We started the day with a big bowl of oatmeal, again, with raisins, craisins and almonds... With two eggs on the side. The wife told us if w finished the bowl, we would be the first females to do it "and it would be only natural that that the only females who would be able to were bikers." I really tried hard, but the bowl of oatmeal seemed as endless as the desert. We ended up taking half of it to go.
We were pumped because we going to be out of Nevada within the first 10 miles of the day. Unfortunately, it took us 45 minutes to reach the Welcome to Utah sign, which was only 6.16 miles into our 83 hour day, because of the gusting headwinds. We were very exited about the that the welcome sign was large, that we had entered the third state of our journey, and had crossed into a new time zone. These were huge milestones. This was also our lay long day in the desert... And yes it was extremely long.
We ended up having 58 miles with 10-15 mph headwind or crosswinds. The first 25 miles were brutal as we were climbing our first of the passes of the day. It fatigued us early, even though we drafted each other. We had a small lunch that consisted of Snickers and the rat of or Oatmeal, and them began our second climb that felt like it took forever. It is amazing how hills look short and steep from a distance, and then you reach them and they are long, and still kind of steep.
At the end of the second pass we ate a can of chef boyardee each, which we proceeded to get all over our clothes, face, and arms. We looked like a fairly pathetic sight. The wind would just not give up. The third picture on this entry is taKen 7 miles after the beginning of our climb. The patch of trees in the middle right is 7 miles away (we inhaled our second lunch there). The third climb felt like an eternity, probably because of the wind and the notion that this was our last pad of the desert (small hill tomorrow, nothing technically labeled) And even though we had 13 miles from the top of the pass to Milford, the wind ruined our glorious descent, and we had to pedal downhill. My muscles were ruined. Mother nature was surely working hard to make us get the most of her desert. It was not a funny joke. That being said, the same wind that Lindsay and I have been bad mouthing has somewhat saved us, as it cooled us off and allowed us top survive the desert heat and loose less water through sweat. There is s positive in everything (most things at least). Sometimes you have to search a little harder.
We were happily re united with Subway (we had seen multiple wrappers on the side of the road, (sad, i know), and we were getting extremely excited). And now we are trying to pretend we are in a palace, and get some sleep.
We have 55 miles tomorrow to Cedar City. It is the end of Map 2. There may be wind, rain, hills, 100 heat. I don't think we really care what we are served at this point... We have made it through everything to the point beautifully. The fact of the matter is that we survived the desert (and laughed most of the way... We honestly had to pull over and half way dismount our bikes TWICE today because we were laughing so hard that we could almost not stay balanced--even with the wind). Tomorrow we have a date with a laundromat, a date with the bike shop to fix my hands, and a long date with relaxation, for a day. We are very much looking forward to this.
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