Nevada HO!!

Hello everyone! Thanks for all of the comments, and, yes mom, I am taking my vitamins! Dan is making me take a multivitamin every morning.

Well, we finally got into Reno late last night having only taken 1 day longer than anticipated to get over the Sierras. As you all have probably gathered from the cell phone text messages, we've been having a grand old time.

Early monday morning we were driven North from the Bay Area to meet up with my uncle Steve and cousin Mike to ride on the 1st day of our trip. The only way I could convince my friends to give us a ride that early was to shave the eyebrows in addition to the newly shaved head and face, so they had to go. It actually doesn't look too weird, and the shaved head is really convenient:


We were both really tired because we were up extremely late Sun. night getting ready to go.

Here is a picture of Dan and I with Mike right before we set out:

After about a mile down the road, Dan gets a flat, the 1st of many mechanical problems:
The rest of the day was a wonderful sunny ride along quiet backroads next to the Sacramento river all the way to Sacramento where we stayed the night with the Howell family and got showers and food. Thanks Howells!!

Tues. AM we hop on our bikes and about 3 miles down the road Dan broke a spoke. Several hours later we finally got it fixed and some extra spokes from a bike shop. Then he got a flat. We didn't actually get rolling until afternoon. The rest of Tues. was a nice ride, ascending into the Sierra foothills in sunny weather. Only 1 broken spoke at the end of the day. We camped that night next to a creek in someone's backyard. The next morning the guy came out with a couple of dogs, including a Rottweiler, but they all were friendly.

Wed was another fun day of riding, but once again we didn't get started until late because we stopped at a bike shop for Dan to get a front rack and panniers for his bike in the attempt to prevent further broken spokes. Late afternoon we came upon a winery, so we entered in our cycling finery and both had our 1st wine tasting! The entire situation was so comical that I started uncontrollably laughing when we got our 1st sample and I tried swirling it around the glass and sniffing it in the attempt to appear like I knew what I was doing. The lady was really nice, we got to sample a few good wines, and convinced the lady to sell us one of the open bottles at a discount.
Also at the winery was when Dan discovered the rocks I had stashed in his panniers about 20 miles and several thousand feet below. We both had a good chuckle over that one.
Wed. night we found a great campsite in the woods, and enjoyed a delicious dinner of Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese, bagels with cheese, and Zanzibar wine from Sierra Oaks Estates winery:


Thursday (yesterday) was the longest and most fun day yet. We finally got an early start at 9:15, and spent 4 hours or so climbing over the beautiful and sunny Sierras. At around 2:30 we had lunch at a restaurant near Kirkwood ski resort, then made it to the top of 8500+ ft. Carson Pass.
The descent was fast and fun, and I hit a new top speed of 46.9 mph! We rolled into Carson City, NV several thousand feet below at about 8 PM where Chris Dunaway picked us up. Last night we stayed with him at his dorm, crashing in the TV room. Before bed, though, Dan and I of course had to put into action some of the Blackjack basic strategy and card counting we had been practicing. I had the basic strategy down cold, and Dan had the card counting down. If we had been combined into 1 person, we would have bankrupted the casinos. As it was, we both came out on top in Blackjack. Me by only a few dollars, but Dan won $33 over a few hours! Not bad for a good time and free drinks. As we make our way across NV, our counting should improve and we'll soon be raking in the dough...


We leave later today from Carson where Chris will drive us, and slowly begin making our way across the state. I guess there are a lot of remote stretches and mountains to climb, but it should be fun. I also may not have cell reception, so don't worry if there is no posting for a few days. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep posting as soon as I can! Time to get ready to go!

Peter