to talk about their baby. It was pretty fun, even for someone like me who who drives a beat up 10 year old Honda civic and generally could care less about cars.

On a sad note, we lost another cross country rider today, Jim. Super nice guy from San Francisco. He has a pacemaker that started malfunctioning during the ride. But he climbed Monarch pass anyway wondering why he wasn't feeling very strong ... his heart rate was 56!! Unbelievable. To put that in perspective, a really strong athletes resting heart rate is around that rate. My heart rate when I climbed the pass was probably around 140 beats per minute. Crazy he was able to do it. But now he's off to get "tech support" as I was calling it and hopefully they can fix the problem quickly and he can rejoin us.

We also lost all 13 riders who joined us in Salt Lake City and left in Pueblo. Best of luck to them - and great riding with you if you are reading.

Tomorrow we do the longest ride I've ever done though not by much - 120 miles to Lamar, CO. Again a lot of elevation loss. Hoping for a nice tailwind.

Day 19: Gunnison to Salida, CO (Montrose pass, lemonade girls, wine tasting and gondolas)

I'm going to miss the big climbs.

Today's climb over Monarch pass - 11300 feet - was the last good long climb till we get to Vermont.

Don't know why I like the long multi-mile climbs ... Maybe because it's meditative to just settle in to a low gear and crank up a mountain. Rhythmical. Usually beautiful scenery. Mentally challenging - acknowledging that your legs are tired but keep going anyway and thinking about your pedal stroke and keeping a steady cadence. You know you've done something most won't even try and it's a big rush to look back down the valley at how far you've come. It's fun to talk to normal people at the top who come over to confirm that you did actually ride that bike up the pass... and then they pass you on the way down with a big wave and thumbs up.

Today started out on the right foot ... With a proper cup of coffee. Not easy to get out here where instant rules. Yuck.

So properly caffeinated, we headed east towards the Pass. The first 35 miles of our ride were all a gradual climb as we'll followed the Gunnison River up a beautiful green valley towards the higher peaks.

On the way we saw a herd of big horn sheep hanging out in a pasture with some llamas. I assume the llamas were part of the ranch and the sheep were crashing. The big male sheep with the curving horns was standing and watching all of us carefully, while his ladies lounged on the grass oblivious.

The 9 mile climb wound up a valley and then up the side of the mountain that had been blasted into just enough room for a road. A thousand foot drop on the right with narrow shoulders ... This was not a climb for those with a fear of heights.

The river ran below and you could still hear it as we climbed higher. I watched my garmin ticking off the elevation - we climbed over 3500 feet in 9 miles.

The air is noticeably thinner after 8 or 9000 feet. I have a good tolerance for high altitude, but I found that when I would take a drink from my water bottle just disrupting the rhythm of my breathing left me gasping to recover enough air to sustain the climbing. Passed by several riders and gave them all the positive words - looking really strong, we're almost there, took a photo of them as I passed to document their climb.

The summit had all the tourist trappings we could desire, complete with T-shirts that said I made it to the summit of Monarch pass on a bike, a Gondola you could take to the mountain summit for great views (of course I went), and a fudge shop. Yep had some fudge, too.

The down hill was great. Fast but not so fast you had to ride your brakes to stay in control, unbelievable views and downhill all the way into town.

I met up with Marilyn on the way down and rode in with her. She was a willing accomplice for a pit stop by an ice cream stand recommended by a rider from an earlier trip (very tasty chocolate malt which I also justify serves as my chocolate milk-like recover drink) and further down the road a little wine tasting.

When we rolled into the hotel we we're greeted by four very cute little girls with a lemonade stand. They were making a killing at $.75 a cup. But I don't mind ... Go girl entrepreneurs.

Tonight we wandered around the town of Salida (pronounced Sal eye da). Very cute town with the river running through it, lots of shops, pubs - it's clearly an destination/resort area that draws outdoorsy crowds.

A great day. 66 miles ridden, approx 4500 elevation

Day 18: Montrose to Gunnison, CO (cue Rocky Mountain High)

My Mom reminded me that when my sister and I were 9 or so we had a family vacation at a Dude Ranch outside Gunnison in one of the canyons. We would tack on family vacations to Dad's business trips back then, and I remember this one as a highlight.

