amanda is back in action. she rode yesterday and kicked ass eating only 1/2 a mango for the entire ride! abby led the way for the days 60 mile ride. but she led the wrong way. 10 miles down the wrong way. then 10 miles back to where we started from. then we had 60 more miles to go and we had already done a nice little 20 mile warm up. after we rode 60 more miles, there was a sign that said "Baker...5 miles". shit. but then we only ended up riding 3 and a half more miles to complete the short ride day with a total of 83.5 miles. so much for our day of rest.
we camped in the back yard of a great little cafe in Baker called Lectrolux at the Silver Jack Inn. we got salads and veggies, and lots of cold orange juice while they played Billie Holiday to the afternoon crowd. later that evening before the movie screening we played a couple of tunes on the front porch to some kindly travelers. then we ate some pizza, did our laundry, and took a $2 dollar shower that was well worth the price. oscar and ryan rode with ian that day so they camped in the backyard too. that was our last day riding with them as they are headed toward moab. so long guys.
during the night a bird shit on abby's bag and her sleeping pad.
today we woke up crazy early for us, 5:15am. birds were singin' and ian was out the door (to avoid the heat). amanda and abby ate breakfast at the cafe. terry and tabatha made flapjacks and oatmeal for pre ride energy blast. thanks for the great food and for letting us turn the front porch into a bicycle repair shop.
crossing the utah border made amanda realize that we live on a planet, not just in a city or in our minds. there were amazing rocks and beautiful desert landscapes.
we were feeling good for the first 65 miles, then we started to fade thinking about the next 30 miles. the total mileage for the ride was 98.5 and we felt every mile of it by the end. we saw a lot of corpses of cows and large animals. amanda saw a dead baby fox that made her cry. abbby saw an unknown species of animal (alive not dead) that looked like a large badger but she didn't think badgers live in the desert so we don't know what it was. food notes: we gotta thank jubilee because there are slim pickins for food in these parts on a sunday afternoon. we got salad greens and veggies and made killer salads back at the hotel. we'll probably eat some more grub later while abby watches the basketball game.
