05/29/96 (Alan) No flats today! And tailwinds again, so again we averaged over 20 mph. Tonight we're staying at Frank's friend Renee's house in Las Vegas. Her hot tub will see good use tonight on our aching joints.
I wish I had a dollar for every time a car gave us a friendly "beep beep" as we pedalled across the desert. As we were stopped fixing one of our innumerable flats yesterday, a motorist stopped to make sure we were OK and to offer us his Coke. Riding on the freeway is not nearly as bad as you might think. The shoulder is so wide your're not close to traffic. The surface is smooth and there are few on/off ramps out in the boondocks. The main downside is the traffic noise.
On the way through the city going to Renee's house, some guy in a
pickup truck pulled up next to us at a stoplight to admire my Santa
Rosa Cycling Club jersey and to comment about Sonoma County. At the
next stop light he pulled up again and asked to trade shirts. "I've
got a really high-quality shirt," he said. "I'll trade you straight
up!"
I don't know how we did it, but we stopped at three bike shops this afternoon and forgot to get patches. We did get two new spare tires, 4 tubes, two sets of brake pads, and a 5 mm bolt. We can get patches tomorrow during our layover day (our first real rest day). We are waiting for Adam and Pete (whom we met on the Internet) to arrive on their tour from LA. They will accompany us at least as far as Zion National Park.
(Photo downloaded from Wikipedia)