I was horse crazy and the Dude ranch was my idea of heaven - and it meant a trail ride on an actual horse. I remember getting all dressed up complete with boots I think and then being too shy to talk to the cowboy (or probably college kid on a summer job). But the best spending days building a fort by the Gunnison River in front of our cabin.

Grubby and outdoors ... my idea of fun then and now.

Today was spectacular. But we had to work for the reward today.

We were still riding with the Tour of Colorado folks. We had two significant climbs today - and the first 15 miles - - including most of one of the climbs was in a "put your head down and pedal as hard as possible and be thankful you're making 10 mph on the flats for your efforts" headwind. Trees flapping, grass laying sideways, riders grumbling. But as we eased up the first pass the winds slowly died down, and we passed through terrain that became greener and more lush as we climbed to the first summit at just under 8000 feet.

After a 2 mile gorgeous descent (where we lost almost 1000 feet of that hard won elevation gain) whizzing through mountains and bigger snow capped peaks in the distance, we started the next climb to summit # 2. No wind this time but it was hot. Winding up a little steeper grade to the second summit, riders were definitely feeling it. I even had to crack open the Cliff blocks which I save for emergency fuel to add electrolytes and a little caffeine push. The second summit got us to over 8700 feet. It was glorious at the top. Wildflowers, views and one of the best descents ever. I bet I stopped 3 or 4 times to take photos and just look around. Incredible.

At the end of the descent we passed through a narrow gulch where the red rocks closed in overheads and the river ran strong next to the road. And then ... oops ... a sneak climb switchbacks up and around the side of a mountain out of site. It's one of those where you look up and see riders several hundred feet above you climbing where you will be going soon enough.

OK ... one more climb. Up we go. Now finally around the corner and ... could it possibly be something even better than what we've just ridden through? Yep! ... Blue Mesa Lake - gorgeous and huge and actually blue. Boats are on the water and red rock mountains are rising from the dammed Gunnison River. OK ... stopping a dozen more times for photos and admiring the views ... I can't believe some of these folks are whizzing by without stopping to see what's around them. What's the hurry?

We keep following the damned river/lake and head into Gunnison. Relatively flat and fast. Interesting company on the ride in with Gary from Cleveland in for the Salt Lake Pueblo leg where I talked him into trying the ice bath. We'll see if he's still talking to me tonight. A trip to the local pizza joint for lunch before heading back to the hotel. That pizza was good ... and we're going back tonight for dinner. May have another :) Because I can eat 2 pizzas a day now if I want. Love that.

Tomorrow if a big climb up and over Monarch Pass and then down to Salida. Over 11000 feet ... it will be interesting to see how the altitude impacts climbing. I know the air was thin enough at 8700.

Day 17 - Grand Junction, CO to Montrose, Co and riding with the Tour de Colorado

You've got to love a town that takes enough pride in it's community to invest in making it a little special.

After dinner last night I took a cab downtown with Chuck and Bob to check out Main Street. They had whimsical and fun public sculptures and plantings everywhere. Including a big bicycle you could climb on. Lots of bike and outdoor shops - this was clearly a center for outdoor recreation. A brew pub with a mighty tasty Stout on tap. And a gelateria that made their gelato daily using a recipe handed down from a fourth generation Venetian gelato maker. Yum.

When we were riding into Colorado yesterday we were greeted by Grand Junction resident and 7 time cross country rider Sue who met us under an overpass with frozen ices . She also showed us a network of trails leading through town that led by the Colorado River and even marked them with indicator signs .... A real luxury and a wonderful host.

So that's how our 72 mile ride today started, winding around 15 miles through a maze of bike paths to the main road that led to Montrose to the South East. We then joined the 1600 plus cyclists riding the Tour de Colorado - a 7 day event that is on the same route as we are following today and tomorrow. It was pretty fun to ride with other cyclists ... They were very curious about us and it was fun to chat. Their ride is pretty intense - 100+ miles days and 8000+ feet of climbing ... Tomorrow we get to stop in Gunnison and they go on over another mountain pass and for another 40 miles to Crested Butte. But then they haven't been riding for 17 days either. Does make me think it could be fun to come back and do this ride or Ride the Rockies one year down the road.

