Days 56 - 62 never again Nevada, never again...

The state that only deserves one post.

It may sound harsh, but Nevada sucks. It is hot, it is hilly, it is windy, there is nothing! Yes, I'll admit, day 1 in Nevada was exciting and beautiful. But daily rides consisting of 10 mile climbs up mountains followed by 30 miles in a wind tunnel of a valley over and over again gets old fast.

This is what we stared at for over 400 miles over the course of 5 days...

We did ALL of our travels through Nevada on one single road - highway 50. In 1986, it was named the "loneliest road in America" and advised drivers stay off of the road unless they were prepared for emergencies and very experienced. This is because there is roughly 80 miles between gas stations and towns, with NOTHING else in between. Don't believe me? You should...there is nothing.

Someone somewhere decided to capitalize on this idea of being the "loneliest road in America" to help encourage some tourism revenue. Therefore, when you enter the first town on highway 50 (Baker, NV) you are instructed to pick up your Nevada "passport". Then at each of the 6 towns that are off highway 50 (over the course of 410 miles) you can stop at local establishments (usually the ONE restaurant in that town) to get a stamp. At the end of the trip you can send in your stamped passport for some kind of "I survived highway 50

" souvenir. Not sure what it is yet...I'll let you know when I get it...

Here was our itinerary through the state:

Day 56 - Baker 82 miles

Day 57 - Ely 62 miles

Day 58 - Eureka 73 miles

Day 59 - Austin 66 miles (don't be fooled by low milage, hardest day yet, sustained 20 mph winds 30 mph gusts!)

Day 60 - Fallon 110 miles

Day 61 - Sparks 67 miles

Day 62 - Build in Reno

That being said, we didn't let Nevada beat us. Yes we were fried and grumpy but we did it! And there were a number of things we did to keep ourselves sane...the most obvious, of course, being PROM!

To keep things short, here is a bulleted list of the highlights of highway 50:

1. I was knocked off my bike due to a horrendous headwind (I am ok)

2. There was a day where we hit 4 7,000 foot summits

3. I peed on a red ant hill and was bit all over my butt (there were actually ants IN my chamios...)

4. We camped in a gas station parking lot (as seen here:)

5. Met a man in his 50's doing a 10,000 mile ride in the U.S. (www.findingwarren.com)

6. We got a ride in a pick up truck due to hot sticky asphalt on the road

7. We visited the famed "shoe tree"

8. Became concerned about our food supply when the grocery store in the town we were in only had 2 loaves of bread

9. We consistently blamed all bad things that happened on the state of Nevada

10. We found a dollar bill from P2SF 07 and 09 hanging in a cafe, we of course added ours to the collection!

One of Nevada's redeeming qualities...so much for being bummed your're on laundry crew!

Was it really that bad? No, I guess not. We certainly are good at having fun where ever we are , so we have that going for us! But, like I said, I will not be cycling through Nevada anytime soon!

Prom was a complete success. It was an anything but clothes theme and everyone dressed accordingly. We had decor (a photo backdrop made of the lunch tarps featuring the coolers and the Jeff Gordon poster as props, streamers, balloons, blinky lights from our bikes, an entry way lined by all of our cleats...you get the idea) music (a pre-approved play list featuring your typical middle school dance songs...) prom court, and a king and queen (congrats Kristie and Mark! Hahaha) The prom after party was at a local bar a few blocks away and it was all in all a really fun but totally ridiculous night...Certainly a trip highlight!

All of us, dressed in our finest...