Day 25

Since this highway sucks so much, I intended on waking up really early. Who's going to be driving through the mountains at 6am on a Sunday morning? The traffic should be minimal. My alarm went off and I immediately turned it back off and fell asleep. Riding at ideal times in the day is smart, but getting enough sleep is even smarter. I woke a few times between 7 and 8, only to realize that it was lightly raining. If it got bad, that could make biking next to impossible. I finally decided to get up. The new gear really paid off- packing up was a breeze. Despite the fact that I got up after 8, I was totally packed and ready to go before 9. I walked my bike back down the hill and crossed the highway to continue the adventure. Some parts were pretty scary, others were no big deal. I eventually reached the summit- over 7000 feet, so the highest yet. There was a gas station nearby, so I bought a slurpy and some sandwiches. The slurpy ended up being a poor choice in more ways than one. It was actually one of the least hot days yet- luckily it didn't cool me down too much. Whenever I took a drink and set it back in my basket, the top would become detached and fly off. This happened 2 or 3 times before I finally figured out how to be careful with it. Finally, it made me pee like 3 times more than I would have normally. And there weren't a whole lot of good places to do that. Oh well. Going up the mountain wasn't too bad even when the shoulders were crappy because I was going pretty slow. Coming down was a different story. It took all my concentration to stay perfectly straight. I finally made it to a bigger shoulder as I entered the town of Helper. Super weird name. Soon a got into the city of Price, another weired name. I stopped by a gas station and filled up all 8.5 liters. The next town was 113 miles away. There's a town in the middle, but I figured I could save time if I didn't have to stop there. The shoulders were finally big enough that I could listen to an audiobook again- Hyperion. There was a crazy downhill- I think I may have gone the fastest I have yet. My eyes watered. It rained a bit, but was never bad enough for me to stop and get my rain jacket out. I realized that I always like the state I currently am in more than the previous one- Nevada was my favorite for a while. The brown, sandy mountains and the miles of open landscape was a nice break from the constant fenced off bushes of Oregon and California. But Utah is even better- the rocky cliffs, actual trees and interesting cloud patterns left me constantly looking around as I peddled. When it was finally getting dark, I noticed a side road with a big pile of rocks. I planned on camping behind it, but then I found a tree nearby that provided better cover. As I set up my tent, a train with 96 cars went by- I hope there aren't many of those tonight. I figured out how to fit all my gear inside this tiny tent- I just had to flip where my head and feet/gear were. As I wrote this, there were bright flashes of light, like someone was taking a picture. I looked out of my tent and saw storm clouds out in the distance. I waited for the thunder, but it never came. It must be pretty far away.