Day Sixty-Eight - The Final Countdown.

Today marks one week until I am hoping to arrive in San Francisco!

I woke up this morning at 5:45, to find it absolutely freezing cold. I knew it got cold overnight in the desert, but up until now I'd never experienced it. I had to try and find my hat and gloves at the bottom of my bag before getting ready, which in turn was made harder because my hands were so cold. I went down the road for an omlette, that was completely unsatisfying, leading me to order two slices of French toast. This came to $18 after tip, so perhaps I'll fill up on stuff from a petrol station next time. There was also a powercut for about half an hour, so all this was done in darkness.

I got on the road by 8:30, and started out with a downhill for about 10 miles. This was followed by a very straight road for about 30 miles. This was relatively painless, and I hit halfway in about two and a half hours. The wind began picking up though, which as usual spoilt plans. It probably was blowing harder than it has done ever before, making me hope that the windspeed doesn't increase exponecially the further west I go. I also passed a man wandering in the desert without anything. I didn't stop to ask him if he needed anything though, because I assumed that if he did then he would ask.

I reached 55 miles or so only encountering one hill, which was quite good going. The last 15 miles or so would prove to be awful though, and took probably as long as the first half (if not more) to do. It was a combination of the midday heat, an inquenchable thirst due to the dry air and my overall tiredness finished me off, and I had to prop my bike up to make a small amount of shade and rest for a bit.

The rest of the ride took close to two hours to do 10 miles, 3 of which were downhill. I guess that shows how often I had to stop. It's not so
much that the temperature isn't hot (because it is), it's more the strengh that the sun is shining down on you. It completely saps your energy, and there is no shade to escape to.

Enough complaining. I rolled down into Austin at around 3pm having lost all the time i'd made up earlier. I went for my now routine massive rehydradion from a petrol station, before thinking about somewhere to stay. I'm starting to find that because Nevada is so sparse, they tend to do motels rather than csmpsites because they are more popular, especially in the quiet in-between towns like this one. That, and the fact that I was feeling positively grim made the decision to stay in a motel a no-brainer. I went to the one called the Cozy Mountain Motel, because it had been recently refurbished and had the best sign. It was only $40 too. I let a guy go in front of me in the queue, who ended up getting the last queen bed in the place, but I'm fine with what I have.

Tomorrow I'm planning a lie-in of sorts, before heading out on the main route (as opposed to the Carroll Summit Alternate) to another tiny place called Middlegate. The Carroll Alternate takes you off Highway 50 'for a change', up and over a summit. I'd much rather stay on the main route and take the long downhill, with one smaller summit. After then, I'm not sure where because it's on my last map, which is exciting because it's becoming more real now.

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.

Day Sixty-Six - Winds.

I had quite a disturbed night last night, I found out that I'd put my tent up in a place that fighting animals frequented, with bouts every couple of hours. I woke up at about 5:30 though, feeling fairly refreshed. I packed everything up, and wanted to go to the place accross the street to eat, but it wasn't open, so I had to go to the place I camped at. This was no big deal really, but I kind of resented paying $10 for an omlette. The guy that owned it was nice, but miserable, and had a note in the menu telling 'foreigners' what is the US custom for tipping, which was again the upper bound of what I've been doing.

So I set off at about 8 o'clock, and I was straight onto my first hill. It was 15 miles long from bottom to top, and because of the time difference I'd lost an hour, so it was hotter an hour earlier. I also was down to my navy blue top, something that I hadn't worn for a while because it would make me too hot, and it did just that. It didn't take too long to get to the top though, and I was onto the downhill the far side. The downhill is where I usually make up time that I lost on the uphill, but this wasn't to be re case here. The downhill was straight into the wind, that both made progress about as slow as I was going uphill, but also sapped my energy. This went on for about 12 miles before turning west and out of the headwind. It was still affecting me from the side though, and luckily there was an unmarked pub that I could stop at at around halfway. I stopped here for about an hour, before heading the 5 miles to the summit of the next pass. It was steeper this time, and the fact that it was hot didn't help. It took close to an hour to get to the top, after which I had a 20 mile steady downhill to Ely, the end point for today. The wind picked up again here, and held me up further.

I eventually made it to Ely, and went straight to the Motel I was staying at. It was a Motel 6, which are I think the cheapest of the big chains. I was completely sapped of energy by this point, and the nearest campsite was a few miles out of town. I booked in, went for something to eat, and then came back to do some much needed handwashing of clothes.

Tomorrow I head to Eureka (another one), which is 78 miles and 4 passes away. It sounds tough, but the uphill gradients aren't too steep so it should be easier than the past couple of days.

Day Sixty-Five - Independance Day.

I woke up at 5:45 today, keen to get on the road as early as possible. I knew today would be long, but I wasn't sure how long, so by setting out early I could make the best of it.

I left my room at about 7:30, and went in search of food. The person who I asked at the restaurant last night told me everything would be shut, but I found a petrol station that wasn't. I opted for the only thing I could find - preheated breakfast muffins in a heater. They weren't great, and were expensive for what they were, but it had to do. I left at around 8am, but not before my bike decided to spontaneously fall over (it does that a lot because of the uneven weight spread over it), crushing all of the Doritos I'd planned for lunch. Great.

