Segment 6: Ride Day 30

Today we biked just under 20 miles from the tiny town of Myton, Utah to the slightly-bigger town of Duchesne (“Doo-shaine”), Utah. It was a beautiful, gradual climb to 5518 feet through the Uintah Basin beside the winding Duchesne River and green, green fields laced through with irrigation wheels. I was so glad to have a shorter day since my gut spent all night last night and into the morning deciding whether it would stage a mutiny against yesterday’s supper or not. Also, the ride was wonderful because Pete (“Speedy Petey”) decided to give himself an easy day, instead of a 20-mile sprint, and “pulled” Nicole and I almost the whole way to Duchesne. There wasn’t a very significant headwind, but it was enough to slow me to 11 mph before Pete came along and let us draft after him at a perfect 13 mph. It was so sweet of him I could have cried and hugged him (if I thought I wasn’t contagious).

As soon as we made it to the gym that will be our home for the night, I grabbed my sleeping mats and went outside to sleep in the grass under the shade of a nearby tree. And I slept for a long, long time which felt absolutely wonderful. The sky was blue and the temperature was absolutely perfect… and it almost always makes me feel better to be outside instead of inside thinking about how icky I am feeling.

After I woke up I headed down to the local café (Geezerman, probably the sweetest guy around, let me use his car to drive down here) – Cowan’s Café—and the waitresses made me a perfect poached egg and whole wheat toast, even though it is long after breakfast time. So now I’m just sitting here, doing a little blogging catch-up work and thinking about taking another nap. Life ain’t too bad.

My campsite for the night. So glad for the double Thermorest mattress. Luxury. :)