Day 11

The ride from Elko, NV to Salt Lake City, UT was wild and woolly from the start. With breakfast at 0500 with a load time/start time of 0600, we were poised for a 117 mile ride. Unfortunately, the Nevada DOT was doing construction 10 miles down the road that would not allow our passage. Consequently, our ride leader put our slower riders in the two vans along with their bikes on the roof racks and took them 20 miles down the road through the construction and dropped them off for a 97 mile ride. He then returned with the vans to the beginning of the construction at the 10 mile point and picked the rest of us up at the rest stop. Our 10 warmup ride took us out of Wendover with a 20 kt tailwind and overcast skies. By the time we got to the rest stop, it began raining and the wind picked up still more. After loading the vans with our bikes, we headed through the construction zone and then offloaded our machines. We were zipping along at 25 mph when the rain caught us along with some pea sized hail. Fortunately, our speed helped us outrun this slow moving storm and we only got mildly wet. Sure could have been worse! It was sooooooooo cool riding 28-35 mph on the flat, smooth road adjacent to one of America's true "proving grounds" for speed, the Bonneville Salt Flats. Strangely enough, they didn't look too fast to me and it was because they were wet from recent storms. Looked pretty gooey! The clouds and cool temps with prevailing winds from the west made for a fast ride. I didn't check my average speed but I'll bet it was darn close to 24 or 25. And even though I tried to push a bit, I still took the time to look around and smell the roses. More gorgeous mountain ranges and lots of sage brush! About 25 miles out, we headed along the south edge of the Great Salt Lake for almost 10 miles. Grand dame indeed! Riding this frontage road to the hotel was pleasant, with no traffic all the way in. Just had a wonderful shower and cleaned up, had a snack and I'm now waiting for my luggage. After 10 days and 800+ miles, I've decided that the "honeymoon is over." With 3000+ miles remaining, we need to pace ourselves for the 10 days to Pueblo and then 10 more to St Joe, MO and 10 more to Indy and 10 more to Erie, PA. So far, so good. Thanks to you all for reading and enjoying my adventure. I sure appreciate your humor, encouragement and friendship.