Biking into the Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Road!
Today was hard. Like starting the day with a 1500 ft climb and ending it with a 600 ft climb hard. We biked from Austin to Eureka today. A whopping 70 miles along highway 50 which we have been religiously sticking to since we left Carson City. Today is day 12 and at the beginning of our journey, we were warned about the tricky tricky Sierra Nevada Mountains and the rocky rocky mountains. I mentally prepared myself to face those steep challenges when the time came but never once did it cross my mind how hard Nevada would be. It was just some state sandwiched between California and Utah with a couple slot machines here and there. How hard could it possibly be? After biking into and out of cities for a week, I was really looking forward to the “loneliest highway in America” where I would magically find inner peace and unmask my true qualities as I journeyed along the flat Nevadan landscape. Instead I was presented with intense UV rays, dry eyes, dry skin, chapped lips, sunburns on my sunburns, and massive unshaded hills as hay trucks whizzed passed me at 80 mph tossing strands of hay into my poor dry eyes. I love Nevada. Don't get me wrong, soaring down those massive hills at nearly 40 mph, I feel nearly invincible. But the windless, sun-soaked hills tucked away into the Nevada valleys are a quick humbling reminder of your strength and perseverance. Stopping at Raine’s Grocery store a mile from our campsite for the night was a double edged sword. The dark chocolate soy milk tasted of ambrosia but the final mile up the hill was truly a test of the heart and mind. Thank god for community pools and showers though. I don’t know where I’d be without them. We enjoyed yummy caramelized sweet potatoes and curried quinoa for dinner and went to bed early for our long day tomorrow to Ely (78 miles! woohoo). Dear Nevada, please be kind to us.
Asia
Cole takes a sprinkler shower.