Day 51 – Ely to Eureka

W00t! Back on the bike. After 4 days of rest, I was definitely looking forward to getting back in the saddle. JP had some work stuff come up and he’s currently out in Chicago for a few days. So it’s just Heidi, the kids, and I until Thursday.

Unfortunately, the drive from Vegas took over 4 hours. And once we got to the hotel in Ely, we needed to do laundry. Like, a lot of it. Vegas laundry. And for some reason everyone else in the hotel needed to do laundry. We eventually got it done, but we ended up getting to bed shortly after midnight. Not great for getting up early and beating the winds.

I ended up on the road around 8:30. The weatherman had once again lied. It was supposed to be near 50 in the morning but instead it was 75 by the time I was on the road.

The route today (and tomorrow, and the next day) is on US 50. Most of this part of Nevada has big flat sections with 1.5k’-ish climbs on each end. The climbs aren’t brutal, but they’re long… and a bit annoying. However, it’s nice to not be bashing the pedals up 15% grades like we saw out east.

The first pass was relatively uneventful. I hit the peak right about the time Heidi and the boys caught up with me in the MCC. BTW: we’re way back up in the air again.

Nevada has its own kind of beauty. It’s definitely not like the canyons of Utah, but it’s greener which is fine by me. In a lot of ways it’s like Kansas but with mountains. You can drive in a straight line for miles and miles… it’s easy to lose track of how far away things are.

Nevada is also windy. Today it got super windy. It was either a headwind (which is a bummer) or a cross wind (usually better). By noon-ish, the cross winds were getting crazy. Cross winds will make you a bit skittish on descents. Today, the winds were enough to make me nervous even on the flats. I got hit by gusts that seriously nearly pushed me on to the gravel shoulder when I was only doing 15 mph. I’m guessing that’s at least 30 mph winds.

Anyhoo, I made it about 53 miles before the lack of sleep, mid-90’s heat and the wind got the better of me. I called it a day with about 20 miles left and we cruised in to Eureka in the MCC.

Eureka is a small town, but it definitely has its charm. It seems to be a gold rush era town that actually lived to see modern times (versus many boom towns that disappeared in to the sands). It also has really good burgers. We had a late lunch at a local cafe/bar and then basically snacked for dinner.

A little Wii U and some showers and we’re all ready for tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get an earlier jump and avoid these crazy winds.

Days 46-50: Vegas, Baby

Honestly – we didn’t take a lot of photos in Vegas…oops. The drive in to Vegas was uneventful… cept for a stop at In-n-Out Burger. 🙂 Heidi’s been talking about In-n-Out since we left Virginia. We even managed to find one that wasn’t in downtown Las Vegas. Also, the route down I-15 to Vegas from Utah goes through a chunk of Arizona. This trip has been a huge lesson in geography for the whole family. Tho things are a little easier out west where the states are bigger and squarier. Here’s the obligatory “next state” photo.

DefCon was at the Rio again this year. The Rio isn’t on the strip, but it’s close. The boys got a pretty good idea of what Vegas is like on this trip, even tho we were on the other side of I-15. The Rio is an all suites hotel so we had a lot of room to spread out. We also had a lot of time in town, so the first night we were there I bought a Wii U for the boys. They may remember that more than the con or the casino, actually. They really took to the Wii. Our room had a great view of the taxi line. Heidi managed to catch a glimpse of the hacker cab (the security folks in the audience will get the joke. The rest of you won’t 😉

Friday morning a bunch of hackers got up early to go on the 3rd annual Cycle OverRide bike ride. Friday morning was also the start of  R00tz Asylum aka DefCon kids, which Bobby and Terran wanted to go to. So Heidi and I split duties… she took the boys to DefCon kids. I went to the ride. But rather than riding, I drove the MCC to SAG the riders. JP carried the Cycle OverRide torch on friday morning. We ended up with 15 folks for the ride. Even with lining up for the group shot, the riders were still on the road right around 7am. Not too bad for a DefCon event.

The route was the same as previous years… ride out to Red Rock Canyon, do the loop up the canyon rim if you want, then back to the bike shop. This is a SUPER popular route with Vegas riders. For a weekday morning, there were a lot of riders on the rode. The MCC got a bunch of strange looks.

The ride is amusing. You start at ~2k’ in elevation, then gain about 1,500′ on the way to the entrance to the loop. Then the loop gains another 1k’ or so. Then it’s _all_ downhill back to the bike shop. It’s a bit of slog to get to the top, then the ride is over before you know it because of the downhill.

We had an amazing morning, weather wise. It was 74 degrees when the ride got underway, which is an amazingly cool temp for a Vegas morning in August. Even by the time everything wrapped up around 10:30, we were only in the high 80’s. I hope all the rides at DefCon are like that.

The boys had a great time in Vegas. Bobby hung out with an old friend and met a new one. He even got to play the kids version of Hacker Jeopardy. And even tho his team didn’t win, they still enjoyed themselves.  A big shout out to Robin and Joe for sharing the kid watching duties.

The rest of DefCon was filled with normal con fun.  Our time was spent talking with old friends, checking in at the Hack Fortress booth (where Dax amused the spectators by participating in the last minute kids round), and in general trying to not get to worn out by the con experience.  On top of that, JP and I gave a skytalk about the ride and teamed up for Hacker Jeopardy Pyramid.  (Edit – sorry. The brain got confused looking at the picture of Bobby.  JP and I participated in Hacker Pyramid not Jeopardy.)  Anyway Fun times.

Before we knew it, DefCon was over and we were back on our way to the route. The ride picked back up in Ely, which is about due north of Vegas. What’s also about due north is Area 51. On the way to Ely we took the Extra Terrestrial Highway. One of the locals gave up some rough directions to where Area 51 is but I didn’t listen very well, so we never figured out where the gate was. That said, here’s a shot in that general direction.