Today we did some long gradual climbs and passed through range lands and dirt roads leading off to places called Rattlesnake Gulch complete with rattlesnake road kill within 50 yards of the road. You could look down and open canyons snaking below. Cyclists stretched for miles in front and behind us. We noticed we were passing a lot more often than we were passed.

It also turns out that Colorado has wineries ... Who knew. We biked past several wineries ... Tasted a little of the local vino tonight which was pretty good. Hopefully can try some more in the next few days. Finally this afternoon we headed up to the rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. In the van - although Brian biked up there - what's another 2000 feet and 20 miles? He got style points for that. The Canyon is impressive - 2700 feet deep and narrow walls. I'd never been and was glad to see it.

Tomorrow we head on to Gunnison - some real climbing and around 65 miles. I'm looking forward to it, even though I've noticed it takes me longer and longer to warm up and my legs protest as I get going again after a stop. On the other hand I'm riding a lot stronger now ... Holding 19 and 20 mph is very doable and climbing is faster. Probably because I've been chasing faster riders for a couple of weeks now. So that's encouraging ... Wonder how fast we'll be going by the end of this trip?

Day 16: Green River to Grand Junction CO ... 97 miles and 97 degrees

Well, the heat finally caught up with us. It was well over 90 today. Heat introduces additional challenges when cycling ... you need more electrolytes, more water, there is more stress on the body as it has to use extra energy to cool itself. While everyone in our group did OK, riding in heat generally gets folks in trouble faster than anything else.

We've been lucky so far. Usually it's 100 degrees in many of the areas we've been cycling through. At most places so far when I've talked to the locals they've been complaining about the rain and unseasonably cool weather. In Green River they are famous for their watermelons, (I was told the sweetest and best in the world and too bad for me that I missed it) and the talk was that this year they would be lucky to have them ripe by the end of August instead of July as usual.

But despite being hot, the ride over was beautiful. All of this country is on the Colorado (river) Plateau, part of the Rocky Mountains. I've always thought of the Rockies as being in Colorado and North and South, but our friendly ranger yesterday pointed out that they actually start with the Wasatch mountains near Salt Lake and end east of Denver. The Plateau with it's buttes are technically part of the Rockies.

Today's ride was mostly desert range with canyonlands to the north and south. White sand, sagebrush and red and pink bluffs in the distance. We did a bit of climbing today ... over 4000 feet. A lot of it was in the first 30 miles in very slight grade climbs that went forever. I kept forgetting I was actually climbing and kept thinking I was just tired and wondered what was wrong with me for feeling so draggy. Then the terrain turned to rollers with relatively gentle climbs and descents and our pace picked up as we rode through range lands. Lots of gophers and saw another antelope. When we crossed the state line to Colorado, the terrain changed quickly. A long climb and then we entered another plateau. We biked along the Colorado river which was muddy brown and the dark red cliffs rose behind the river. The land was green with more grass and trees and red with the dramatic cliffs and canyons. I'm going to like Colorado.

Tons of our riders have had a lot of trouble with flats ... Chris who I ride with often had 3 and others have had multiple flats. I feel badly for them - it's no fun changing a flat in the hot sun. Cross my fingers that my luck holds - I've only had one so far. Now I've probably jinxed it ...

Tomorrow we bike to Montrose and we'll cross paths with Ride Colorado where there are several thousand riders on the same course. Should be fun to talk with other riders and swap stories ... and chaotic with a lot of cyclists on the road.

Day 15: Price to Green River and Shirley on her Schwinn

When we left Price this morning we were not even 5 miles out of town when we saw the
most beautiful view of mountains with the sun filtering through clouds in visible,
vertical white rays. After at least the 3rd photo stop we were speculating: Could
these mountains already be the Rockies in Colorado? They were huge and dominant.
But as we got closer you could see that these were bit peaks - some over 10k feet -
but they were huge buttes with exposed cliff faces of multicolored rock. Gorgeous.
We were seeing the north end of the Canyon lands and heading to Green River, the
traditional crossroads for the old Spanish Trail, the railroad, pioneers and western
explorers.

