Dean Shaff Personal Blog: More Nevada, and pictures

Today I'm writing from my dad's laptop. Tom is here, and he's going to be my support team for the next few days. Man, I'm so grateful for this. Riding from Austin to Eureka, NV was so much easier today without as much stuff on the back of my bike, and knowing that there would be someone I know and love riding into town with me.

The last couple of days have been a bit crazy for me. I took a rest day in Austin, NV and stayed at a motel. I chose a good day to stay in a motel, as it rained all day. I would have been able to make it in the tent, but I wouldn't have been able to get as good night of sleep or get caught up on game of thrones. Crazy that I can sit around and watch HBO even in the middle of nowhere Nevada. The nasty sunburn I got on the small of my back (my tramp stamp sunburn) started pealing, so it looks like I'm on the road to recovery (finally). I don't know if there is a worst spot to get a bad sunburn, but that one sure made sleeping on my back painful. I met a fellow bike tourist in Middlegate, NV and we met up again in Austin. She took the slightly shorter but more hilly route to Austin from Middlegate, and she indicated that she ran out of water camping at the top of the mountain there. She said that she only made it to Austin because there was a stream at the top of the mountain where she could fill up. That's insane. It was good to see another person who was as deep in the struggle as I was coming into Austin. In Middlegate I think I saw my first cowboy!!!! He was this dude with a ten gallon hat, a big handlebar mustache and a voice that was raspy and unintelligible. He served me some beers and kept mostly to himself. I should clarify that Middlegate is not a town, but merely a wooden shack with a bar and a little motel. Oh, and beer is about $2.25 to $3.00 for a pint in Nevada.

The mornings and evenings here in Nevada are amazing. Leaving Dayton about 4 days ago was such a sublime experience for me. I went to this Starbucks, had a cup of joe, and watched the sun rise over the mountains. I might have a picture, but as always it does a poor job of capturing the cool morning air and the expansive nature of the scenery out here. As it gets later in the day it usually gets hotter, and the morning magic starts to wear off, giving way to sweaty, windy misery. I don't mean to exaggerate, but doing a 1000 ft climb in 80 degrees kind of sucks. At one point a couple of days ago my ass started getting so sweaty that I started to slip off the front of my saddle. That leather gets slippery when its wet. It got so bad that I had to stop, get a towel out of one of my panniers and wipe down both my ass and the saddle. Ick.

Taking a rest day in Austin was just what I needed. Today I rode 70 miles and it was one of the best days I've had so far.

I finally got my pictures from my phone, so below you can see some of the choice snapshots. I did a lot of panoramas. I'll put them in chronological order.