Next up, back on the bikes.

Day 45 – One last day in Milford

We’re back! DefCon is over and we’re back on the trail. Time to play a little catch up on our continuing saga.

When you last heard from us, we were getting ready to leave Milford UT and head to Baker NV. It was going to be a big day… 3 big climbs and riding in to Nevada.

Welp, about 2 am, plans changed. The hotel we were in only had single bed rooms, so Bobby and Terran were sleeping in a room next to us. Terran called our room to let us know he was sick… and not the “little bit of a fever” sick. Nope, “proper vomiting” sick.

As the sun came up, he was still in rough shape. So instead of pushing on to Baker, JP and I went on a ride in the local area and finished back at the hotel. Even by mid-afternoon, Terran was still under the weather. Dax felt bad and tried to help him out.

Milford UT is a small town. It’s a hub for Union Pacific which seems to be the major local industry. But even with that hub, there’s not much going on. After spending 2 days in town, I think we had eaten at every restaurant at least once… and the diner in front of the hotel twice (plus a shake for Terran). Our final dinner in town was at a local Mexican place. We apparently saved the best for last as the food was great, especially the pork tacos. Heidi may get a job with Union Pacific just to get back to Milford and those tacos.

We spent the night at the same hotel and let T sleep it off. The next day.. Vegas!

Days 42, 43 and 44 – Cedar City and into Milford

Bad, Cycle OverRide! Bad! It’s been another couple of days without an update. We’ve been really diligent about trying to post updates daily. However, after nearly a month and a half on the road, sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to get a post up.

Really, even cleaning out all the water bottles at the end of each day is starting to seem like an insurmountable chore. Where’s the Pacific? I think we’re ready for it.

Speaking of water bottles… we’re only 48 hours away from Vegas at this point. And it can’t come soon enough. I’m out of CytoMax, I’m out of Heed, and I’m out of Tailwind. All that’s left is Accelerade. What’s different between the first 3 sports drinks and Accelerade? Good question. The first three are just carbs (aka: sugar) and electrolytes… think of them as high quality gatorade. Accelerade throws in one extra bit: protein. In theory, having some protein in the drink helps with the uptake of water and helps restore muscles as you ride. I’m not sure how true that is, but I will tell you what is true… cleaning that crap out of a bottle is a massive pain. It’s basically sugary milk… that stays in a water bottle all day… in the sun. By 6pm that night, it’s caked on the in inside like a thin layer of cheese. Yum. Even with a good bottle brush, the stuff is a pain.

Anyhoo, enough of that. On to the rides.

Two days ago we rode out of Boulder. Or rather, we rode out of Escalante. The route between the 2 towns had some pretty punishing climbs. And given how well we’ve been handling the Rockies/San Juans/whatever, it wasn’t a recipe for success. So we SAG’d up to Escalante and got on the bikes.

Needless to say, the landscape was amazing. This section of the ride continues to be breathtaking.

Then, out of nowhere, @internmike from PaulDotCom shows up. Seriously. Heidi was parked on the side of the road with the MCC waiting for JP and I on a downhill. Mike was going the other way doing some sightseeing, saw the MCC, and stopped. Craziness. Really, I don’t think the whole “we’re going to DefCon in a few days” thing had hit until we saw Mike.

We rode our segment to Bryce Canyon where we were supposed to stay for the night. However, late the evening prior I threw a lateral. We have a fair bit of pre-Vegas prep to do, and spending the night in a tourist-trap of a town wasn’t going to help that. So we drove up to Cedar City instead for a 2 night stint there.

On the way to Cedar City, we drove through Red Canyon. As you can see, it’s aptly named.

So Sunday, we rode a loop around Cedar City. It had _poured_ the night before so it was surprisingly humid. This section of Utah doesn’t get much rain, and the amount we’ve seen in the last few days has been really unusual. It was a nice ride with very little traffic. Most folks are definitely at church sunday morning in this neck of the country.

After the ride, more pre-DefCon shenanigans. We had lunch with @banasidhe and friends as she was cruising down I-15 to start setting up for B-sides Las Vegas. Now, things are seriously starting to feel like DefCon.

Today we rode out of Cedar City on the way to Milford, 56 miles away. The ride to Milford is pretty straightforward.. a long, slow climb through a pass, then back down the other side. Again, it had poured last night, so it was relatively humid for SW Utah.

About 17 miles in, there were some more petroglyphs off the road… a little too far off the road for JP and I to take the trip to see, but Heidi and the boys got a chance to check them out.

Around this time, Art made a break for Las Vegas. He’s got to get some work done on his car before it runs out of warranty in 3 days, so it’s now or never. While Art is in Vegas, Heidi and the MCC are the only SAG. As you can see, Terran is thrilled with all the waiting 😉

From what I can tell looking at the elevation map for the next 400 miles, Nevada is big sections of flat separated by ~1.5k’ climbs. Here we are on the flats, cruising along. We had an awesome tailwind today and put down some great times.

That’s not to say we didn’t stop to smell the roses… or in this case, sit awkwardly on a playground toy while Dax giggled like a mad baby. He REALLY loved this thing.

I mentioned the tailwind. As it turns out, the wind seems to be a constant thing here. They’ve even built these fancy wind thingies to make electricity. And they are HUGE. You can see them from at least 15 miles away.

Tomorrow we ride to Baker. There will be no cell service and who knows what the Internet will be like. The next day we ride to Ely then SAG to Vegas for DefCon. We’ll post updates as we can, but things may get sporadic until next Sunday when we resume the trek to the Pacific.