day29 57mi 5:46 panguitch,UT

Grabbed a cup of o.j. and 2 small danishs from the continental breakfast and then ate breakfast at a cafe around the corner. Got on the road and there was about 3 miles of slightly rising roller and then the climb started right away. Met an english guy named chris from essex,U.K. and we rode together for about 40 minutes. IT was difficult to talk and climb at the same time. I was gasping for breath. Anything above around 8,000ft and I can't get a full breath. Chris pulled off and I followed him, we ate alittle and thenIwas getting chilly so I started up again. Route 148 was closed and I decided to go for it because I could always turn around and come back down if it was too bad. The road was dry and I went around the sign and started climbing. I had already passed a sign for 9900ft and I knew I only had about 600ft of climbing left. 3 park vehicles came down the road and I flagged the last one down and he said that it was clear except for a couple of patches of snow. THe road wound around these high alpine meadows and it was wonderful not having to worry about cars. I saw some fantastic panorama views and got some pictures. I didn't see a summit sign which was a little disappointing. I came to the end and went around the closed sign and sat down for lunch. Score another one for the cyclists which makes 2, but the cars are still winning. I iced my achilles in a snowbank as I ate some peanut butter/banana crackers. A guy on a time trial bike saw me and came over to talk. He was doing about 15,000 ft/climbing that day. The first nine miles of the descent were fun except for the cracks in the road. My butt did not like those at all. I camped at a koa and should have kept going because it was only 4:30. I['m getting kind of sick paying $20 just to sleep on some grass and get a shower, maybe. Walked to the store to get some groceries and saw a handcycle on a trailer. I aksed a man I saw if it was his and he said 'yes.' I talked with him for a bit and he said that he rides up 6-7 miles up the road and then turns around and comes back down. That road is uphill and steep. I hit 40+ coming into town. It was very humbling and grounding to talk to him. It kind of slapped me across the face and made me realize that I'm not doing anything compared to him. I ate dinner and was laying in my tent and decided to eat another dinner in town. I had some brisket whichI've never had before and it was good even though it was expensive. I came out to my bike and someone had tried to cut my bike lock. I left all my bags at camp, but I was still a little disappointed. I guess you just have to be carefull wherever you are. Went back to my tent and fell asleep.

day28 24mi 2:14 ceder city,UT

Rolled into ceder city just after 9a.m. Did some laundry at a koa and met a guy who did the laundry for the koa for a fee. He was in the navy for 28yrs and now he works here. picked up some groceries and ate in a park. 2 older guys were there who talked to me about riding and they both lived up in the hills and were kind of bitter and everybody was out to screw them blah,blah,blah. I really just watned to eat my lunch in silence, but I was nice enough. They kept telling me to wear a hunting/fishing vest and I could carry a lot more on it than my bike jersey. I wanted to try and catch a movie, but they started showings at 4:30 and I didn't want to wait that long. I scheduled a massage for the earliest time at 5'o clock. Got a hotel and just put my feet up. Today was an active recovery day. Stopped by a bike shop and picked up an extra spoke. Got a massage froma girl named bridgette and she tried to work the knot out of my quad. Not as great as stephanie back home, but good. Stopped at a braun books and picked up 'the road' that mielko had read and said was good. Got a bloody nose before I fell asleep and wasn't looking forward to the 10,000 foot pass tomorrow.

day27 91mi 8:14 12mi N of ceder city,UT

Would love to come visit you girls in boulder, its only about 300 miles out of the way. Shoot me an e-mail leftd@usa.com

Woke up and got started around 8:30. I couple of climbs to start the day and I got into milford around lunch and ate at penny's cafe. Had a triple decker sandwich and iot was pretty gtood. I had a head/crosswind for about 15 miles, but it wasn't that bad and I got to see how I would do if the wind shifted into my face instead of at my back. I rode up a neverending summit and decided to camp after the descent.I reached the descent and I saw a town just a little down the road. It was actually about 20 miles away and my sense of distance was thrown off by the lights. I decided stupidly to try and make it into town. It was getting dark and I put on my reflective vest but couldn't find my red light. I think I forgot it in my tent and when I shook the dust out in the morning it fell out. I eventually came to my senses after it got completely dark and stopped by a low stone wall and camped on the side of the road.

