Sunday, June 8, 2008

Day 8 From Winnemucca, Nevada to Battle Mountain, Nevada - 55 miles

As we left the town of Winnemucca, we met up with some local cowboys who took a picture with Sue and I. Also, the local women's linguire shop had a sign "welcome bikers" - did they realize most of our bikers are men? Anyway, it was funny! The local cowboys were very proud of being cowboys and quite drunk at 8am! :) They said it was their day off and they had been drinking all night... lovely... I guess what else do you do when you are young and live in a town of 100 (or so?)? Our tour leader, Christine, also took a photo to put on the official America by Bicycle blog for this trip (link is on the right if you want to check it out).

Today was a really easy flat riding day (we did have a 4 mile climb but it wasn't hard at all) - the wind wasn't too strong so it was very enjoyable! There aren't many towns in Nevada, so we had to have a short ride today since the next town is another days ride away. Despite hanging around at sag stops and rest stops and taking my time, I was still in by 12:30pm and decided to go explore the town of Battle Mountain - about 10 minutes later, the exploration was done... not much there. Everything is closed since it is a Sunday so I joined up with some fellow riders for a bite to eat and am now going to do laundry. If I had my running shoes, a run today would have been great. My mom is sending my running shoes to Salt Lake City, where I'll be in about 3 more riding days. The scenary today was gorgeous... with desert mountains surrounding us. I rode most of the day with some other riders and then rode the last 17 miles by myself... singing as I rode. It was really nice.

I keep thinking that every town I go to is in the middle of nowhere... and Bald Mountain fits that description too... so maybe it is best to say that most of the towns in Nevada are in the middle of nowhere! The farther I go into Nevada the farther each town is from anywhere.

My garmin GPS system stopped working today - not sure why, so I can't keep track of pace, time, distance or anything - it's okay sort of but our cue sheets are based on distance so its helpful to know how far I've gone so I know when I should turn. I plan to call Garmin tomorrow to have them send me a new one and my mom has one she is sending to Salt Lake City with my running shoes, just in case Garmin takes awhile to get it to me.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Audrey,
Your Mom told me about your trip and gave me your blog address. How exciting for you!! I'll be praying for you.
Have a great trip!
Denise from Lomak

juliavdw said...

Funny thing about Nevada- you can see mountains in the distance but they never seem to get closer! And as you've noticed the towns all seem so insular. The middle of Nevada feels like nowhere...
But in a good way, right?

Jalyn said...

Audrey, I love reading your posts. I can't wait for you to get to the East Coast, it is going to be such a wonderful experience. My thoughts will be with you your entire trip. I wish I was in the shape to do something like this.... maybe next year :)
Love you,
Jalyn

Unknown said...

I'm enjoying this trip so much. Drunken cowboys in Winnemucca?! You're making that part up, aren't you. You go, girl. Lawrence