Day 11: Wendover to Salt Lake City -- Surreal Scenes on the Salt Flats

Miles: 119.5;
Riding time: 7:12
Avg speed: 16.6 ;
Max speed: 28;
Total trip miles: 877
Weather: clouds, overcast, threatened rain,
Alt change: flat
Flats today:0; Total Flats 2;
Ibuprofen: none
New Pictures are here.


The strain of successive hard days, amplified by the hour we gave back to Mountain Time when we arrived, showed as we straggled through the casino maze past an occasional all night player, into the Rainbow Cafe for 5:00 breakfast. Not much chatter, lots of coffee, short breakfast orders and the urge get a jump on today's long ride. Jack, Ricks brother sat alone at the counter with a light green tinge, having been up sick all night. Brad and Jay wanted to especially enjoy this, their last day and leave it all on I80. Jim, my doubles roomie, knowing he would not ride, was more relaxed and joking with the staff since he was spending the day with them in the van. Carole and Bob, who have gamely been sweeping the course loaded early and were given Gerard's blessing to roll out as soon as it was light enough to see since it would be an especially long day for them.

In the midst of the brisk luggage loading, laughter erupted and Gerard shouted something about "being shot from a cannon" as Zero appeared wearing a shiny chrome plated bicycle helmet. What a hoot ... and on this of all days! Our pace group from yesterday re-assembled and we added in staffers Sean the wrench and Judy as well as UK Dr. Sean and Leigh and were off. A few miles of soft pedaling and soon we were back with our old fickle friend, I80, knowing she would string us along, puncture our tires, and finally drop us in SLC.

The first 40 miles were through the salt flats. Absolutely spectacular landscape looking just like those computer generated scenes in some of today's movies. Stark mountains, perfectly flat white salt plains, low hanging dark clouds which separated sun beams pushing through. There was a rest stop 10 miles out with an observation platform overlooking the stark landscape, two locked rest rooms and a "pet area". Got our pictures there and took care of additional business and were on our way again 2x6 with a rigorous 1/2 mile rotation cycle enforced by our road boss, Chuck. The steady 10 mph wind from the southeast made pulling somewhat of a chore and kept the speed to 16-17 mph.
The miles following brought a series of at least 6 flats in this group. Great to have Sean our wrench along as he fixed them all in 1/3 of normal rider time. Finally Sean got one himself and he just waved us on. Cranking at 24 mph by himself he rejoined us in less than 10 minutes and then had the nerve to ask to skip a turn at the front. We passed a number of riders that had skipped the stop including Hans from Switzerland who climbed on the passing train. Hans had never ridden in a pace line before so this was all new to him. That makes sense since I'm not sure Switzerland has enough flat land to make that attractive. He very quickly caught on and was rather enjoying the experience.

At about 60 miles we hit the day's climbs -- gradual two mile 3-4% inclines that provided the natural excuse for a little catch-me-if-you-can between the two Sean's who took off like a couple of pointers retrieving a downed duck with rest of the pack scrambling to follow. I managed to hold off a late charge from Brad to crest behind those two, wildly out of breadth and legs screaming for relief. We all regrouped at the top and set off in neat array only to repeat this nonsense at the next grade up. This time, Jack was the man on a mission and stayed on the Sean's wheels to top out right behind them with Brad not far behind. The SAG truck was waiting for us at the top of that climb and we recollected and refueled with already fixed PB&J sandwiches, compliments of Jim. Sean the wrench traded rides (a bike for a van) with Gerard so now we had both Judy and Gerard to critique our riding, stopping, fixing, merging and exiting style. :-)


Once on the road again, our group of about twelve continued along, watching the dark low hanging rain cloud angling toward us trying to gauge pace, road direction and wind velocity and direction and so see if rain gear was going to be needed. One more flat forced some recalibration but in the end we managed to stay out of it entirely.

