Ack - - yea, that's not very much room to ride your bike!! It wouldn't be bad if the rumble strip wasn't there. I would think you need to really pay attention when you're riding, which would be tiring...

Interesting the tons of post office boxes at the park. I wonder if they ever have any crime or vandalism to the post office boxes? Maybe crime in the Mormon areas is low?

Wow, that junkyard is really ugly from above!

Ack - no restaurants or convenience stores along your ride - - not a good thing, especially when it's hot. I always carry "emergency rations" in my bags when touring...just in case! :)

:) probably a couple of Mormons to clean up the tree debris.

I would think that it wouldn't be good for the red sand to get into your bike parts?

Wow, that's a lot of red sand on the road!

The Virgin River Trail is a good length - 17.6 miles!

Nice the Virgin River Trail is so clean and maintained. I assume they probably have volunteers who keep it clean?

Nice 2005 Bacchetta Titanium!

Seeing these pictures of the fancy homes up in the hills near SLC and Bountiful reminds me about the time when I was young and had a job as a sales rep for a window manufacturing company.

I had spent some time in the home of and met the then current US Secretary of the Treasury. I even had paper money in my wallet with his signature on it:-)

Great job on this very interesting journal. The Mormons sure build some grand temples. I saw their temple in Nauvoo, IL while on my New Orleans to Lake Superior tour and was quite fascinated by the architecture and by the comings and goings of the Mormon visitors. (Non-Mormons aren't allowed inside, of course.) I also found it interesting that the visitor center on the grounds of Joseph Smith's home made no mention of any of his many wives other than his first one.

My only other Mormon encounter occured a couple years ago. It was snowing like crazy outside and here was a knock at my front door. When I opened it up, I saw two well-dressed young men and my first thought was, "oh no, not another group of Jehovah's Witnesses."

They asked if I was familiar with the Latter Day Saints, and before they could get too deep into their spiel, I politely told them I wasn't really interested. Then came the part I'll never forget: They asked if I'd like them to shovel my driveway. I said "no thanks, I'll shovel it all when it stops snowing." I know they were sincere in their offer, because a short time later I saw them shoveling a couple inches of snow off a driveway up the street while in their suits and dress shoes.

I have done two bike tours in Hawaii, a long time ago. I never visited the Polynesian Cultural Center, but knew it was owned by the LDS church. Didn't know the LDS church spread to Hawaii in the 1850's with the consent of the King. That's not long after it spread to Utah. Interesting story.

Congratulations on completing a very interesting tour! You did a great job in documenting things. I was very surprised some years ago on a business trip to Oahu to discover that the Mormon church was very influential there - I don't seem to have the ability to post a link now for some reason, so I'll try to just copy/paste a wiki article; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_in_Hawaii So you may need to tour in Hawaii to complete the Mormon theme.

Great story about the other Wayne. A lot to live up to!