Well, it's been over a week since our last blog entry and a lot has happened since then...like all of Utah and half of Nevada. We last left our heroes in Escalante, UT, where Joe's derailleur had exploded and Terence was dead of cholera.
We don't really have time to recap all of the rides, so I'll give you the highlights. The rest day at Bryce Canyon was great. The park is beautiful and we managed to do a lot of cool stuff. Tyler and Robin went horseback riding, while Tim and I went hiking. Parents, stop reading here. At night, Joe, Terence, and Tyler decided to become professional bull riders so they entered the Ruby's Inn Rodeo. Not smart...all three ended up off the bull within two seconds. Terence's take: "I'd rather be mugged." Ok parents, you can start reading again.
Western Utah reminded us a lot of Western Kansas, hot, windy, and boring. When we reached Baker, NV, the mountains of Great Basin National Park came into view, giving us a welcome break from the monotony of the Utah desert. Most of Eastern Nevada followed a pretty predictable pattern, climb a big mountain, descend into a windy basin, repeat. The climbs haven't been too bad though, Nevada has actually been a lot easier than we expected. There aren't many towns on Highway 50 ("The loneliest Highway in America"). We're getting pretty used to signs that say "84 miles to next services." Nevertheless, Stan's been doing a great job of setting up SAG stops and providing us with water and peanut butter and nutella sandwiches. We may be the most pampered cross-country cyclists in history.
The big Nevada highlight came on the ride from Ely to Eureka. Halfway up our last climb of the day, Tim was...parents, stop reading here... [Joe now writing] chased for about 4 or 5 minutes uphill by a mountain lion. I was at the top of the hill, and Tim arrived, panting like crazy, and looking kind of wild. It turned out that he had seen a lion cross about 100 metres (this isn't Tim writing, I swear) in front of him, and then, when he passed it, it gave chase and ran after him up the hill for around a mile. I knew he was serious when he met me at the top saying, "Joe, do you have cell service? We have a legitamite [sic] emergency." We flagged down two cars to warn the others still en route of the danger. Luckily everyone made it into town safely, and we have a lovely stay in the county fair grounds. [Joe done writing]Parents, you can start reading again.
Tonight, we're in Middlegate, NV, a "town" of about 20 people. We're having a ton of fun hanging out and playing pool at the Middlegate Station Motel though. If you're ever in Middlegate, you should definitely check it out. You can't really miss it, since it's the only thing in town.
Anyway, that's it from here. Hopefully we'll have better Internet access over the next couple of days and we'll be able to bring you more frequent updates. Until then...
-Jon