The last SAG stop was not quite 30 miles from the Comfort Inn. We agreed we would break into two separate single lines since the traffic was heavier and there was a growing amount of debris along I80. It's very hard to avoid berm gravel, scattered glass, truck tire carcasses and other vehicle junk in a double line. And, it's more dangerous as well. So, Brad, Dr. Sean, Jack, Chuck, Judy and I left together and soon had a brisk 20+ mph pace going, intent on beating the rain and getting off those saddles asap. I80 traffic picked up as we approached SLC and we had a few tricky spots at merge points, busy exits and narrow bridges. What a relief to get to our I80 exit point at the Great Salt Lake beach resort, that had flourished in the 1920's but was now a museum and gift shop -- a remnant of a bygone era.

From there the last 10 miles were on a zero traffic frontage road, still wet from the recent rain. We rolled into the Comfort Inn at 3:00 as the first group in after Tom, who is ALWAYS first to the motel. He'd been there since 1:00 already. On flat days like today, Tom gets on his aerobars and just goes like he's riding on an iron man tri-athalon -- which is exactly what he's training to do. Dr. Sean usually rides with Tom, but knew he had no chance of staying with him today. When we get into the Rockies, Sean, at 29, 130 lbs and quite fit will be first to the top again, but now it's all Tom on these flat long days.

The evening's route rap was very neat. Each of the 5 riders leaving here in SLC was given a certificate and the opportunity to share their impressions. Sam, Aldo, Brad, Jay and Dr. Dave all were sorry to leave, highly complimentary of the staff and unified in their sense that this had been one wonderful experience. I had grown especially fond of Brad and Jay having spent some time getting to know them both. Jay invited the whole group to his home for a cook out when we pass through Indy here he lives. And Brad lives in Columbus so I am very much hoping to get to ride with hims some on Wednesdays or the weekends. Sam and Dave's wives met them here before they return to Florida and Gettysburg respectively.

And Aldo -- well Aldo is one where God threw away the mold when He fashioned him. Aldo was born in Italy and founded, owns and still runs his fence manufacturing business in NYC with his two sons and staff. At 68 he rides 10,000 miles a year (I do have the right number of zeros) and rode strong and consistently on this tour. He is never at a loss to confer pithy advice through real life illustrations to all who will hear him out. Whenever I asked him how he was doing before, during or after a ride the answer was always "Not too bad". His parting advice to us was to take 15 minute lower body ice baths (4-6 buckets of ice) every night, followed by a hot shower, followed by a denatured alcohol derriere dousing.

Now it is SO great to have an off day!! The body needs a break -- especially the touch points to the bike. Clothes need to be washed which I took care of early. So nice to have clean stuff again. I patched both my punctured tubes in case I need them -- though everyone says the flats will cease once we get of the Interstate tomorrow. The bike case I had borrowed from Dave needed to be shipped since we have 12 riders joining us for ths next stage to Pueblo. For sure I do not want Gerard on my case.

In SF I realized that this case was not going to ship reliably from there. I was struggling to trust the Lord in this interruption to my well laid plans. Everyone else with a case to ship had done so easily. But it became clear why I still had that case at breakfast today when the thought hit me that Brad needed to ship his bike back to Columbus. Why not use the empty case to do that? I had already called UPS for a pick up yesterday, so Brad and I took off the bars, pedal and wheels and sandwiched all that into the hard case. At 11:15 the UPS lady arrived just as Brad was boarding his airport shuttle. Both of us felt quite relieved!

Dave and Cathy - thanks so much for coming to my aid once again for this trip with this second hard case application. Hope you guys get the chance to connect a bit with Brad when he delivers the case to your house next week. He will make a great add to any Wednesday evening group. Enthusiastic, strong and getting stronger new rider, eager to learn from old (as in experienced of course) pros that you both are. No problem trusting his wheel. Brad was also eager to ride "Ride for Pete's Sake" so expect to see him there". And Cathy, THANKS for knowing this effort is in your capable hands. I am praying you give it over where needed to His hands. :-)

And Pete, I got a chance to brag on you again this morning at breakfast! Wish you could be here!

Tomorrow it's on the road again to Pueblo with 12 new riders to greet and meet, new scenes around every bend, new views over every hill and new challenges each day! What privilege and a joy to be able to experience this!