Payson, UT

Since we didn't have any programming today we decided to the ride a little easier. We also felt some rain showers might catch up with us, but yet again we seem to beat out the weather. Sam Leaf, Eric and I finished second for the day. It took us a couple of hours to get into our senior citizens lodging since there was a party going on. I still don't know why we couldn't join them. I thought a bunch elderly people would mix well with some tired and sweaty frat dudes. Our showers were located at the local high school. Grant didn't have the right keys to get into the shower so we had to go and find the custodian that intimidated Grant a little bit. This school actually had a batting cage and an indoor track.

Since our dinner was not sponsored that night we decided to go out for some Mexican food and also to celebrate Alex Rosell's 21st birthday. After dinner we hit up a little bar, I forget the name. Anyways apparently Utah has some strict alcohol laws, and I thought Virginia was bad. The bar was holding a karaoke competition that night. Some of the acts were a little odd to say the least, but we all had a great time. Tomorrow we got to the city that has a Salt Lake.

Delta, UT

The town of Delta was of similar size to Eureka, NV. The ride to delta was very interesting. The ride was pretty difficult because of the heat. We got to about mile 50 when we realized that some type of storm was coming our way. It just looked like a little rain shower. Instead it ended up being 30 to 35 mile an hour sandstorm tail winds which made the ride much easier and a lot of fun. But the whole team was soon racked due to visibility issues. Our dinner was provided by the local lions club chapter and we also performed Kids on the Block. I think I'm going to do a performance next time.

Baker, NV

I never would have thought that I would have gotten internet access in Baker, Nevada Population 53. We didn't have cell phone reception, but we did have internet access a little odd. A little coffee shop run by a couple of hippies had wifi. We also got to go to the Lehman caverns which was a lot of fun for the whole team. Lodging was provided by the local Baker community center. It got extremely hot, so we left the doors open, but a snake almost slithered in, so I was a little nervous sleeping that night.

Long lost relatives

We rode into Ely, and it was nice to see a McDonalds and some other store chains. Ely has a population of about 4000 so it was a regular rural town. We stayed at the local high school and dinner was provided by the high school student council. I met some relatives in Ely that I didn't know I had. It's nice to know that when you are traveling cross country that you have a relative nearby. So I met my father's counsin, which would make him my second cousin; John Borghoff. I also met his wife Alice Borghoff; who may be my second cousin removed? I'm just taking a shot in the dark on that one. Anyhow I met the both of them after dinner and we discussed some history of the Borghoff family that I had never known. I saw the resemblance of Glen; John's brother in him. John and Alice were very "outdoorsy" I feel like they traveled all over the United States. I hope to be as active as they are when I retire. Alice baked me some delicious oatmeal raisin cookies, which are actually my favorite.



I also forgot to mention that I won my first game of Euker the other night with the help of Uncle Jenkins. It took me a while to understand that game and I still don't quite get the beginning part.



I have also had a recurring nose bleed problem for the last couple days. It's not bad, but I wonder if it's the dry heat, altitude or a combination of the both

Eureka!

So we woke up in the small town of Austin. It was freezing out. I am having trouble understanding this Nevada weather. The terrain of our ride was not too bad, but having a headwind can make cycling extremely difficult.

Eureka was a nice little town. It even had an opera house. Lunch was provided a local diner called DJ's and they even gave us milkshakes. Dinner was provided by the local Lions club chapter, but I think everyone was still full the lunch at DJ's. Going into these small towns I wonder why people live here. I feel like some of these towns are a couple years behind the rest of the U.S. However, they seem to love it and it works for them. They like the feeling of wide open spaces. In fact one member from the Lions club said that if a stop light was put in the town that he would move out. Apparently Eureka is usually in the top ten for richest county's in america, mostly because of their local gold mines; go figure.

1st century ride

Today’s ride was a bit sad, not because it was our first day of riding over 100 miles, but because both the north and south teams went in different directions. It was bittersweet because we formed great relationships with the cyclists on the south route; however, we also knew that by splitting from the south team we would become closer with each other.

The first century ride was pretty difficult for most of the team, especially since a significant amount of our team has been either sick or injured. Some even suggested the 110 mile ride was harder than Kirkwood. One of the difficulties of this ride was the sheer boredom factor. We were on the “loneliest highway” in America; Highway 50. To keep ourselves entertained each pace line tried to think of entertaining topics to discuss. One pace line even sung the entire song of 99 bottles of beer on the wall. Another set of cyclists discussed everyone’s respective life story from birth to present day.

Dinner was excellent and it was provided by Beta Sigma Phi, which is a local women’s service fraternity in Austin, NV. The dinner was basically a Thanksgiving spread of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and loads of other items. I must say that the women were wonderful. The 110 miles took a toll on the North team so we decided to get to bed early at the Austin Town Hall in order to get back on the wonderful Highway 50.

Carson City

The ride to Carson City was pretty easy, it was about 35 miles mostly downhill and the only stop my pace line made was to take a picture of the Nevada state line. We had our first kids on the block showcase at the local boys and girls clubs. Kids on the block is a puppet show we perform to educate kids about people with disabilities. Since we had no riding the next day, most of us went out to discover the small capital of Nevada. Most of spent the night at the golden nugget casino. I learned a lot more about black jack and came out 17 dollars ahead.

Today we have another Kids on the block event and a local children’s museum, which was a lot of fun because we got to play their toys. Later on most of us did our laundry for the first time in the trip. It’s nice to have clean clothes.

I also want to add that I am having an amazing time on this trip. I already know that this trip will be an important time in my life where I will learn a lot about myself and things I need to improve upon before I enter the real world. This trip has shown me to never let a good opportunity pass you by. We head to Fallon Nevada tomorrow; hopefully the heat won’t be so bad.