June 18, 2020
Bluff - Blanding, UT
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1,956 elevation gain
I have a fun story I don't want to forget. In Mexican Hat I sat outside above the river and took a phone call. A friendly half grown cat came over to talk to me. It was very skinny, but looked healthy. I spent a half hour petting it while I talked. I felt bad that it was so skinny and there were no homes, just the motel out here. Maybe it didn't have a home. Fast forward to morning. As I was walking to get ice, I saw a room door completely open with a man asleep on the bed. Maybe his AC didn't work? As I was bicycling away from the motel later in the morning, his room door was still open. The man was still asleep, but now the cat was sleeping with him. I wonder if he was surprised to see he had a bed companion when he woke up.
Today - I slept better than usual last night. Jacinto had set the AC on such a glacial temperature that he got up and turned it off in the middle of the night. I made only one nighttime bathroom run and did not fall over any bicycles on the way to the bathroom. That was a feat while half asleep.
I'm eating cold oatmeal as we speak. Temperatures are supposed to be reasonable today. I'm not in a huge hurry to get out the door. The entire day is one long uphill slog. As I arrvived at the motel last night, the rear brake made a thump, thump noise upon use. I checked the rim out on both sides. I didn't feel anything. ???? I hope that magically goes away today. As magically as it appeared, happening as I got to town . . .
It's 7:30 AM - I should at least pretend I'm getting on with the day. Oren and I would have been down the road by 7, typically.
Later - Temperature Wass 66 when I left, 75 in Blanding at noon. I could sure do with these temperatures all summer. They are supposed to last another day or two.
I had a relaxed approach to the day. It had a lot of climbing, but not so many miles. I'm a slow but steady climber. On this trip my average on climbing days has been 8.8 mph. I'm consistent if nothing else. 8.8 again today. Jacinto averaged 11.1 mph. He said he stood up all they way and was happy with his average.
Heading south through here is definitely the way to go for scenery. Today it was all flat (with an upwards tilt) with just one set of mountains to look at. There wasn't any development except for the Ute Indian community of White Mesa. Traffic was heavier than it has been, but far less heavy than last year. The road surface changed several times. I hit a few miles of packed down chip and seal that I thought was annoying. Jacinto didn't even notice it. I felt that my speed (not so speedy) dropped on that piece.
As usual, I was hungry when I got to town. I knew there was a Subway. There's also a fast food burrito shop. I kept my eye open for the first food place. Here's a closed Chinese food. Too bad. I'd like some Chinese. Rodeway Inn next door is also closed. High weeds in both places. Several more closed restaurants, but perhaps that's temporary. Look - here's Pop's Burritos. Closed temporarily. Darn. OK. Now I'm looking for Subway. It was just a block away. I could enter to order and also eat inside. There were only a couple of tables to eat at. I bought Jacinto a foot long and got myself a salad with double meat. Only $12. here for all of that. Four Corners Inn was two blocks away. Right next to an open steak house. I know where we are eating tonight!
You know the first thing I asked inside the motel? If the room has a microwave. Yes, it does! Tomorrow I get hot oatmeal. Hurray for the small things that feel very big at the time. Downside is that we have to go to the office for ice. The owner (?) was probably in his 70's. No mask, no partitions. I kept my mask on. Our room is large, with a king size bed, a sofa. Two tables and chairs. Plenty of room to walk around. $80. Much better than the past quite a few nights.
Marcela and Scott should be here about 4 PM. We've eaten late. They've just eaten at the quesadilla truck in Moab. None of us will be hungry at our set dinner hour of 5 PM. We are talking about driving Moki Dugway tonight. Let's see what we do.
BTW - my brakes seemed fine today.
Jacinto passed up a very nice looking, star shaped blue pool noodle. I sent him a text special to point it out. He said he didn't want it because it wasn't a bright color. I thought it would be worth picking up because of the unusual shape. Nope. It's hard to say what he will pick up. Usually he gets anything.
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Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 832 miles (1,339 km)
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