It was a 67 mile ride today, and the first half was stop and gawk. We even saw an
antelope.

Then the landscape widened. We could clearly see the striated buttes on the left,
and the lower canyon lands beginning on the right. There were four of us who rode
in together in a good paceline against a strong headwind - Chris, Seattle Bob, Chuck
and I. We have a good system down at this point.

We rode on into Green River, a tiny town of 900. The plan was that I was going to
go with a group to Arches National park, but due to having a mental lapse and
forgetting that the time on my cell was Seattle I missed it. Oops. That's OK. I've
been and it turns out that a white water rafting trip was cancelled due to heavy
rain yesterday that caused mudslides that wiped out the road.

So instead I walked next door to the local city run Green River museum. Tons of info
about the first river exploration down the Green and Colorado Rivers. Very
enthusiastic and bored volunteers running the museum ... I was the only one there.
Chatted with them afterwards and they were helping me figure out the maps and
answering questions about the area. Like it's called the Green River because even
though it's muddy and red now when the melt and rain ends the mud settles and it
becomes Green.

Then walked down to the state park about 1.5 miles away. The ranger was a hoot and
talked with him for a while. Lots more info on the area - nice guy. Headed down to
the water and sat in he shade for a while and then headed back. And met Shirley
coming towards me on her Schwinn.

She had been sitting quietly while the friendly ranger had been talking. But we
went over to the shade and Shirley - who with her husband was volunteering as a camp
host for the summer - is an avid biker. She put over 2000 miles on her Schwinn from
Walmart last year, mostly between 5 and 7 am near her house. That's more outdoor
miles than I put on my new bike training for this ride. GO Shirley GO! She wants
to ride across Missouri for her 65th birthday and needs company. I hope she makes
it. She was awesome.

Dinner was another feed at another restaurant the specialized in quantity over
quality. Which was fine with me - I was hungry. Met a woman at dinner who was
taking a bus from New Jersey to Las Vegas to gamble for 4 days. They were stopping
along the way to check out the sites. She took one look at my legs - the bike tan
line - brown with a 3 inch strip of Seattle pasty white before the shorts start and
said "Oooh baby ... What did you do to your legs?". So then I had to show her my
even funnier glove tan lines with white hands and brown finger tips and wrists.
It's pretty clownish ... Think about how it will look when I'm done.

Right now we are sitting watching the first three days of video of the ride that the
Korean TV station ran. It was so nice of them to give us a rough cut. It's also
1.5 hours long otherwise I'd figure out how to load it up. But they have pretty
much everything on there - eating, riding, climbing. Getting lost.

Tomorrow we hit Colorado. 94 mile ride with some climbing.

Day 14: Provo to Price, UT

Tomorrow we will break 1000 miles.

I was just looking on my Garmin stats and it says I've been riding over 64 hours, burned over 45000 calories (that's around 112 bacon cheeseburgers) and climbed almost 48,000 feet. Granted there is occasional operator error and sometimes the data just looks off with too much elevation showing up on the Garmin but still ... not bad.

Today was pretty challenging. A ride some called technical and others called dangerous. We left really early at 5:45 to minimize traffic. The route had a ton of construction that left narrow or no shoulders in several places. We got it all today: Strong headwinds as we entered the canyon ... at least 30 mph ... there were several windmills at the mouth of the canyon. Crossing cement barriers and riding on dirt roads in construction zones (they weren't working). Rumble strips in the middle of a narrow shoulder that left sometimes a 6 inch strip of pavement to ride on without going into the lane. A cold rain after Soldier Summit on the descent. And we pretty much agreed - Utah drivers can be really rude.

Despite these challenges, the ride itself was beautiful. Long climbs up Price Canyon through green mountains and the beginnings of canyon lands - including the famous Utah red rock. Then after the summit the landscape became pure canyon badlands with rock pinnacles and deep narrow rifts. It was beautiful and stark. The stone was grey, pink, red and shades of brown. The descent was steep but I kept stopping to take photos, despite the rain that had already caught me at the summit fast on my heels. I got in just in time before the rain set in ...

