5/15/17

    Today was a great biking day. 62 miles with the wind as my friend. The roads were straight and in great shape.  At one point I looked back at where I had been and could still clearly see the town I had left 9 miles before (in a straight line).  Very little traffic.  I had a vehicle pass me once every 5 or 10 minutes.  Which meant that I could really listen.  The birds were incredible today.  It was like a bird concerto for 6 hours.  They took the main part, with the crickets and frogs coming in once in a while to take over.  Even the gophers chirped in periodicly to keep it interesting. And then the cars and trucks were like the rest of the orchestra making verious contributions depending on the speed and size of the vehicle.  The sting basses rumbling or the timpani starting small, then playing too loud and drowning out the main instrument only to quickly fade away.  It was sweet.  
      Today also made the ride official, as I was chased by two different dogs.
       The landscape changed. No more scrub, very little sagebrush, no cactii.  For the most part it was grass.  Some green, mostly brown for as far as one could see.  Yesterday there were cattle.  Today, cattle and sheep.
      The road was clean today.  Road kill report - one snake, one rabbit, one indecipherable, small rodent, and 1 cardboard 12 pack of Dr Pepper(counted as road kill because it was in the middle of the road). The side of the road was incredibly clean.  Maybe 6 cans and bottles the whole ride. All in all a good riding day.
       However, I received a phone message when I stopped for the day.  A friend and colleague from the high school where I last worked passed away. It is hard to process and hard to be away from the others who are also shocked and sad.   At the same time, I know he would have loved to hear about the trip and would want me to continue and have the best trip I could possibly have. Til next time.

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