day26 97mi 7:35 30mi se of gunnison,UT

Agony & Ecstacy
Today was agony and ecstacy. Woke up and left early. I'm kind of getting sick of eating oatmeal for breakfast. It was cold so I had arma nd knee warmers on. It got cold last night, Once I got out of my tent to pee and was shaking by the time I came back from the restrooms 20yds away. My left inside quad decided it didn't want to play fairly early and that made the uphills pretty miserable. My achilles felt relatively fine and I ended up taking out my insole before lunch. The first pass felt kind of long and I ended up stopping on the descent at majors junction to refill my bottles and grab a bag of cheetos. The old owner of the bar was talking about pot plants wich was kind of odd to me, but to each his own. The sacramento pass climb seemed to go on forever and I kept hoping,wishing, praying for the summit sign around every corner. Eventually I summitted but I had to stop a 4-5 times for my left quad because I would get a sharp pain every once in a while. Just after getting into baker I saw another cyclist and we rolled over to a restaurant he said was good. They opened at 3:30, so I bought a cream soda and we talked for a bit. His name was jeremy and he was a hippie/stoner from austin going to san fransisco. I waited around for a while, bought another cream soda and eventually ate across the road because it was almost 5 and the restaurant still hadn't opened. Jeremy left before I ate and told me he rode the milford to baker stretch at night and no cares ast him. He said there was a full moon and enough moonlight to see by. I ate a pizza and then decided to roll out. I stretched in town and massaged my quads. I filled up my bottles and rolled out. I passed into utah and the pavement once you hit utah was red for acouple of miles. It was a nice break from the varying shades of gray I have been seeing. I passed through gunnison and 2 dogs came out and started barking. 1 of them had broken its chain and it was dragging about 15 feet behind him. They just ran alongside and barked, but it was still unnerving. I came to one of those fake cattle gaurds across the road and one of them stopped for a second and then they kept on going. About 30 yds after that they both stopped and turned around. I was thinking about getting my pepper spray out, but it was in my handlebar bag and I needed the manueverability of both my hands and neeeded to keep an eye on what they were doing. I passed through a herd of cattle and the young ones were alitle skittish and would run along the side of the road. The others just stood there in the road loking at you with a bored expression on thier faces. I passed through another little herd of cattle and just down the road a car coming my way stopped and rolled down thier windows. It was 3 college girls from boulder on a roadtrip. They couldn't believe I was riding my bike across the country. We chatted for a while with their care sitting in the middle of the road. Eventually another car came by and the girls pulled over to the side of the road. I got some water from them and gave them directions to great basin national park which is where they were planning on camping. They drove off after wishin me good luck and I pedaled on. I kept riding and since I started in garrison only 5 cars had passed me in anhour and a half. It was absolutly perfect. I was having one of those zen days that holly talks about when everything is just 'right'. I think that I finally just relaxed and didn't worry about mileage, food,camping, friends, speed, terrain, anything. I kept riding glancing behind me every once in a while to check out the sunset. I didn't need to check behind me for traffic since you would hear the cars miles before they passed you. After a while some stars came out and I stopped to put on arm and knee warmers. I started up some ascent and it was amazing. It was like you weren't even moving or that you were in space. There was enough light to see about 10-20 feet in front of you and that was enough. It was so cool just to roll along and be content. I got a picture of whatever summit I reached and started down the backside. I sat up and just kept to the left of the white line. After I started to get chilly and not being able to warmup by pedaling I turned on a little side road for about 50 ft and set up my tent for the night. A total of 7 vehicles passed me after leaving gunnison 30 miles ago. Talk about desolate. I wke up to the full moon shining at me sometime in the night. It was so bright that I thought it was a car! There is no light pollution out her and you can see so many stars its incredible. It was an amazing day. The first half was agony with my quad and those never ending climbs that dragged on. The second half of the day was ecstacy with not acare in the world and being able to experience something that very few people get too. My quad didn't even bother me at al and my achilles felt pretty good.
How is the giro de talia and the maglia rosa going?