After getting cleaned up some of us went to the Dinosaur and archeology museum. Huge skeletons of a mammoth and others extinct critters that were found locally. We'll bike pass several dig sites tomorrow on the way to Price. Should be a pretty ride tomorrow, and relatively easy. Then we can head out to Arches National Park or go white water rafting ... nice choices for a fun afternoon.

Day 13: Salt Lake City to Provo

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.

Day 11 and 12: Wendover to Salt Lake City and a Hooray Rest Day

If you haven't discovered the maps featured under the Garmin Data and Stats on the right hand side of the blog, the entry from Wendover to Salt Lake is a great time to check it out. If you look at the map and change the view to satellite view, you can see the huge expanse white that is the Bonneville Salt Flats and then Great Salt Lake. It's a crazy piece of our planet.

In bike terms, riding that day meant 40ish miles across salt flats which looked alternatively like a moonscape of pure shimmery white or yellow sand and a huge shallow lake. Many of the flats were covered in water because of all the rain and storms that had come through. We passed through the flats just after dawn ... we had a 118 mile day and an early start so extra time was important - especially for slower riders in our stops-a-lot group.

We also had a wicked headwind that lasted for at least 60 miles, and then picked up again even harder the last 20 miles of the ride. Headwinds can be the hardest part of riding ... downright discouraging. To me worse than climbing mountains. To cope with the wind, a bunch of us formed up in a double paceline which had been perfected by a smaller group of riders the day before, including Bob from Seattle and Chris from Ohio - (you can see their blogs listed on the right side of my blog if interested in another take on this trip and photos - I just linked them onto mine). For non-bikers, a paceline is basically where you follow a rider in front of you closely enough to benefit from the draft. You rotate regularly to share the work ... the front of the line "pulls" and the back of the line "drafts". A double paceline is basically two columns that rotates clockwise, so you take a turn front left, a turn front right, and then fall back down the line as the paceline rotates every 1/2 mile. It's obviously important to be a very steady rider with good bike handling skills to do this safely. While I've done single pacelines frequently, doubles were new to me but really effective in an otherwise soul sucking headwind. Plus you had ever changing folks to chat with during the rotation which makes 118 miles go a lot faster.

Anyway, we made decent time given the winds. It was incredibly beautiful out there. After 40 miles the scene changed back to high desert and sagebrush. And as we closed in on Salt Lake City the snow capped Wasatch mountains rose in the skyline. For the last 40 miles we were pretty much running from an ugly black storm that slowly chased us into the city. Luckily we were moving faster than it was, but it was motivation to move along and avoid a drenching. There was nothing out there - no services, not even a bush if you had to take care of a necessity. Made for some entertainment for passing truckers, often celebrated by long honks. SAG vehicles stopped frequently for water, though official SAG stations were 40 - 45 miles apart - that's a long way for sag support.

Coming into Salt Lake I was riding with Seattle Bob and Gerard one of our ride leaders and we ended up not being able to get through and exchange and were forced off the road early. This turned out to be a good thing as we charted a better route the the frontage road by Salt Lake that went past the Kennecot Copper mine, which is a huge plant and looked pretty interesting to check out on any day when you hadn't been in the saddle forever.

A challenging biking day on already tire legs, but real teamwork made it a fun and successful day and I think helped pull the group together tighter.

And, one of the highlights of my day was the surprise gift of chocolate covered strawberries and cookies from Tracey and Neil and the 3 little Snyders waiting for me at the hotel. THANK YOU!!! Wonderful surprise and quickly gone.

The HOORAY REST DAY

Let's just say SPA. Many thanks to Gary King for the great recommendation of Kura Door Spa. I went with another gal doing the ride and had a fabulous massage and pedi, sat in the steam bath and otherwise recovered. Wonderful way to get the body back in shape for another 8 days of the (gulp) Rocky Mountains. Then we went for a nice lunch and to visit the Mormon temple and genealogy library. You'll be happy to know I did not convert. But I did look up some of my maternal ancestry at the library and found the 1930 census records for my maternal Grandparents which was very cool. Turns out my grandmother married at 17, they could both read and right and speak English. Pretty interesting look at those times by what questions are asked on the census.

