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Back into the desert. This was supposed to be an easy day - follow US-6/191 to I-70, downhill for 65 miles. However, there were several long climbs, and some really nasty headwinds.
The wind was out of the south today, and we were mostly heading south, so it was mostly in our faces. It picks up around mid-morning, probably when the earth and the air start to warm up, and gusts on and off until things start to cool down again in the late afternoon. It was particularly bad when we were merging onto I-70, when it was trying to push us into traffic. (We're done with I-80, but I guess we're not done with the interstates.) No more flats, but back in the motel room, I pulled 2 wires out of the rear tire. I've been using these Nashbar "self-healing" tubes, which probably just re-branded Slime tubes. In any case, they seem to have been doing their job, as I only lost about 20 pounds of pressure.
Dinner was a buffet at a truck stop - boiled beef slices, fried chicken, boiled vegetables, iceberg salad bar, and really good brownies. Since tomorrow is a long day in the desert, I may want more than the 2 water bottles I carry. I have a Nashbar hydration pack that comes with a Hydrapak bladder. However, the Hydrapak bite valve has got to be the worst ever designed. It has a solid core, with a flexible rubber sleeve that's supposed to seal around the core, but doesn't. At best, it dribbles; at worst, it sprays. I stopped putting Gatorade in it shortly after I bought it (a couple months ago), because who wants a sticky bike and sticky legs? Anyway, I bought a Camelbak bite valve to retrofit onto this. Only problem is that the Hydrapak tubing is a just little bigger than the Camelbak, so I ran a zip-tie around it. We'll see if it holds. |
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1000 miles! We've come 1000 miles from San Francisco, and we're still
in Utah. The states are bigger here than I'm used to.
A lot of the roadway is gravel pressed into tar, which is supposed to
provide traction in the rain and snow or something, but it makes for a
rough ride. The rumble strip runs down the center of the shoulder,
and you can't even see it. They seem to follow 
The hotel room, by the way, is huge. It has 3 double beds, so no one
has to sleep on a roll-away tonight, and there's enough open space in
the middle of the room to hold a barn dance. On the other hand, the
air conditioner doesn't work, and the mosquitos are bad.