Day Thirteen

Fran DiGiano, retired environmental sciences professor from Chapel Hill. Like most Italians, he knows good food and he brought his own coffee press and coffee on the trip.

Two of our leaders, Judy and Pam, enjoyed the ride today in their new matching outfits.

Recommended flavor at the BYU Creamery is Graham Canyon...graham cracker ice cream with chocolate covered candy crunch.

I looked over Jordan and what did I see?

A bunch of bicyclists coming after me.

We started the morning heading for a bike path that would take us over to the Jordan River that, not so coincidentally, was named after the River Jordan that drains the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. This beautiful path is heavily used by bikers, joggers, and moms with strollers so we kept a nice easy pace through the beach rose scented air. It was a great way to start the second leg of our trip. Four new riders have joined us for this leg of the trip including a married couple for Santa Barbara.

Before we got to the river we took a path through the Salt Lake airport which required us to first open a number of heavy wire gates. I thought at some point we were going to pedal across the runway and I think our lead guy was getting directions from the ground controller! I was surprised at how little air traffic there was for 8 o’clock on a Friday.

Our only SAG stop for the day was at another In-N-Out Burger but who wants a burger at mid-morning when you can go to the Sweet Tooth Fairy (as featured on Rachel Ray!) for cookies and cupcakes.

With short mileage and perfect weather it should have been a routine run through squeaky clean Sandy, Lehi, American Fork and into Provo but my luck finally ran out and I got my first flat. I can ride an entire summer without a flat but out here the roads we’ve been riding are filled with junk…lots of glass but particularly pieces of steel belted truck radials…that can work through even the Kevlar tires I’m using.

As I was remounting my tire a small group of guys stopped to help me and we rode together through the BYU campus in search of ICE CREAM. We stopped and asked every pretty girl we saw and they all said to go to the BYU Creamery (we just wanted to be sure!). As we were leaving the creamery someone noticed that my tire was flat again so this time we put Dr. Phil on the job inspecting the tire for any imperfections. He did locate what was probably a tiny wire in the area of the puncture but we still couldn’t find anything inside the tire. Kevin (one of the new riders) used a piece of electrical tape to boot the tire in that area (sort of an internal patch) and the last 7 miles were uneventful. Thanks guys!

We are having a bizarre stretch of bad luck with bikes. Yesterday Kiwi Rick noticed that the rear stay on his carbon fiber frame was cracked. He used the day off to locate a Giant dealer in Salt Lake City who was most accommodating and built him a new bike in a few hours. Rick will have to argue with the Giant people back in New Zealand for the warranty. Today, less than a mile from the hotel, Locomotive John (he’s retired from Burlington Northern and knows everything about train engines) had a bit of a tussle with a 2005 blue/green Mazda 6. He’s okay but the bike is totaled so he bought a new bike here in Provo and will be back on the road again tomorrow. YIKES!

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 8

Road Conditions: 7 (higher due to bike path portions)

Grunt factor: 8

Special note: My Garmin unit ran out of juice today so unfortunately I only have half the route available.