Today we lost 5 wonderful riders who were just doing the first leg of the trip. But we have 13 more joining us I'll meet at breakfast. Looking forward to our next leg. It's another huge cue sheet which will mean some slow navigation out of Salt Lake to Provo tomorrow, 64 miles with hills.

Day 10: Elko to Wendover, NV

A long ride today and our first century - 107 miles. Folks are getting tired -
including me. You see a lot more shifting around in the saddle trying to get
comfortable ... Derrieres are starting to complain. Rear ends become dinner
conversation with favorite remedies offered up with extreme confidence. We have a
doctor with us who has offered to examine any suspect spot ... Don't know if anyone
has taken him up on it.

Today's ride was just exquisite. The Ruby Range to the south was snow capped with
sagebrush and pasture land leading up to it. Just one beautiful view after another.
It never stopped all day ... Mountains in the distance, ranch land, and sagebrush
and wildflowers. And we'd keep going and it would just get better. We climbed up a
canyon over the Pequot mountains - about 10 miles to around 7000 feet. These
mountains had beautiful rocky outcroppings and the canyon felt narrow after riding
in the huge open spaces. At the top we had a long and fast descent into yet another
gorgeous dessert vista ... This time more sandy and spare. Clearly it had missed a
lot of the rain. But maybe not for long - to the right was a massive black storm
and you could see the grey where rain was falling. I missed the rain, but some
riders coming behind me were pulled because of lightening. The bike is a bad place
to be in a storm ... Hit the ditch. The final descent into Wendover was amazing.
You crest the final hill and a huge expanse of white stretches out in front of you.
White salt flats as far as the eye can see.

Wendover is a scruffy looking stain on the salt at the base of the mountains ...
Dotted with neon from all the Casinos. Gary - totally agree with you and stayed in
the hotel. Because why should you leave? The rooms have one wall that is all
mirrors, black lacquer furniture and fake tortoise shell walls and doors and 3 big
plastic plants. The casino down stairs is mirrors walls and ceilings with blue and
pink neon lights everywhere. And there is a fake rain forest in the all you can eat
buffet. They lost money on us ... I had 3 plates of food and dessert and I was
eating light compared to my table mates.

Tomorrow is our last ride before a day off. We are riding across the salt flats to
Salt Lake City. Right now the winds don't look promising ... It's a 118 miles day
and we're hoping it shifts to a tail wind.

Day 9: Battle Mountain to Elko, NV

I can tell everyone is getting tired. Nine days of cycling in a row takes its toll. Tired legs. Sore behinds. A bunch of us started in a large group meandering along at around 14 mph, chatting and generally lallygagging. But the problem with riding so slowly is that it may be easier on the legs but it means more hours in the saddle. Hmmm - dilemma. Brad from Ohio and I did the breakaway after around 10 miles.

The day was beautiful. Mostly sunny, cool. The ride was mile after mile of large green expanses of sage brush, wildflowers and greenery framed by mountains. We are still at around 5000 feet elevation in the high desert - the sky is huge. We climbed Emigrant pass and had a fun 10 mile descent. Probably the highlight of the ride today was a 4 mile stretch through Carlin Canyon - which was a key route for the first railroad, road and before that the pioneers going over the California trail on their way to the gold rush. Beautiful with dramatic rock formations and steep walls and wildflower covered riverbanks.

On the ride in the Canyon we met a guy who is the head of the Elko Velo club ... he was marking the road for a time trial coming up. He was telling us how unusual the weather was ... I guess it's usually 100 degrees and brown. I'll take the random rainstorms over that anytime. He was also saying how lucky we were not to have these crazy huge crickets that I guess come out and are everywhere. Bikes smash them and the pop cricket guts everywhere - ugh. They can be so bad they make the interstate slick and the highway patrol puts up warning signs. Funny that's not in the tour literature ...

We're in Elko getting ready for a long day tomorrow 107 miles with some climbing and a long descent to Wendover. Then another 100 + mile ride into Salt Lake. Long days ... hopefully no headwind. Make an offering to the wind gods for me ...

Day 7 and 8: Lovelock to Winnemucca to Battle Mountain ... and Jerry the Cowboy

Lovelock is in the DESERT. It gets an average of less than 6 inches of rain a year. That is probably less than 10 days of rain?

