Last night I went to the "resort" restaurant and sat at the bar. I even had a few Pacifico pints ... bringing my road trip beer count to 10. The bar tender/waiter was a character. He is the only liberal in this part of Utah. Learned a few things like the state is controled by a Republican Mormon minority and people like his Beatles selections even though they usually play C&W. The old guy had some stories. The old guy graduated high school 4 years after I did.
The resort didn't serve the included breakfast until 7:30am but the barman set me up with more than I could eat in the morning. I had to leave a a couple of oranges and an apple behind. The other apple I put in the cargo net escaped and a little later I really missed him.
Up and out a little after six ... it was cold. For the first time i got to put on my fancy $350 jacket. It performed every penny's worth. Right away there was a steep down hill and the first 25km flew by. Coming up to one of the first climbs I saw two cyclists ahead. Zach and Natalie and I would leap frog each other all day. Sometimes we would chat and sometime just ride on.
Escalante was about the midpoint for the day and I wanted to get food. No place served an actual breakbast that would put you over the hill ahead. I ended up having coffee, two slices of quiche and a giant cinnamon bun. As I ate the tandem couple from San Francisco, Steve and Karen rode by. Then a large group of Mexican cyclists from Mexico City started filtering in. They had stayed at Boulder the night before. In all I think I counted 14 including some stragglers on the road. Zach and Natalie also showed up.
Back on the road I saw Steve and Karen fixing a flat. They live less than a mile from me.
The cafe let me fill my bottles from their ice water dispenser. Only the first bottle was cold when I drank it because by 11am it was starting to get hot.
The scenery all day was amazing. I turned on the GoPro quite a lot and I hope I got some interesting stuff. Lots of pictures today as things changed alot as I rode along.
Boulder is a weird little town. Seems to be run by hippies or something. Not many people but about 10 businesses spread out over about a mile that cater to passing tourists. I had a good burger at Burr Trail restaurant when I got to town. I'm at Pole's Place Motel and the owner was very concerned about bikes in the room and in the flower beds. No refrigerator in room, no wifi, no cell service, the TV gets 3 over the air channels and a lot of rules but it is clean.
Nothing is open early tomorrow so I got a burrito for the morning from the food truck across the street. Smells pretty good. In a few minutes I will walk the quarter mile to the other restaurant for food and cell service.
