Eureka!

Woke up at 5:30 to begin our day. Started the morning with a crew chief breakfast consisting of bagels and cereal and then went on our way to Eureka, NV. I rode today with Michael Watson from TCU and Matt Docimo who goes to school at the University of Houston. Thankfully today wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday, and I made sure to stay hydrated so I didn’t feel sick again. The beginning of the ride started with mountain ranges back to back, but they weren’t to bad once we started getting the down hills. We ended up climbing about 3000 feet, which doesn’t seem like to much, until you get on the bike and you feel any slight bit of incline. My entire pace line stayed strong until we got to lunch at mile 60, and then it seemed like we hit a wall.  Facing a head wind all day, which wears on the body, the final 15 miles were horrible, and all three of us struggled to get through them.

We entered the little town of Eureka and it looks like a ghost town. There isn’t really much going on, and all I could think about was getting to the elementary school we are staying at tonight. I was so excited when I saw a crew member marking the final turn, and then I saw that the school was on top of a steep hill.. Definitely not the way I wanted to end the ride.

Matt and I taking in some of the sights outside of Eureka 

For dinner we went over to a member of the Eureka Lions clubs house. The hosts were very nice and made us an absolutely delicious spaghetti dinner. After such a long day on the bike it is nice to eat some good carbs. The wonderful lady who prepared the dinner made homemade sauce for us which was great. Followed up the spaghetti with some carrot cake and the team was very satisfied.

Because of how small the city is there isn’t really an opportunity for a friendship visit so after dinner we all went back to lodging and we get the remainder of the night to relax and do what we want. A lot of the guys who are over 21 went out to a bar, but I decided to stay in so I could get a good nights rest for the ride tomorrow. Another 70 plus day, and thankfully we will be out of Nevada soon.