Another great day on the bike! The group seemed pretty subdued - tired! - as we gathered for breakfast. We've had a few draining days and we all needed some food to get us moving. We ate at a small cafe and they just brought out bowls of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and pancakes and everyone dived in. It was a pleasantly cool and slightly overcast morning as we left Lovelock behind. Much shorter ride today, the first third of it on back roads that were surrounded by green fields. A very peaceful change from the I-80 riding! After the first SAG stop we got on I-80. At first the shoulder was covered in gravel and not very fun to ride on but it cleared up after a bit and we were able to ride along two abreast with a rumble strip between us and the traffic. Usually the semis will move to the left lane as they go past us which is nice. Also they usually suck us along for a little bit as they go by which isn't always unpleasant! At the second SAG stop, Fiona and I decided to take our milkshake break. The delay put us as the last riders out on the road. Not necessarily a bad thing. The motels usually don't have our rooms ready until 2:00 or 3:00 so if you get there earlier you just end up sitting around. So we sat around and enjoyed our shakes. BTW, the best shake award still stays with The Edelweiss in Auburn although these today were pretty decent, especially considering that we were at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Or I mean Nevada. ;) So eventually we headed back out and resumed riding on I-80. We had 16 miles on the freeway then about another 9 to get into town and to our motel so we weren't too far out. After we'd been on the freeway about 4 miles, I noticed that my bike was riding funny. Like bouncing kind of. Fiona looked back and my rear tire was low. We pulled off and looked at it and one of the small wires from a blown tire had worked it's way into my tire and punctured the tube. Flat repair time. One guy has already had 6 and this was the first between the two of us so we've been lucky so far. We got it changed fairly quickly and continued on. It was still a bit low but rideable. Once we got off the freeway, one of our vans was sitting there watching for us so we stopped to finish inflating the tire. I joked with Gene, our driver and mechanic, that the milkshakes hadn't been enough and we'd also stopped for nachos. Obviously a lie since there was NOTHING to stop at between the milkshake location and Winnemucca. We may be getting a bit of a reputation about the milkshakes. Anyway, continued on into town, stopping to take a photo of a dead snake by the side of the road - Fiona's first - and getting caught in a brief rain storm.
After we checked in and cleaned up, I strolled back down the street to take a photo of the Flying J. I helped open that store back about 25 years ago. Lots of memories there! I passed a Taco Time and walked in on an impulse to grab a burrito as a snack and munched on that as I walked. Nice peaceful stroll through town. Felt very relaxing. Back to the motel for route rap then over to the restaurant for dinner where I enjoyed a tri-tip sandwich with sweet potato fries. Back to the room to get things ready for tomorrow, write some postcards, etc. We don't have to pack the van until 8:30 tomorrow so we are all excited about a little extra sleep! Just 56 miles to Battle Mountain tomorrow. Don't worry, the longer days are coming!
Morning view of the mountains. It is really pretty and so peaceful!
Fiona taking a picture of the biscuits and gravy sign. We did get her to try a biscuit this morning. She insists it is a scone (pronounced skahn) and that a biscuit is an Oreo cookie. She still thinks the gravy bit is disgusting but we might get her to try it eventually. She's also skeptical about a rootbeer float.
Todays vanilla milkshake
Fixing the puncture!
Memories... :)
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