day25 82mi 6:21 ely,NV

Woke up and had breakfast with leeann and collin at 7:30. She made homemade biscuits and some egg,potato, sausage goulash. I filled up and had a couple of glasses of water for the day ahead. I hepled them load a 4wheeler onto a trailer and slipped on the loading ramp. I was o.k. and we got it on there without any trouble. I started out and immediately thought that something was wrong with my legs, but I was going up a false flat. Most of the terrain here is gradual climbing and descending with a valley in between. The terrain was gradual 6-10mph on the uphills and 15-30 on the downhills. I ate an apple and banana a couple of hours into my ride at the top of a summit and planted the apple core and poured a little bit of water on it to help it grow. Hopefully it will grow, but I'm not holding my breath. It has been a little greener today thatn the other days though. There has been little tufts of grass on the side f the road. not a lot, but some. Saw a deer or baby elk? on the opposite side of the road from me and it stayed about 100-150yds ahead of me trying to find a gap in the fence. After about 10 minutes of pedaling it finally found one, slipped through and bounded away from me. You don't see that in car. That is what is so neat about riding is that you see things that you normally wouldn't notice or find. Same thing with hiking. Anyway, I left a full 32oz bottle of water on the side of the road 30 miles before ely because I had enough to make it to and hopefully someone else could use it if they ran into trouble. I was peeing a lot more today and actually went while riding twice because I didn't want to stop. You just get going on a downhill, check the wind direction lean over to the left, check for traffic and go for it. Be quiet, its not that gross pros do it all the time and usually a teammate pushes them, opposite side of course. I rolled into ely and was excited to stay in a hostel, but no one knew what or where a hostel was so I camped at a koa down the road. Chatted with a girl who worked at the koa about my trip and about the navy since she contepplating maybe going in as a d.c.man or woman to be pc. Ate my last can of expired mixed veggies mar31 with some tuna and couscous. Had some fruit cocktail for desert. A biker (biker=motorcycle) stopped by and inquired about my trip and the gear I was using. Another of the koa employees stopped by and chatted with me for a while because he used to go cycling when he lived in massachusetts. Took a shower and noticed a lump on my right underarm, looks like an insect bite and I wil keep my eye on it. The 80 miles today didn't feel nearly as bad as going to eureka. I was better hydrated and left earlier in the day. I had to stop a couple of times for the pain in my right inside quad, but it would come and go.

day24 0 miles eureka,NV

Woke up early in my hotel room and couldn't fall asleep again. Shawne dropped by before he rolled out to ely. Laid around in bed all morning watching t.v. and made some couscous which I ended up throwing away because it tasted like crap. I think I should have used boiling water instead of hot water. Did some laundry and undated my ournal for the last couple days. bought some groceries and mailed home some more clothes and a couple of books that I finished. Took off my underside of the downtube bottle holder and sent it home because no bottles will fit without rubbing the tire. I think it is meant for those smaller euro bottles that are thinner and not as tall.Stopped by an antique museum and chatted with the lady there for awhile. Leeann (sp?) was nice enough to lend me her phone so I could call home. thanks again. I stopped in later after updating my blog at the library and she invited me to breakfast with her and her husband, rollin (sp?), the next morning. It was very refreshing to talk to her and chat with someone who shares a lot of the same views as I have. I accepted her gracious offer of a free breakfast and wandered off to eat lunch. Had another steak for lunch to try and get some iron in me. Shaved my face today because its so hot out and it is very wierd to be clean shaven after almost 3 months of scruff. Thought about shaving my legs because they are getting fuzzy and decided against it. I bougth some blackberries and ate them and they tasted like gross. They didn't taste like blackberries at all. It was pretty wierd. Watched a couple of basketball games and fell asleep.Thanks for the advice chris. I know what I should be doing, but sometimes I don't follow the advice. It is very hard to bring enough water for these huges tretches between towns and the water gets warm which makes it that much tougher to want to drink.

