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Day 11
The wind makes all the difference.

ROUTE: Wendover NV to Salt Lake City UT DISTANCE: 117 Miles WINDS: NW hard early, then more manageable by late morning...headwinds into town.
WEATHER: Windy, 55 at departure.  78 by SLC.  Mostly sunny with a light shower first 20 miles. TERRAIN: Mostly flat with a couple 300 foot rises near the middle TOTAL CLIMBING: 1530 feet, mostly all in the middle

DAILY DOINGS: Our last night in a casino...thank heaven from the staff perspective.  Much, much to fancy for a bike ride group.  I want to be able to find my eating place and just go to my room...but in casinos, you have to navigate your way through a maze of slot machines, roulette tables, and smokers to at least 4 dead ends before you might stumble into the restaurant.  But the rooms are great and when you finally find the restaurant the food is fantastic...I just don't like all the diversions.  Our rooms are always remote to where we park and parking is always inconvenient to stock vans, etc.  Give me a one story Best Western any day.

We woke early (body time earlier than ever) due to the long mileage for the second day in a row.  Today's ride was scheduled to be 117 our second longest mileage day; however, we knew of about 10 miles of construction a short distance from the motel that would cut into our day.  We had to load everyone up on the vans and shuttle to about the 17 mile point on route.  We loaded about half of the riders at the motel and drove them through the work area.  Our plan also was to let the remainder ride to the construction beginning where we loaded them at mile 9 and then took them through to mile 17.  It worked well and everyone got back on their bikes and were off with a blistering tailwind in short order. 

The riders that rode to the pickup point were met with strong, swirling winds leaving town as the road descended into the Salt Flats out of some foothills, some even walked for a while to keep from being blown over.  But when they leveled off, they received a pretty good kick in the pants until they got across the flats.  The flats I'm referring to is the Bonneville Salt Flats...and I do mean flat and salty too.  After dropping everyone off, I sat by the roadside and took photos of riders as they zoomed by enjoying the winds that were killing them yesterday.  What a difference a couple of degrees of direction makes.  Yesterday the 50 MPH cross winds really made it even tough to stand up, let alone ride.  Where as today the winds were tolerable in the upper 20s but behind us most of the morning...sweet to say the least.

To say today's ride was a bit desolate would be an understatement.  Many places it was just flat, white terrain for as far as you could see in any direction.  On the horizon you could see the faint outline of mountain ranges, but they were over 50 miles away...what a waste land.  We were through the salt flats in about 40-50 miles but the landscape didn't change except for the color.  The only thing entertaining along this desolate area was reading the messages people had spelled out in rocks gathered along the roadside and arranged in letters on the salt flats. 

There was only one place for the first 100 miles that had food and it was just a small store out in the middle of nowhere (right).  We made an adjustment to the SAG mileage so we could balance the stops a bit better.  Our second SAG was supposed to be at 91 miles, but there was real food at 99.  So Barb moved the Sag to 70 to better accommodate the riders pacing.  From our last SAG you could see the mountain that prefaced Salt Lake City...it looked like it was just up the road, but it took about an hour to get to it...it just wouldn't get any closer and when it did, we started to pick up a pretty good headwind for the final few miles to the motel.

I finally got to ride after all the excitement of the morning shuttle and at the last SAG, I put the hammer down to catch up with a group (Larry, Scott, and David) I wanted to ride with.  I was feeling pretty good and was gaining on them on the horizon...just a few more miles and I'd have their wheel.  I caught up with them after about a 9 mile time trial and just as I got to them, my rear wheel started to wobble...geeze, a flat.  It was my first for the season...OK...get off and fix it and chase them down again.  I got it fixed in quick order and jumped back on to push another time trial to regain my quest...just over a hill, there was Alan with a flat with two riders helping him put it back together.  I had to stop.  It didn't take long to get him back ready to ride and just as I was about to resume my chase, I noticed a wire sticking out of my front tire.  I pulled it out, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Darn, another flat.  OK, another quick change.  Meanwhile, the Miller group rode up...oops!  The Millers had a flat right by me.  That's 3 in this spot!  I called Karen in the van to come help because the Millers were out of tubes due to the previous 8 flats they'd had this day.  Karen said she'd be to us as soon as she got the 3 tires fixed that were with her about 2 miles from where we were...geeze...what's with all this?  All in all, it was about 30 minutes in that spot for me fixing all the flats that came by...finally off again, but much too much time had passed to even think about catching anyone so I did the next best thing...I stopped at McDonalds at the 99 mile point and had a milk shake.

