Utah was amazing. It is so...different...but it is just so beautiful, and as Bike and Build goes, every day is an adventure.
Park City was absolutely one of my favorite stops on this trip so far. The free bus system was key, as the church we stayed in was about 5 miles outside of the downtown area. There was a huge city park, a fantastic library, and a bumpin' Main Street, which I can only imagine gets much more crowded during the winter months. That reminds me -- I would love to return to Park City in the season when it is most active, not only to snowboard (or even ski), but for the Sundance Film Festival, which occurs every January.
The day we left Park City we headed to Grantsville, by way of Salt Lake City. It was a pretty easy ride, only 70 miles, but there were definitely some mishaps. For one, the directions did not actually make sense (they hardly ever do, I really don't get it), and after getting 5 miles into our ride Mariah stopped in a gas station to figure out how to get into Salt Lake City, that had a downtown a bunch of us wanted to check out. The only logical (logical?!) way was to take Interstate 80 -- the same Interstate 80 we will be taking through Nevada and the same Interstate 80 that runs from Cleveland to the glorious state of New Jersey.
And so we hopped on 80 for about 10 miles, riding on a shoulder covered in glass and stones, screaming down a 6% grade (we have been on much worse but with cars and trucks passing at over 70 mph it was pretty terrifying), I know I was holding my breath for fear of crashing or getting hit by a careless driver, and I'm sure many others felt the same way. I kept coming upon riders pulled over to the side of the shoulder fixing flats, while others dropped away from behind or next to me to fix their own flat. I was doing fine (my bike basically got a makeover in Vernal, UT -- new tires, tubes, and a chain), however my eyes were watering so much from the wind and grime of the road, that one of my contacts fell out. Luckily, it was stuck on my sunglasses, but nevertheless, it is obviously disorienting to only have one eye in focus! So I too had to pull over, to put my contact back in. Unfortunately, it had grown so dry from the moment it came out to the moment I found a safe place to pull over and put it back in, that it had torn along the edge, so once it was back in, even though I could see, it was pretty uncomfortable.
At the 30 mile mark, after pulling off I-80 and skirting around the edge of Salt Lake City, Ariel, Brian, and I pulled in to a gas station to find the best way into the city. Courtney, Doug, and Justine had made it into the city, and we tried to make plans to meet them. It was harder than we expected, especially coordinating with sweep (Becca and Jerrod), but in the end it worked out beautifully.
We backtracked a few miles,first hopping on a bus to take us to the train station we had passed about 20 minutes earlier. We stuck our bikes on the front of the bus, and then hopped on a train into the city. Without any maps or guide books, it was a little overwhelming, but everyone on the bus and at the train station was very helpful. On the train, there were places to keep our bikes, and we could ride with them for free, too, so that was pretty sweet.
We met up with Doug, Justine, and Courtney at the Morman Temple, which actually is a very beautiful building. We weren't allowed inside, but we could go to the visitors' center. When we met up with the others, Doug was already involved in a heated argument with one of the visitors' center's employees over who has the right to judge another's actions and beliefs. To avoid any of my own arguments, I kept my mouth shut, avoided reading any of the plaques or pamphlets, and pretty much only used the bathroom and then left the building. I think it's great that they have such a strong faith, I mean if it works for them that's awesome, it's just not something I would like in my life.
Eventually sweep met up with us and we went out to lunch at a Persian/Middle Eastern/Turkish restaurant. Salt Lake City is a creepy town. For one thing, I have never seen a city so clean. There is literally NO garbage on the streets, and I did not see one homeless person. Also, the people are all about 20-30 years old, white, and mostly male. AND...they're all happy. It's totally creepy. The good thing is though, they were nice to us (probably because they knew we were riding for charity, and don't know that half of us don't give a shit about religion, love to drink, and swear like sailors). I was tempted to leave my bike unlocked, because I am pretty sure no one would steal it, but in the off chance that there is some sinning Morman out there, I decided against it.
So we go to this restaurant which is pretty much every person of color in Salt Lake City (yes, all 7 of them) combining together to serve ethnic food to the poor white Utahns who don't really venture too far outside the city/state limits. Despite having a white waiter, the food was pretty good. Much better than the bagged cereal and peanut butter we usually eat!
After some more confusion with directions, and a stop at the Great Salt Lake, we made it into Grantsville around 6 the other night. The detour was certainly a detour, but it was definitely well worth it!
We woke up at 430 this morning for our ride from Grantsville across the salt flats to West Wendover, NV. West Wendover is actually on the stateline, right next to Wendover, NV, which is a mail drop.
The entire day I had the song "Fill It Up Again" by the Indigo Girls stuck in my head, especially the lyrics "I checked my schedule now my train is rolling down the track / past the sadness of the salt flats / to the prospect of the land fat"...you can probably guess why. The salt flats were pretty cool, they look like ice, and I took lots of pictures that reminded me of Lake George in winter. The temperature was nice today, too, only about 80 (it was 120 yesterday). But for the most part...I was bored riding straight ahead for 100 miles. Very similar to Illinois. And oh, this was day #1 on I-80. We're all safe so far.
One more state down, and now it's thru Nevada and then on to California...so ridic that we are this far through our trip!
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