June 12 & 13.
The trip from Fernley to Lovelock was chilly, rainy, and windy for 63 miles, nearly all of it on Interstate 80. It’s legal for bicycles to travel on the interstate in Nevada, because many places that’s the only paved road. It’s not as dangerous as it sounds, either, because the paved shoulder is as wide as the traffic lanes with a rumble strip in between. Mostly it’s noisy.
Lucky for me I had adequate clothing for the wind and the rain and made it all the way to Lovelock on my bike. We stayed in a tiny house church there. We were scheduled to take showers at the town pool. Most of us didn’t actually manage a shower because the water was cold! When the pastor found out, he called a friend of his at the Super 10 motel and a few people went there to get a warm shower.
Before we took the tables down, I didn’t think there was any way for all of us to be able to find a sleeping spot. It was much roomier after the tables were put away. We got to see a beautiful sunset.
The next day the weather was beautiful for the 73 mile trip from Lovelock to Winnemucca. We had snow covered mountains on one side and other mountains without snow on the other. We didn’t have to ride quite as much on I-80, but we still rode about 25 miles there. On one stretch, we ran into road construction where the asphalt had been ground off to make way for new. It was so rough it almost shook my glasses off so I couldn’t see. I ended up walking about half a mile. The last two days have been relatively flat with tail winds, so it wasn’t too bad.
Photos on the way to Winemucca
Tomorrow we ride 102 miles to Carlin. Let’s hope for tailwinds again.