June 29, 2024
Day Fifteen: Delta, Utah to Payson, Utah
I woke up early, as usual, and was annoyed to find that the refrigerator in my old, overpriced room had stopped working in the night, leaving my leftover chocolate milk and Diet Pepsi lukewarm. So I got dressed and walked in the dark to the nearby "Maverik" gas station to get two lemon lime Gatorades and Diet Pepsi. I felt dehydrated, so back in the room I quickly drank both Gatorades, which seemed to fix things.
I messed around longer than I should have before finally leaving at 6:30. All the working men's trucks were already gone. I suppose they have to work on Saturday.
I stopped at the Maverik store again, this time looking for breakfast. They didn't have any meatless breakfast sandwiches, and the woman working there seemed slightly offended that I would even ask for such a thing. I'm not a fan of the Maverik chain. Their prices seem high, there's no place to sit inside, and their over the top marketing ("Adventure's First Stop!") is slightly irritating. They sell "Maverik" branded clothing, the idea of which I find ridiculous. As much as I like the Casey's gas station chain, especially their way above average pizza, I'm not wearing a shirt with their logo on it - Come on!
I bought a raspberry fritter and a lemon poppy seed muffin, ate them standing outside, and then got back on US-6.
There was some construction - resurfacing - for the first several miles, but it was no big deal. There was a little traffic to the power plant, which according to the owner of the motel yesterday, was the project where all the working men had been employed for the last several years. As I passed by, I noticed a few small RVs parked near the entrance, and even one small tent. I suppose that's where the thrifty workers who don't want to pay for expensive Delta motel rooms sleep.
US-6 was alright. There was just a little more traffic than I like, but it was well behaved. This was almost certainly the lowest traffic way into the ultra-busy Utah Valley corridor in any case.
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I stopped at Lynndyl, population 106. There were a few houses and farms, and not a lot else. I parked at a long-closed gas station and took a few photos.
Back on US-6, I started a long, mostly gradual climb. There wasn't much along the side of the road, although a train provided some diversion.
The occasional big truck traffic wasn't too bad. A few times, when there were trucks from both directions, I just pulled completely off the road onto the gravel shoulder and let them pass.
I stopped at nice little rest area. No water there, but very clean pit toilets, and a shaded picnic table where I sat for a while and ate snacks.
The grade got a little steeper as I neared Eureka, population 669.
Eureka was a nice little western town. I walked into the TGS General Store, bought cold drinks and snacks, and sat at a table inside.
There was a friendly woman working in the store, greeting the steady stream of locals who came in. One of the local residents was a dog, who I observed sneak in with a group of people. Nobody seemed to bothered by this, and after the dog looked around for a while, he exited with some other patrons.
The store contained a tiny, sectioned-off State Liquor Agency store. Utah has bizarre rules about alcohol sales, and when Joy and I lived here years ago, it was the subject of frequent conversation. Despite being a lifelong teetotaler myself, the Mormon church's heavy handed, constantly changing attempts to regulate alcohol was one of the many things that bothered me about living in Utah.
I had a pleasant conversation with the woman working in the store. I told her that I'd lived in Utah Valley for three years, and we engaged in a coded conversation in which the words "Mormon" or "LDS" were never mentioned, but were very much the subtext. A lifelong resident of Utah, she made clear her disdain for "The Valley" ("down there"). "I'll stay up here."
After talking to a friendly local man about my trip, I walked around Eureka and took some photos, then headed down US-6 to the valley.
The descent was probably the least pleasant of the trip. The road down was winding, there was some fast traffic, and it was very windy. I just wanted to get to the bottom.
As it flattened out, I approached a large group of young motorcyclists on "crotch rockets." They appeared to be engaged in some shenanigans, and were haphazardly directing traffic around their large group, which spilled out into the road. There were probably 100 of these motorcyclists.
I rode through Goshen, population 978. It was a pleasant little place.
There was a Gatorade branded pop machine, which was enticing, but upon closer examination, I decided I couldn't trust it to actually disgorge a drink I actually wanted:
Last night I'd spent much more time than I have so far on this trip on routing, figuring out a route into the busy Utah Valley. That work paid off when I exited US-6 onto an empty farm road.
I made turn after turn on these pleasant country roads as I wound my way toward my motel in Payson. It was a relief to be off US-6 after several days.
Most of the homes were on unkempt little farms, but occasionally I'd pass a ridiculous McMansion:
I turned onto busy Main Street in Payson for a short distance, and there was the Quality Inn. I checked in, walked across the street to the Family Dollar for soft drinks and snacks, and had dinner in my room.
The data center in Florida that hosts the server for my software business had a network outage for hours, which caused me extreme consternation. I was on the support chat with their technicians for a while before finally just going to bed. Fortunately it was Saturday night when this problem happened, and not in the middle of a weekday. One of the stresses of doing this trip as a self employed person is the need to stay on top of business stuff while I'm traveling by bike.
Tomorrow is going to be a short day - maybe 25 miles - and I plan to stay with some old Utah friends.
Today's ride: 78 miles (126 km)
Total: 961 miles (1,547 km)
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I was able to go on a simple 14 mile ride yesterday! On the tougher hill spots, yes, I thought about all of your hill work. Made mine easier! Thank you for that!
Glad you’ll be with friends today! That’ll be fun! Keep on keeping on, Jeff!
5 months ago
5 months ago
You're not the first person who has a expressed "shock" at my touring diet, by the way. But it works for me!
5 months ago
And Domino's has the best online ordering and delivery system.
Pizza Hut's system sucks.
4 months ago