willard UT

July 18
Up at 5 to beat the heat today. It’s a shorter day today, 65 miles or so; a fair climb that’s on I-84 right out of town to start with. The temps this early are only in the 50’s, but it soon warms up. After about 20 miles we got off the interstate and took to a more rural high way. We soon come upon a huge complex of buildings with very little markings. We thought it had to be a government installation of some kind; suddenly there are a whole bunch of rockets on display. Turns out it is connected with NASA. And a place they build rocket motors Called ATK.



Almost immediately after the display the road became 20 miles of very loose chip seal pavement. It was a fairly flat stretch as it seems to be skirting the edge of the Great Salt Lake. We had about 8 riders in a pace line for the entire 20 miles so we got through it fairly quickly. My position in such a pace line is usually at the back as I can see in my mirror well to call out “CAR BACK” and I give almost no draft to hook onto at the front. I am able to catch a good draft myself at the back. I try to stay out of the middle because the person behind gets no draft benefit and is really just leading the next pack.


We came through Brigham City and saw some interesting buildings, and then it was on to camp. We are camping at Pelican Beech near Willard UT. The campground is for group camping, but appears like it’s not very tent friendly, lots of big thorns. It is right on a freshwater reservoir, so a swim takes care of the shower for tonight as there are 4 showers for the whole camp. And it’s 95 degrees. I shouldn’t complain, one of the things we noticed as we travelled thru the dessert was that poverty is not just a city issue. We passed lots and lots of old broken down homes and trailers. We’ve also been told by the teachers that we talk to, that a lot of the kids are getting their only meals at school. One teacher told us that at one of the schools they send a backpack of food home with the kids on weekends, cause that’s the only food they would get. On the tour and in our other life we sometimes complain about waiting in line for a shower or a bumpy road we have to ride our nice bikes or etc. Maybe we need to step back and re-evaluate priorities.