Day Sixty-Nine - Relief.

I set my alarm for 6:20 this morning, which felt like a long lie in compared to my 5:45 starts of recent. I packed everything up, and was out by 7:30, set off at 8:30. I did speak to a couple of eastbound cyclists though, one of whom was 18, and other who was significantly older. We chatted for a bit, before setting out on our seperate ways.

The first few miles were an easy downhill, before reaching the first summit of the day. Compared to yesterday, this summit was easy, and K was up and over it in not too much time. There was a second one about 6 miles on, but again that didn't take too long. I was 26 miles in by this point, and had a mainly downhill stretch to the finish. I was also surprised that the wind wasn't blowing strongly at all, and the sun wasn't too feirce. To be honest this stretch was quite boring, because the road was straight, and the scenery only changed once every 20 miles or so. The only company I had (other than traffic) were some fighter jets way up high playing about. I only realised they were there from a sonic boom from one, making me jump out my skin. I guess it must have been too high to see.

I was hoping to stop for a break at a place called cold springs. I arrived there 5 miles after the wind had picked up, looking everywhere for the cafe in the 'cafe and RV park'. I stopped to ponder, and noticed a flat area of tiled flooring, and a tree that was scorched on one side. It had obviously burnt down. Reluctantly I went off to my finishing point. It was only 15 miles away, but I was in the mood for a sit down break.

I arrived at 2:30 or so, and went into one of two buildings that are in this place. Middlegate used to be a stop over place for people on the pony express, but became redundant after the invention of the telegraph. As a result, it's fairly tired looking, and most things that are here are old. By that, I mean there is a rusted Ford Model-T parked outside from goodness knows when, next to a horse cart that's been there even longer. I went into the bar and got my usual massive drink, and discovered that they somehow have wireless there. I guess the telephone box in the middle of the car park outside is also redundant now. I caught up on business, before deciding that I wanted to get a room rather than slum it in a car park. It only cost $30, which frankly is a bargain. Everything here is 'adequate' rather than 'nice', but it's a darn sight better than my sleeping bag. I don't get any TV channels, so the bar has a load of DVD's you can watch, which was cool.

After settling in and watching 'Not Another Teen Movie', I went back to eat. I noticed this on the menu earlier, but couldn't manage it rgwb, but felt very up for it now. It was called a monster burger, and was basically a big mac on steroids. By that, I mean it was well over 6" tall and had 1lb of beef in it. The deal was that you get that and a portion of French fries, and if you eat it all you get a t-shirt. It needed to be done, so I got it. I don't know if you've ever seem a pound of meat in front of you on a plate, but it's a lot. The knife they give you to eat it with is more of an offensive weapon than a utencil. I am pleased to report that I was successful, and have my T-shirt. It has a typo on it and is a tiny bit moth eaten, but I wasn't going to wear it anyway so it just adds to the sentimentality.

I'm off to Silver Springs tomorrow, which is on my last map! I spoke to an eastbounder who is staying here too, who told me about how awful a stretch is coming up, the day I'm doing 84 miles to Placerville. Apparently the hills are hugely rolling. As much as I want to believe him, I do go from 8000ft to sea level, and he did the opposite, so I think the odds are in my favour.