So lucky us ... we got cold rain on the 72 mile ride between Lovelock and Winnemucca. Despite being from Seattle where I should know better, I didn't dress quite warmly enough for the ride. Needed the arm warmer layer under the jacket. See, I had this Pollyanna delusion in my head reinforced by chirpy weather channel talking heads that it would clear off. And it did ... about 2 hours after we arrived in Winnemucca. So despite what was no doubt beautiful country for riding, I was pretty much pedaling as fast as possible with my head down, shaking water off my visor and wiping my glasses so I could see the road. It was one of those rides where you can feel the water sloshing in your bike shoes. Stopped briefly to top off water, pedalled on. Too cold to stop - warmer to keep moving. Needless to say made great time on this ride and arrived before noon.

So the staff at America by Bike pointed out that usually this stretch of the ride was 90 to 100 degrees, and at least we weren't burning up in the desert. Which is true. The locals were ecstatic ... it had been a while for rain.

Rooms weren't ready till 2:00 so some of us headed over to the laundry mat to catch up and then washed off all gear: bike, helmet, jacket, pants, booties - it's all covered in road smooge.

Road smooge is grimier than just mud. It's a toxic mixture of dirt, oil, and whatever else is deposited on the highway since the last rain. Your bike kicks up a trail of it from the rear wheel which goes in a cold mucky streak right up your back. It's up your legs and embedded in your bike chain and derailleurs. If you were at home you might be tempted to ignore it a while, but having to ride the next morning means it's all got to be cleaned up and dried out. But I'm becoming much more zen like about my bike and riding as it's pretty clear on this ride we're going to do things that I never considered possible before and 72 miles in the cold rain is just one of them. Overall that's a good thing.

At the laundromat (a happening place on Saturday afternoon) we saw a large number of cowboys doing laundry. They looked like real cowboys. So I was chatting with a couple while waiting on the spin cycle and they said they were in town for the Nevada State High School Champion Rodeo. Folks from all over the state had come in. SCORE! Gotta get to that while I'm here.

Dinner that night was a a place called the Flying Pig and it had neon pigs in flashing lights and what my roommate Judy calls "beefcake" (cutouts of sexy scantly clad men) taped up around the top of the ladies room. I got the smokehouse which had 3 kinds of meat and was an unbelievably huge platter of food ... scary. No, I didn't eat it all.

The next morning we were riding on to Battle Mountain. (If any bookclubbers are reading, Battle Mountain is one of the towns in The Glass Castle where whatshernames family lived.) Anyway it was only 55 miles today with one decent climb, pretty easy, so we slept in till 7 AM and got a late start. On the way out of town we pass the the fairgrounds and ... SCORE - there is the rodeo. There are 4 of us and in we go.

Now 4 spandex clad cyclists in our tighty shorts and neon jackets and helmets do not exactly fit in at the Rodeo. But it took about 2 minutes to be approached ... "So where are you going on that bike?" That's how I met Jerry - a real life cowboy, movie star handsome who was originally from Longview Washington but ended up in Hollywood working for 30 years as a stuntman in movies. Really! He was great. We chatted for a while and he gave me the lowdown on the area and the rodeo. We were eventually joined by other cyclists and overall it was like the circus came to town. We saw the bareback bronc riding and some calf roping, and then had to move on up the road. It was a blast.

Heading to Battle Mountain turned out to be a harder ride than anticipated. We had a pretty good climb - about 3.5 miles - and some bad road. Bad like - I didn't know you could ride your bike over 6 miles of this. So rough it shook my water bottle cage off and I had to put it back on the road. But now my perspective of "bad road" has been exponentially altered.

We are still doing a lot of interstate riding. It's literally the only way across Nevada and we'll be on it all the way to Salt Lake except for stretches on rural roads when possible. Otherwise no place to stay. It actually isn't bad ... wide shoulder and not that much traffic. And you can go REALLY Fast ... which is kinda nice. Trucks give you a lot of room and the roads except for the 5 miles today are in excellent condition. John - who's doing this ride for the 4th time - gave some great advice about putting an earplug in the traffic side ear ... you can hear easily but it cuts down the roar.