Day 7 Lovelock to Winnemucca, Nevada 73 miles 1500 feet of climbing

there's an expression in cycling that says "the hills will make you stronger.  the wind will make you

meaner."  today was a mean day.  

every riding needs a hearty breakfast to start the day.  today, the cowpoke cafe was our local watering hole.

what was forecast to be "a light breeze out of the east" turned into something more sinister.  i'm not saying we were riding into gale force winds, but two things gave it away as to how strong the winds were during today's ride.  first, all the flags along the roadside were stiff and blowing towards us.  even more disturbing, when i started the day, all the metal road signs were swaying back and forth.  like i said, not hurricane strength by any imagination, but strong enough to get my attention.

hop-scotching across nevada.  not a lot of anything between nightly rest stops

today's ride was primarily either on I-80 or on the frontage roads paralleling the highway.  i was fortunate enough to hook up with gene and jane, the husband and wife team who are our ride leaders on this trip, and mark from seattle.   although we all left at different times this morning, i caught up with mark about six miles out from breakfast.  not sure when gene and jane joined us, maybe about the ten mile mark, but we immediately decided to stay together and battle the winds as a group.  we formed a pace line, initially on one of the frontage roads and continued to work together once we got on the highway.  had it not been for us all working together as a single unit, as individuals, we all would have arrived over an hour later to the hotel this afternoon.

gene took this video while we were in a pace line on I-80.  that's me in the front in the white bike jersey.  it was my turn to pull.

the only memorable event from today was the cattle crossing that took place directly in front of us.  five to ten feet in front of gene and me, so be specific.  this is "open range" country, so the cattle can graze pretty much wherever they like.  we even saw some cattle grazing in the backyard of someone's home.  the only thing preventing the cattle from getting on main roads are cattle guards -- metal grates across most intersections.  cars and bicycles [carefully, that is] can go over them.  cattle won't as their hooves fall through the grating.

me in my aerobars, coming in to the pit stop this morning

as the four of us were riding along the frontage road, we saw cattle grazing to our right.  as we approached, one, then another, then another with her calf, then the whole herd decided at that moment to cross the street.  and they took their time crossing over.  even the honking horn from an oncoming pick-up truck couldn't persuade the cattle to move any faster.  i don't recall how jane and mark got ahead of us, but gene and i found ourselves about fifty yards behind those two.  as we began to speed up to catch them, two cows, who seemed to have been lying in wait to ambush us from the gully to our right, darted out directly in front of us to join their mates on the other side of the road.  not your run-of-the-mill biking experience.  but one to remember.

tomorrow is an easy 55-mile day.  kind of a rest day before successive 100+ mile days to end this first leg of the cross country tour.