Day 6 -- Sparks, NV to Lovelock, NV

Miles: 91.78
Total Miles: 425.58
Time: 6:49
Average Speed: 13.5 mph
Max Speed: 26.6 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 0
Elevation Gain: 1527 ft
Weather: 70 degrees with 20 mph winds and 40 mph gusts

Today's entry won't be long for 2 reasons... 1) We are in the middle of nowhere, so the only Internet is in the lobby, and 2) There were 20 mph winds in our face for 91 miles today... It was unbelievably hard. We started out the day around 7:15 and immediately got on I-80. We stayed on the Interstate between mountains that were covered in sand. The wind wasn't too bad for the first 10 miles, but then it hit us straight in the face. We followed I-80 for 30 miles before we came to our first sag stop. We ate some food, bought a sandwich for later since there wouldn't be anywhere to stop. We thought cornfields in Ohio was the middle of nowhere, but we quickly were proven wrong. There was one exit every 20 miles, and at those exits, there was nothing. We got a couple pictures of the sandy mountains in the background, and then we just kept going straight into the wind.

We had a nice pace line going the whole time, so we did have some slight breaks from the wind. Our pace line was 3 or 4 people and we kept it around 13 mph the whole time. I never thought I would say this, but I wanted trucks to fly by me at 75 mph. They gave us a little boost from their wind breaking the head wind we were riding into. After awhile, we saw some salt flats that looked really cool. You know you're in the middle of nowhere when you think salt flats are interesting. But, since there was nothing else, we got a picture with them. After 35 miles against the 20 mph winds, we came to the second sag stop. When we were there they told us that there was a construction site up 5 miles where they were laying down asphalt. They gave us a choice of riding in the van for 10 miles to skip it or ride up to it, walk 2/3 of a mile around it, then ride the rest of the 10 miles to the exit. It wasn't even a question. Of course I would go check out the construction site. That's the most exciting thing we could have ran into. So, we rode up to it, walked around it, and obviously we had to take pictures by the lovely equipment. Once again, I visited a construction site on my vacation. I should be getting write-offs or something for doing this.

After we finished those 10 miles, we exited I-80 because they decided 75 miles on the Interstate was enough. That wasn't the end of the wind though. The next 14 miles into the hotel were straight into the wind. SHIT... WHAT HAPPENED TO PREVAILING WEST WINDS!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, today was still a great day of riding, and we still had loads of fun. We're eating at Cowpoke Cafe tonight... What a great name for a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Also, we met a local man who works at the prison in Lovelock. He told us something very interesting about the prison: OJ Simpson is incarcerated here. We were wondering why the sign on the highway said, "Do not pick up hitchhikers."