Day 11 -- Wendover, NV to Salt Lake City, UT

Miles: 119.06
Total Miles: 856.00
Time: 6:58
Average Speed: 17.1 mph
Max Speed: 33.5 mph
Flats Today: 1
Total Flats: 2
Elevation Gain: 1397 ft
Weather: Wind changing directions constantly around 80 degrees

Today was the second of our back to back centuries, and we made it. That was the longest we've ever ridden in one day, and our first back to back century. It was definitely tough, but it was a great ride. We started out the day by waking up at 4:30, then we ate breakfast at 5:15. We loaded our luggage, and we headed out around 6:00. About a mile into the ride, we came upon a large line in the road. It was the Nevada, Utah state line. We had to take a picture, and if you notice, I'm a whole state ahead of Wade... He's pretty slow, but I don't try to rub it in too much. Also, what we thought was funny about the picture is the fact that the casino in the background ends right at the line. In Nevada, every building with 4 walls has a casino in it. In Utah, there aren't any casinos. Whoever built that hotel must have had a great surveyor.

After the state line, we headed out into the salt flats. When they say flat, they mean flat. For the first 40 miles we had very little wind, so we averaged around 18 mph. During that first 40 miles, we had 23 ft of climb. It was FLAT. There was salt on both sides of the Interstate, so it was very white and beautiful. We took a few pictures of the salt, but after 50 miles of it, the salt was starting to get boring. We even got a picture of train in salt flats just for Shorty (Jeff North) . After 40 miles of complete and utter flatness, we arrived at the first sag stop. Our buddy Fran had chain problems about 25 miles in, so we went ahead to the sag and waited for him there. That gave Wade more time to eat, so he didn't mind waiting. He eventually arrived, and we started riding again.

We only had about 10 more miles in the salt flats before we hit a couple of hills. It was nice to see some hills again, but mixing hills and wind just doesn't work out. We saw some cool rock formations on mountains, and when we looked back, we could see for miles because of how flat it is. We took some pictures and moved on. We rode up and down a few more hills, then the wind hit hard. It was a side wind, but it was probably the toughest side wind I've ever faced. It blew a few riders off the road today. We battle the wind for about 3 miles, then it got worse... Wade got another flat. Once again, it was one of those little tiny wires from truck tires that got into his tire and blew his tube. I quickly changed out the tube, and Wade pumped it with the hand pump... He thinks he's so strong when he does that. I think he got these 2 flats on purpose just so he could pump the tires. Honestly, with those little wires, it's not a matter of how good you are at avoiding objects on the road... It's just bad luck. We happened to have bad luck on the 2 longest days so far.

We started up again, and the wind just kept hitting us hard. We rode against and sideways onto the wind for 20 miles until the second sag stop. Then, when we got to the sag stop, one of the guides got a phone call that said there was rain only 10 minutes away... So we immediately got right back onto the road. When we started out, we had a nice tail wind. I don't know how it happened because we didn't change directions from where we were going earlier, but I wasn't complaining. We rode with that tail wind for 11 miles until our final exit off of I-80. That was the last time that we will be on I-80 for the rest of the trip. Of course, we had to take a picture of the I-80 sign. We had some great memories on that Interstate, but I doubt that I'll miss dodging debris, coming 3 feet from semis, and of course... rumble strips. There were some sections of I-80 that would have rumble strips that covered the whole shoulder every 15 feet. Actually, just at the end of I-80, we could see part of the Great Salt Lake. It was cloudy and the water was pretty far out, so there wasn't too much to see, but it was beautiful. We took a few pictures, but it's difficult to see much.

After that, we rode through some construction, and on the other side of the construction was the World's Largest Copper Mine. We didn't have much too enjoy because we couldn't see much of it, but it was fun to ride by. Only about a mile later, we hit a huge head wind. At times, we would be only going 6 mph. People told us that there were gusts up to 58 mph today. Wade was laughing when we went into the wind... he said, "I've never pedaled as hard as I could and only gone 8 mph." It was tough, but only about a mile up, we turned, so the wind became a side wind. After a mile into the side wind, we saw a haze just in front of us. We thought it was rain at first, then we realized it was sand. We went right through a sand storm. It was hitting us really hard on the side because of the high winds, and it stung worse than the hail storm yesterday. We, especially me, complained about the stinging for a tenth of a mile. It hurt, but it didn't last long. We turned again, and the wind became a tail wind for the rest of the ride into the hotel. It was a great day, but the wind was tough. We were watching TV tonight, and we saw a semi truck blown over, a sheriff saying that cars shouldn't be out in this wind, and a reporter saying that there was gusts up to 75 mph. We were riding in that wind. Anyway, we made both of the back to back centuries, and now we get a highly needed rest day in Salt Lake City.