day23 102mi 7:44 eureka,nv

Woke up before the sun came over the tops of the mountains and drifted in and out until it finally punched over the top of them. Packed up and got on the road. Austin is located on a hillside and it is steep, about 8%. Made it into austin fairly early for lunch and had a sandwich and piece of pie. Talked with a couple of bikers, motorcyclists, who were on a weeklong vacation and one of them had done stp some years ago in a day and a half. There were 2 guys, dave and sam, sitting down to lunch also and they struck up a conversation with me about my trip and sam is doing the aids ride down in socal in the summer. He was nice enough to pick up my tab and gave me some granola bars before I took off. I bought some more water because the next town or anything was 70 miles away! I decided to try and make it there get a hotel and rest the next day. I set off and immediately hit 3-4 long switchbacks. There were a couple of lower passes that weren't that bad ,around 6500, and then a long relatively flat stretch for like 20-30 miles. Your sense of depth out here is really distorted. The road doesn't look that long before it turns, but it goes on for miles. Highway 50 is called the loneliest road in america. There is nothing out here. There is absolutely NOTHING out here. All you have to amuse yourself with are your thoughts. A lot of people would wave at me or give me a thumbs up as they drove by which boosted my spirits a bit. I took a little nature break at a rest stop that only had some trash cans and 2 picnic tables with an awning over them. A man in a pickup told me that there were 3 cyclists ahead of me and one guy on a recumbent heading west. I knew one of them was shawne but had no idea who the other 2 cyclists were. I was getting pretty tired and trying to make good time with the tailwind. I was eating a granola bar every hour and drinking nuun and taking endurolytes, but I still wasn't peeing that much. I was going through a lot of liquid. I didn't eat dinner last night and breakfast was nutella on some crackers. I haven't been very good about eating on the bike. I usually have a bottle and a half of nuun an hour and take a shot block about every hour, unless I forget. I think my main meals might be too big and that is why I feel sluggish after eating. It could also be the heat combined with the altitude. I don't really actually know whats going on, I just like to ride my bike and when I reach the atlantic ocean I have to stop because you can't ride your bike in the ocean silly. Maybe I've been out here by myself to long? The last 5 miles into eureka dragged on so long. I was crawling, going like 8 m.p.h. At this point you just play silly little mind games to keep yourself turning over the pedals. I was absolutely shot when I rolled into town. I asked around for the cheapest motel and just after I finished paying for the room shawne burst in the door and said whats up. He had gotten here around 3pm and was just bumming around town. He had already gotten a room for the night and I wish that we could have split one, but oh well. Unloaded all of my gear in my room and had my first shower in 2 days. I ate a good steak at the owl club casino and had 2 beers because well, I deserved them and tomorrow was a rest day. Shawne joined me for dinner and we sat around for a bit. He is leaving tomorrow for elle and said he would stop by in the morning before he took off. He rode 300 miles in 3 days. He is an ANIMAL. These aren't super flat either and there were stretches of 30,60 and 70 miles where there was nothing between you and the next town. Its 80 miles before you hit elle and there are some passes to climb. After dinner walked to chevron and bought a bunch of junk food. Streched for alittle bit, massaged my legs and tried to get tis huge knot out of my right quad. I drank about 50 ounces of water,no joke, and watched t.v. because I couldn't fall asleep. They have no pay phones in this town! and my cell doesn't get service. Sorry mom.