I did not watch Amanda Butterfield in my motel room in Caineville, Utah.

July 14, 2013

Day 21: Hite Recreation Area to Caineville, Utah

I didn't sleep well at all in the damaged tent. It was hot all night, and the wind would periodically shift the tent so that it touched my face. I was up at 4:30, ready to ride at first light.

It was more than fifty miles, without services of any kind, to Hanksville. The first twenty miles were as scenic as yesterday's ride. There was almost no traffic, and because much of the morning I was in the shade of a canyon, it was very pleasant riding. Mid morning I stopped at a picnic area and tried something I had thought about for a while: I dipped one of my king size Payday bars into the jar of Nutella I've been carrying since the beginning of the trip. It turns out that a Payday bar dipped in Nutell is very, very tasty.

Back on the road, the scenery soon became less interesting. Traffic picked up, although the shoulder remained reasonably wide. It was very hot now, and I began to fantasize about the cold drinks and ice cream I might find in Hanksville. As soon as I reached the outskirts of tiny Hanksville, I pulled into a gas station/convenience store/burger place. It was extremely busy, mostly with Utahns who had been boating on Lake Powell. I got a "Hank's Burger", which seemed pretty much like a regular burger, a milk shake, and chugged four Orange Crushes (my latest obsession).

While I was eating, a man and his wife and daughters sat down at the table next to me. I answered his questions about my trip, and mentioned that it had been necessary to carry lots of extra water through this part of Utah, and that it wasn't fun drinking warm water late in the afternoon and evening. Later I bought some snacks at the adjacent convenience store, used the restroom, and came out to find two frozen bottles of water placed on my bike, place there by the man, presumably from his own cooler. That was certainly very nice of him.

I rode in the increasing heat for another twenty miles. My original plan was to camp in Capitol Reef National Park, but at 70 miles I pulled into the parking lot of an improbably located motel that was miles from anything. At first I was only going to get a soda pop out of the machine, but when I went in the lobby and started talking to the couple that owned the place, my resolve weakened. The initial room rate mentioned by the man was way too high, I thought, but a few minutes later, his wife mentioned a much lower figure. I decided I really needed to get a full night's sleep after the restless last night, so I checked in.

Dinner was a couple of frozen Marie Callender meals purchased in the motel lobby, and heated up in the microwave in my room. For future reference: The fettuccine meal is much better than the chicken and gravy one. Ugh.

After doing laundry (reasonably priced at $3.00 for detergent, washer and dryer), I talked to Joy for a while. Earlier I had briefly turned on the television and switched it KSL, a Salt Lake station that we used to watch when we lived in Utah a few years ago. As soon as I mentioned this to Joy, she asked "Are you watching Amanda again?!" Amanda Butterfield is a tall, blonde news anchorwoman whose comically exaggerated mannerisms I used to enjoyed mocking. Joy, however, thought my interest in Amanda Butterfield went beyond light ridicule, and seems to enjoy tweaking me about it.

For the record: I did not watch Amanda Butterfield in my motel room in Caineville, Utah.