Tired, cold, sore, beat up and exhausted.  That’s how I feel tonight in writing this.  But would do it over again for the experience!

Started out in day early in Delta at 5:45am and the group left at 8:40, waiting for those from Bountiful Mazda to come out. That was Russ, John, Allison, Allan, Todd, Lauren and Mike.  Also a special thank you to Russ’s Dad and for the other driver of Todd’s truck. I didn’t start the ride until Eureka (I am VERY glad that I rode that portion yesterday) and headed towards Utah County. We were met by 4-5 riders of Mike and Taylor’s team, which would come in handy later in the day. Had a windy descent, but a beautiful tail wind along Utah Lake. We stopped at Mike’s sister’s place for lunch in Saratoga Springs.  From then on, it was all over. 40+mph extreme windstorm from Saratoga Springs and then the rain of all rains of the entire trip as we headed past Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. We were fortunate enough to find an unfinished construction building that we could hide out in from the fiercest of the rains and thunders and lightenings.   We waited it out the best we could and heading into Salt Lake County at the point of the mountain, brutal fierce winds and then the rain came in around Sandy and then never let up until the end. People were shivering, wet and quite miserable. I have to make a confession to make that during our trek, I had mentioned that I wished for bad weather so that those that came out today could get a glimpse of what we had gone through, but after seeing Allison in Salt Lake get off her bike because of her uncontrollable shivering, I had to re-assess my wishes. The finish was emotional and great, but was overshowered a bit by all of us shivering, cold, wet people. Stats for today: time in saddle: 5:01(hours). total miles: 82; average speed: 16.2mph and max. speed of 39.2 (from descent off of Eureka).

So, I did it! I finished my first goal of riding every inch of the ride and making it home in one piece (there were some close buzz-bys from Utah and Salt Lake County drivers). There is an incredible amount of satisfaction in doing this, but also learned about life and people.

As my final blog update, I need to give a shout-out to several people from today.

1. Bountiful Mazda and Hope-Faith Mapleton cycling teams. Thank you! Your efforts and sacrifice do not go unnoticed.
2. All the drivers, family and people that came to watch us on this terrible weather day.
3. Kathy, Mike’s sister. Her husband Mike died of cancer a few years ago and to have her positive attitude and provide lunch for us is very inspirational.
4. Aubri Mills (not sure on the spelling) and her Mom and Grandma. To see her in the Faith-Hope cycling jersy (which is a sick jersey to say the least. I can be quite fly for a white guy!) and knowing that her cancer is gone for her to have a future life because of HCI makes this entire ride worth it.  They are from Rexburg (ID) and made this drive to be here for this.  Go get’m girl!
5. Jordan, Kathy’s son. This guy hasn’t rode in over 2 years and goes out in basketball shoes and no clip-in pedals and just bike shorts, he made it with all the weather and elements. That was awesome!                                                                                                                                                                                     6.  Coleman.  Jeff’s brother.  He drove out with his family from Reno to be able to ride the last day with us today.  Maybe after seeing the weather we had here, it might have been better to have stayed in Reno!  It was good to have him there.
7. The team. Even though we were diluted and didn’t get to ride together as much as I would have liked today, the bonds were created from this week long before today.  They’re not going to like this, but since I have been unemployed, we felt that we wouldn’t be able to go due to the expense of this trip.  I was able to share a room with Mike and Taylor (which had to sleep in a bed together) so I could go.  Everyone pitched in to help with dinners and gas and such and sincerely wish to thank them for their efforts in truly allowing me to participate.  Not one word of begrugement or making me feel uncomfortable about my situation in doing this.  Truly, tender mercies have been shown to me through these people to allow me to have this experience.  It most certainly won’t be forgotten.
Thank you for your posts, your well-wishes and support.  I was glad to see my family en route today and look forward to catching up with them from last week.