We expected today to be a terrible, rotten, no good day. I went to bed last night fully expecting my clothes to still be wet, and that I would have to put on wet clothes to then ride in the rain for 70 miles. The forecast also called for scattered thunderstorms the whole day, so I imagine myself taking “shelter” from lightning by laying down in a muddy ditch and waiting for the storm to pass.
I woke up to find that exactly two items of my clothing dried enough to wear overnight - a cycling jersey and cycling tights. What a relief! We had breakfast and packed up camp in the rain, but just as we rolled out the rain stopped.
We had a nice, long ride today. 70 miles with a couple of climbs. The scenery changed slowly and kept things interesting.
We’re camping in our van in an RV park outside of Eureka, Nevada. Upon entering the town I saw a sign that claimed Eureka is the “friendliest town on the loneliest road”. While biking through town I thought it looked really cute. It’s a small town but the main street (Route 50 of course) had a general store, opera house, ice cream parlor. It felt like the quintessential small town America. We planned to go back in to town after cleaning up, but the storm we’ve been waiting for all day is finally rolling in, so we’ll just hunker down here for the night.
Highlights
- Unexpectedly good weather while riding
- Unexpectedly dry clothing to start the day
Lowlights
Julie’s food
- Breakfast: oatmeal, bread, coffee
- First Snack: clif bar
- Second Snack: one pop tart
- Third snack: bread with peanut butter
- Fourth snack: second pop tart
- Fifth snack: bread with maple walnut butter
- Dinner: same campstove cuisine as yesterday - veggies, cous cous, TVP
Stats
- Total distance: 70.57 miles
- Elevation gain: 2,979 feet
- Weather: chilly and overcast, high of 65 degrees Fahrenheit