So I set off, passing a diner and a nice hotel on my way out. I was a bit annoyed, but there was no way to know it was there before, and I wasn't going to stop again. As I said yesterday, the route was over three passed, with two valleys and a long drawn out downhill to the 84 mile finish line. The first pass wasn't too bad, partly because it wasn't too high or too hot, and partly because I was feeling relatively fresh. I can't remember exactly how far it was, but it didn't take too long to reach the top, and I went over and down into a massive valley. It was deceptive how big it was, but put it this way, from the top of one side, you could probably see the road about 15-20 miles further up on the other mountains the far side. If you spotted the tiny spec of a car coming down, you could easily wait 10 minutes before it overtook you. Massive.

Luckily, I could freewheel about two-thirds of the way accross, because the far side was steep. This took me quite a lot longer to conquer, especially as it was hotting up by this point. I reached the top, and freewheeled down the far side, to a view that was fairly similar to what I had just come accross. The downhill wasn't as long this time though, and had to pedal a lot of the valley. There was a tree by the side of the road though, that I thought would be a good place for a break. Unfortunately though, many many ants and other bugs called that shade home, and I quickly got back into the sun to escape being eaten alive.

So I started up the third hill, which wasn't as bad as the second but harder than the first. I remember the exact mileage was 52 miles at the third summit, leaving a long, gradual downhill to my end point. This wasn't as easy as i'd thought it'd be. I was getting tired by this point, but then I knew I would because I always do when I miss out on a proper lunch. A headwind was brewing like usual, and a thunderstorm with occasional lightning bolts were on the horizon.

Progress slowed, but I arrived at about 3pm local time having crossed the state line into Nevada, marking my transition into Pacific time. I stopped for a drink in the first place I saw, which happened to be a coffee shop, restaurant, campsite and motel. I didn't know all this until I arrived, and the guy who served me told me that I could camp for free if I ate there. Sounded good to me, so I accepted and here I am eating. At $17 for a Thai curry, it's a little pricy, but I prefer to think of it as camping with a $2 meal.

I think I'm heading to a place called Ely tomorrow, said 'ellie' rather than 'ee-lie'. I can't remember how far it is, it's either 63 or 78. I'm hoping for the former.

Day Sixty-Four - Easy Start.

I had a fairly restless night last night, facing a catch 22 situation of being either too hot, or waking up with a headache because it's too cold. As a result I didn't get up until 6:25, and didn't get on the road until about 9:30, after going to a hardware store to pick up some better tape to fix the front racks better.

The first 20 miles or so were easy, a gentle decline through landscape that was wide open, something that was quite a novelty compared to what I'd been going through recently. After that, I had a fairly steady uphill, that was surprisingly easy going, and not as steep as I was expecting. It didn't slow me up too much either. I soon reached the 6500ft summit, and cruised downhill to Minersville.

I stopped for lunch in a petrol station/diner combo for around an hour, not minding the time because Milford was only about 15 miles away. I eventually left and headed down the road, again taking less time than I thought. I was quite grateful for this, because historically the days after rest days have been hard to get back into the swing of cycling.

When I arrived in Milford, I was quite surprised at how quiet it was, I was expecting a town slightly larger. Anyway, I followed the directions to the RV park where it suggested camping, which was basically a shingle car park with a tap in the middle. There are so many reasons why this place wasn't suitable, so many that I can't be bothered to mention. I therefore headed to a motel that advertised '$34.99 rooms.' Brilliant, I thought. It turned out that sign was painted years ago, and I couldn't really dispute it because the owners barely spoke English. So I got into my room, spoke to home, and went out to eat at the restaurant next to where I was. It was here that it struck me as to the relevance to tomorrow, in that I think EVERYWHERE will be shut. I therefore stocked up on snacks, and I'm just hoping that somewhere is.

I've got an 84 mile stretch to a place called Baker tomorrow, which is the longest stretch without services I have left. I do have plenty more of 70 and 60 miles, but I suppose I can take some kind of milestone from it. I also pass into Nevada, and Pacific Time in about the last 5 miles. The route consists of three hills, two with an incline roughly like today, and one that is quite a bit steeper. We will see how all that pans out.

Day Sixty-Three - Rest Day V.

Today was a very lazy day, spent doing nothing more than venturing out twice for food, and snoozing / watching TV. The weather was fairy overcast and didn't get any higher than about 70 degrees, so it wasn't as though I missed out on a huge amount.

Tomorrow I am heading to a place called Milford, which is around 55-60 miles or so. It's also fairly flat too, something I'm quite glad about. I say flat, it has one hill, but I don't think it goes on for longer than about 10 miles or so. The route is due north however, which is annoying, but it's going up to Highway 50 which is pretty direct, so I don't mind too much.

Day Sixty-Two - Cedar Breaks.

Today was another slow start, but the thought of having a rest day tomorrow was motivation enough. I was on the road again by 8:30, and was straight onto the uphill I had to overcome today.

The climb today has only one word to describe it. Long. It was 36 miles of continual uphill through terrain that reminded me quite a lot of that in Missiouri, very green, with pine trees on either side. There wasn't a huge amount going on either side of the road to be honest, and the only thing worth commenting on was how it got quite a lot cooler by the time I had reached the top. It was also increasingly overcast, with ominous looking black clouds coming overhead.

It took exactly four hours to get to the top, but the downhill into cedar city of about 25 miles took about half an hour/ 45 minutes. On arrival, I found a motel that had everything I needed for $36 per night. Bargain. It's perfectly adequate inside too, so I'm happy

Sorry for the briefness of this post, I was just about asleep before remembering I hadn't done one, and I wanted to make sure I got the main stuff down. If I remember anything else I'll put it on tomorrow.