Eureeeeka.

So on my second day of rest, I find myself in Eureka, NV. A quaint little Western town with a population of about 300. So obviously I'm having a wild time and things have gotten a little crazy...Mostly though, I have spent some quality hours lazing around in my tent under the trees, catching up on some trashy magazine reading, and icing my knee, as the locals drive around my "camp site" in their pickup trucks and cowboy hats.

Somehow I have lucked out the last few days with very friendly people, great hot weather, good mileage, and no flat tires. I met my first group of other cyclists, and then a very friendly Jersey business man who bought me lunch and a hotel room for tomorrow night! yeehaw...After that chance encounter I was feeling so inspired (probably mostly from the 1/4 cheeseburger I ate for lunch, my first one so far!) that I actually biked 115 miles in a day, from Fallon to Austin, NV. Trust me, by the end of the day as I was racing the setting sun and climbing a thousand feet to hit Austin, I was hauling my bike up the hill on wobbly legs, and cursing the speeding cars for being able to move so fast. But I made it nonetheless.

I made it into Austin just as the sun was dipping, but by the time I could catch my breath and try to find a spot to sleep it was pitch black, and I was left with a dark and deserted town. A friendly gas station clerk told me I could sleep at the local Baptist church for the night and use the shower for free. (I keep getting this, and I'm gonna try to take it as a nice gesture and not a hint at my personal hygiene...although we all know the truth here.) So naturally I start to haul my bike back up the hill, and this point I can't even imagine trying to ride him (and yes FOX has been the decided name for my bike) so at this point its a struggle not to let him topple over. After searching for an eternity of ten minutes, I gave up after finding about ten churches in a three block radius. I decided to pack it in at the most accessible, and pitched my tent in the parking lot of one of the churches. Of course it was the wrong church, and I didn't find out until the morning that the 'right' one was literally five feet across the street. The one with the shower, yea that would have been nice. A sleepless night of concrete and highway 50, only a gallon of coffee was just enough to get me back in the saddle the next morning

So after 70 mile day yesterday, now I'm camped out in Eureka; where I have shacked up in my tent in the local park behind the grocery store, showered at the local pool for free, and consumed a GIANT 32 oz milkshake in about five minutes. All thanks to the sweet lady who works at the one local grocery store. I'm pretty sure everyone in town knows me by now, if not for the beautiful image of a girl covered in grease on a bike, then for the girl who keeps asking about ice cream and showers.

Aside from a few grueling long days of biking down highway 50 where the only progress I seem to be making is eating my weight in calories, I am feeling great and very thankful for all the wonderful people who consistently go out of their way for me. I have a hunch it might be because I'm starting to resemble a skinny 12 year old boy who has not had a shower in days, and that when they realize I'm actually a single female traveling on a bike packed with at least 90 pounds of gear....they must feel sorry for such a sight, and feel compelled to do their part.

Enjoying my day of rest and hoping to get to Ely NV tomorrow. Lots of miles left in Nevada, no services along the way, and only three trees of shade will hopefully send me spinning quickly to Utah.

more updates to come...

ciao
s