July 12, 2013
"It's going to be F**KING HOT!"
Day 19: Dolores, Colorado to Blanding, Utah
The bear didn't eat me or my Payday bars.
An OK day in which not a lot happened, other than my finally riding out of Colorado, which has been one of the most scenic, and toughest, places I've ridden a bicycle.
Before I rode this morning I talked for a while to one of the Texans who regularly stays in the campground. The guy has a dog that is initially very suspicious and hostile when meeting a new person, but once the dog knows you, she is friendly (says the Texan.) So, yesterday the dog had initially growled and barked at me when I arrived on my bike, but then was friendly. This morning, she was back to the growling, the barking, the fur raised on her back, etc. The likely explanation: I smelled very, very different after a shower than when she first met me.
The route out of town was fine, then it dumped me onto a busy highway with an eight foot shoulder for much of the day. So, it was a safe enough route, but a little too busy for my taste.
I stopped at each little town on the route - Lewis, Yellow Jacket, Pleasant View, Cahone - but didn't see much activity in any of them. I've already forgotton which town (after only a few days), but either Pleasant View or Cahone had a very nice, new grocery store, where I was the only customer. I ignored the fresh vegetables and had ice cream instead. I asked the young woman working there who the store's customers were (because this was a very nice place for such a tiny, barely-there town), and she told me it was farmers from the surrounding area. Outside the store was a free "Farmers Courtesy Phone" that apparently was free for local calls, and only the honor system prevented long distance calls. Interesting.
Apparently the growing and processing of beans is a very, very big deal in this area. I almost went into one odd place, "Dryland Beans Ruins of America Trading Post", but decided I didn't have time to engage in conversation with who I suspected, based on all the hand-drawn signage, was a beans-obsessed man. It's too bad I didn't; this was sort of a dull day, and the proprietor might have had interesting things to say about beans and other matters.
At some point I entered Utah, where it felt sort of odd taking the obligatory state line sign, given that I lived in the state from 2009 to 2012. The only immediate difference between Colorado and Utah: The paved shoulder really deteriorated upon entering Utah.
It seemed to take forever to reach the first Utah town, Monticello, because I could see it from miles away, but my progress seemed agonizingly slow. On the outskirts of town, a friendly FedEx driver pulled over and offered some useful advice about road conditions ahead, and then indicated that he was not a member of Utah's predominant culture when he advised "It's going to be FUCKING HOT" tomorrow. Heh.
I initally had trouble obtaining cold drinks in Utah, when, at the first place I stopped, the smirking clerk twice pretended not to understand my request. As I stalked out, he angrily shouted "Hey!" I then rode to a Maverik convenience store, where I had no trouble communicating with the friendly employees there.
It was hot now, as I rode toward Blanding (pop. 3,120), my destination for the day. At one point I was riding through an area that had several signs warning of deer crossing the road. There was even a sign tallying the number of deer-car accidents the last year. It was a lot.
As I entered the outskirts of Blanding, the same FedEx driver from Monticello drove past and tapped out a friendly horn-tap. I stopped at the first motel in Blanding, got a room, did some free tech support when I advised the woman at the desk to reboot her router, then walked to the adjacent restaurant where I had a pretty good pizza for dinner. After that I went back to my room and looked at the map, which advised me that after Blanding there were 74 miles with no services of any kind.
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Today's ride: 86 miles (138 km)
Total: 1,606 miles (2,585 km)
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