Day five was meant to be a day to recuperate in Delta, Utah before the final 138 mile push to the front door of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. But this morning, I received the following from Larry Peterson.

From Larry

GPS Stats:

61 miles, 3 hrs and 5 mins, 16.8 MPH, 2570 ft. elevation

Friday the 13th was a good day. Yes, this was a rest day! Sleep in, start late, peddle slow, meet new friends on the road, eat a hardy meal, go to the movies, or the rodeo, or swimming or what ever. Regular life should be so good. We had a nice breeze and pleasant temperatures to help us along up to Eureka and again we were the recipients of some fine road antics from the support crew. Isabel was clocked at almost 14 MPH as she raced along side, but Mike suffered a 5-minute time penalty as he received helping hand pushes from spectators.

About 5 miles out of Delta we met a young guy riding from Mississippi to Seattle and alone since Denver. The guy riding with him had looked at the Rockies and abandoned the ride. John had recently graduated from a university and was preparing for graduate school. He was bright and articulate and fun to get to know. He shuttled along with us most of the way to Eureka, but fell away when the grade got a little steeper. Was it because he was riding a bike made by General Motors and must have weighed 60 – 70 pounds all loaded up with traveling gear? He was doing the ride on the cheep: gym shoes, no spandex and a world war II helmet. I gave him my phone number to give me a call when he goes through Centerville. Maybe I can see that he gets a proper helmet and can have his bike checked out.

Oh, and I failed to mention yesterday that Joe is King of the Sprints. He out did me to a sprint finish yesterday. Way to go Joe! I will have to say that, again, he was a brilliant tactician (he must be a pretty good applet lawyer) because he road my slip stream to the last possible second, and then spurted around to take the victory. It is what it is; a victory is a victory.