Day 21

Again, this is a day that is mixed up, so I don't know where I started. I think I do remember finally seeing really desert like landscape. People left messages with rocks in the sand.
After a few more miles, I saw that the road went through a tunnel ahead. Before freaking out too much, I saw the best sign ever. It said that bicycles can use the left lane when going through the tunnel- just yield to the construction equipment. It was fun, but very loud. Halfway through, a big truck turned on its lights and looked like it started coming at me- how do I yield in this case?! But he just waited for me to get out. I reached another summit, then got to enjoy the benefits of hard work as I zoomed down the mountain.
Once I got to Carlin, I noticed a kmart. I stopped by to get socks that weren't 20 bucks for 2, protein and gatoraid powder, a family size package of cookies, and a wire basket. What a really wanted was a front rack and panniers, but the last several bike shops didn't carry those, so I figured a basket might help out in the meantime. It's difficult to carry much food. My front backpack has plenty of room, but in order to keep it off the front tire, I have to string it up in such a way that most of then space is lost. After what seemed like forever, I finally had everything installed and ready to go. Later in the day, I thankfully made it to a town- I was low on water and food. The shop was really expensive, but I got a few things. The on ramp to the highway specifically said no bicycles. I tried looking up why, but I couldn't find anything. Since I'm writing this almost 3 weeks afterwards, I'm pretty sure it was becaus there was a frontage road that went along it. In Wyoming at least, there is a law that says you can't ride on the freeway if there is a different paved path. I decided to peddle through the city. There were tons of motels, all for good prices. It would have been nice to do this, but I had like 97 more miles with nothing tomorrow, so I decided I wanted to get as far as possible tonight. I wanted to get back on the freeway- it was shorter and had much fewer cracks. I didn't see any no bicycle signs this time. I only made it a few miles before it was too dark to go on. I saw a large bush off to the right that would be perfect  to hide behind. When I had pushed my bike over there, I discovered that on the other side of the bush, there was a canal. It was too wide to get over. Crap. I looked at google and it didn't seem to show me that there were any better places. I decided to just wait until it got dark to set up my tent. Like watched as the stars became more and more visible. After my tent was set up and I got inside, I found out how bad my spot really was. Every time a car with its brights turned on drove by, which was often, my tent would light up. I just hoped that I was far enough away from the road that not many people would notice and no one would care.