Saturday, June 7, 2008

Day 7 from Lovelock, Nevada to Winnemucca, Nevada - 72 miles



Well, did you ever know that the wind could blow in ONE DIRECTION directly into your face for an entire 5 hours of riding? Oh yes, it can happen! Today, we road directly into a headwind all day. After the first sag stop, I was mentally exhausted and physically exhausted from the wind and we had only ridden 25 miles so far. I was trying to be positive but wasn't feeling too positive. Luckily, a group of 15 of us ended up doing a double paceline for the last 50 or so miles. It was fantastic! I have never been in that large of a paceline and a double paceline was even better... we rode much faster and even had trivia questions going down the paceline! That was fun. It was mentally so much easier to be riding with everyone else and we rode like a well oiled machine - that was quite an experience.

We arrived in Winnemucca - more the middle of nowhere than Lovelock! I can't imagine living in such a town. I was looking for postcards for my neice and nephew and most of the postcards themselves said "hello from the middle of nowhere Nevada" - so they also know they are in the middle of nowhere (it's not hard to know that!). We are going to be riding through Nevada for the next few days and I think its all about the same... desert, desert mountains, and flat lands - the next town we go to is only 55 miles or so away and then the next one is over 90 miles away, so we have a short day tomorrow. I hope the hotel will have a pool - I am itching to go swimming. I actually am also itching to run - I miss my running! I am going to have my mom bring my running shoes when she meets me in Missouri. I think my body is getting use to the riding all day and I am finding I have energy later to go do things, which is nice (especially when I get a chance to take a nap - naps are great!). So, well see about fitting in running... it might be a mistake since I haven't ran in months but to take a small jog around town would be nice - its a great way to see these small towns too. I walked around Winnemucca - not much to see but shops and it is large enough to have a Walmart (granted I think Walmart probably employees almost everyone who lives in Winnemucca and maybe the surrounding towns). The town we are going to tomorrow they say is smaller than Lovelock... can you get smaller than Lovelock? I guess so! It's fun to see these small towns and see that people actually live in them... amazing! Especially coming from Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley area... so different.

I am having computer problems so I haven't been able to post photos the last few days. I am going to be trying a different method to get photos up here because its always fun to see photos (I am going between the hotel computers and my own computer and through the both, I think it will work - you'll know if you see photos).

I feel like I am starting to get to know everyone, which is really nice. I am still learning names. It helped to have the double paceline going today because you feel like you are all working together as a team. My roomate, Sue, is great and we ride about the same pace, so that is nice. I feel like I am also getting so humor and laughs going with some of the men... so that's fun - I love to laugh and have fun. It's only been a week... I am sure by the end we will all have our own flow and feel like family!

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