It's been a long first leg...11 days without a break.  This is our longest leg on any of our rides and I think we're all ready for a break.  The riders are all planning on sight seeing around town and the staff are gearing up to welcome 6 new riders.  Even with being busy, I'd like to think tomorrow will be a good rest day, but I'm having a wisdom tooth extracted...by an oral surgeon so I'm sure my day will be just peachy.  I don't know, maybe I'll be feeling pretty good as long as the drugs don't wear off.  I'm hoping for a speedy recovery since I was really looking forward to the next leg into Colorado.  We'll see how it goes.  Anyway, we got everyone into our first rest day safely...WAY TO GO RIDERS!!!  Looking forward to another great week ahead as we go even higher than we've been already.  Join us for another exciting week.

DAILY DISCERNING DIALOGUE:

"I need a retread butt."  Linda at the last SAG.

"We've got to take out a small second mortgage to pay for all the tubes we went through today."  Bernie when they had their 10th flat of the day.

"You boys need to start saving to pay for tubes when we ride our cross country in '07."  Mike Miller to his sons.
"There goes my college fund."  Derek

I got word today that one of our riders had a run in with a snake while using the outdoor facilities near the SAG stop.  I asked him, "What did you do when that snake crawled over your foot?"
"Peeing came to an abrupt halt," Was his reply.

 

 

 DAILY SAMARITANS: After the shuttle across the construction, I drove up the road through everyone and waited for the riders to ride through.  After plenty of time for everyone to ride by, I seemed to be missing 3...Larry, Scott, and David...where could they be?  I had to drive several miles forward before being able to turn around since I was on the interstate and in the salt flats.  By the time I got turned around I finally found them scooting along close to where I had been parked in the first place.  When I caught up with them, Larry pointed out that Scott was a mess...covered with mud from head to toe.  Seems they were riding by a man trying to drive through the salt flats but this time of year the flats are pretty wet and muddy...but they look solid.  Hey, they race cars on it...when it's dry though.  Anyway, our heroes decided to help him get out of the muck.  They marched out and began pushing the car while the driver goosed the accelerator...spiiiiiiiiiin went the wheels...splaaaaaash went the mud.  Luckily, Larry and David saw what was coming and was able to avoid getting splattered...but not Scott.  He looked like a kid that just came in from playing with the pet pig.  So much for being a good Sam.  As it turned out the guy was hopelessly stuck and our heroes had to leave after calling for a tow.  Nice try guys, you get an "A" for effort.

DAILY DIGITAL DELIGHTS

Paul demonstrated his black smith skills to help Rose with the mud in her cleats.  But the ground looked dry and solid when I walked out to the bathroom.

 

This became a common sight all day today...the entire Team Miller stopping the van for help with a flat.  "We had so many flats that it became a reflex action...see the van, tap the helmet!" Explained Mike.  I think 10 was the last count I heard.

Mary tried and tried to get her key to work, but to no avail.  Then she read the wording on the card...High Desert Inn...wasn't that were we stayed two nights ago?  Try the key with "Comfort Inn" on it tonight.  It will probably work better.

Think I'll stop in for a bite...nice sign directing us to the sandwich shop...must be the desert spelling.

Scott will be from now on known as "Pig Pen."  This photo didn't tell the whole story.  This was just the beginning after the incident in the salt flats.  Later he lost his chain and had a flat...all dirty projects to add to the already muddy start to his day.  By the time he got to the last SAG, he was covered with grease, road grime, and mud.  All he needed to do was walk out into the muddy flats to complete his day.

Rose couldn't decide which bike to ride through the mud...hers or Johnny's.

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