Day Sixty-Seven - Second Month.

I woke up at 5:30 again today, beating my alarm again. Instead of rolling over and going back to sleep for 15 minutes, I seized the moment and got up. My new favourite TV channel TBS is the same broadcasting nationwide, so the TV I used to watch between 7-10 eastern time now starts at 4, so it kind of works in my favour. After a quick chat on the phone (mornings are way more convenient now), I went over to the first McDonalds I'd seen in a while. I knew that I had a long day ahead, so I made the effort to eat as much as I could to get the whole way through. I therefore went for the deluxe breakfast, consisting of a hash brown, scrambled egg, a flat sausage (like a burger), a biscuit (like a fried looking English muffin, i'm not too fond) and three pancakes. I also had a fountain drink (which are unlimited here) and a large vanilla milkshake. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this took a while to tackle, and as planned, I was stuffed. I decided that feeling overly full at the start was better than being completely empty at the end, which more often than not happens anyway because I can't carry enough food to satisfy my appetite during the day.

I set off at 9am eventually, having been chatting to a couple who's son had done this trip a couple of years ago from Oregon to Virginia. They were telling me all of the things he was suffering from when he got back, all of which I can empathise with. I was straight into my first hill on leaving, which was really easy to be honest. It was an 18 mile gradual climb to the top, which was made easier by the fact that it was the first of the day. I thought it was 22 miles to the next summit from here, which upon later inspection was actually 25. I didn't realise this when I was climbing up the side of the hill though, going round every corner and switchback at 7mph wondering why I wasn't at the top yet. I eventually made it, and began down the other side.

The wind had been blowing from the west all morning, but I think it must have kicked up a gear at this point because the downhill was hugely unsatisfying for all the hard work i'd put in. I was thinking of the best way to explain this to someone earlier, and best analagy I could think of is this. You know when you're walking in a swimming pool, but you obviously can't walk as easily or as fast? That's exactly the same as pedalling into a headwind. Downhill in a headwind is slightly better, but you just don't go that fast and get completely battered by the air.

Anyway, by this point I had two more summits to reach. One was a kind of mini-looking one on the map, and I should have known better to think it was. It was a short and steep one, which are always the deceptive ones. I had a longish gradual downhill from here into the wind, that was hard work but better than uphill. Because the landscape is so vast, you can see the straight road ahead of you for 20 miles. I thought I saw a petrol station way off in the distance that was something to aim for, but by the time I got to it I realised it was just a tree. Damn. To put me in a further bad mood, my cycling pet peeve of all pet peeves occurred. The one thing that annoys me more than anything is the need for overtaking on a road that everyone is going the same speed on anyway. It doesn't affect me usually, because I always get overtaken. But people overtaking other people when they are oncoming does affect me, because it means I've got a car travelling at about 70mph in my lane towards me, leaving me no choice but to have to pull right over onto the verge to make rude gestures at them.

The final hill was a long one, partly because it was long in actual milage, and partly because I was feeling sapped from 7 hours in the sun. I'm not sure how well time translates over here, but well over an hour on a hill is a long time. When I was at the top I had a 4 mile
downhill to Eureka where I was stopping. On arrival, I went to the only petrol station I could see, and helped myself to a 44 floz fountain drink. (I don't know what that is in normal measurements but it was just what I needed.) I found a tiny bit of wifi from somewhere and managed to get emails. While I was sat there, someone told me which of two RV parks were better to stay at, fortunately it was the one that was about a mile back uphill. Excellent, I thought, and begrudgingly got back on and went up to it. I was glad I did when I arrived, the other one looked a bit of a dump. I'm not adverse to having a shower in one that has been a bit neglected, but I am fairly partial to the clean ones, which made the uphill worth it. The woman that saw me only charged me $5 to camp, and the piece of grass I'm on is well sprincled, which is quite a luxury when it comes to putting tent pegs into the driest state in the US.

That pretty much brings me to now, I'm in a Diner/Casino, though though think less Las Vegas and more Wild Wild West. The casino part is in a side room to where I am now, making it seem slightly taboo to go in there. I had traditional fish and chips tonight, which I must say was a good effort. The fish was Halibert rather than Cod, but I can't really fault them on that because I'm not sure they know what a cod is here.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Austin, a place that shares it's name with the hometown of Lance Armstrong. It's a 68 mile ride, and is easier than today was (I hope), with the rest of this downhill I'm on now, followed by a very slow uphill, and then a weird kind of mountain complex that is a bit like a crab claw. The only thing that will mess it up is the wind, so I think I'll try and get some good
miles in while the air is cooler. That reminds me, I somehow got sunburnt on my shoulders THROUGH my top, and managed to miss putting suncream round my eyes this morning so I look a bit like a panda now.