The Salt Flats

It is amazing how much nothing is in America. I had to laugh at the fact that today, 34 of us were stopped on the side of the road snapping pictures of nothing. We sat in awe, chatting, discussing the nothingness on the horizon. Well, it is not exactly "nothing". The Bonneville Salt Flats are quite an impressive sight. The world land speed record has been set and reset dozens of times this vast area of nothing but flat packed salt. We rode our bikes across the entire expanse of the salt flats. It took us two and a half hours to cross the flats. It was like riding on a treadmill because the mountains in the distance simply do not get any closer and the scenery on the side of the road (the salt flats) never change either.

I rode today and we stayed in a big group, chatting it up to kill the time as we pedaled through Utah on our way to Salt Lake City. After riding for such a long period of time some of us had to take a natural break. Even though Nevada was flat, there were small bushes to at least provide a small bit of cover, shielding our unmentionables from the road traffic. On the salt flats it is all out in the open. So what did we do? We went anyway. Let me tell you that there is a side of cycling that no one really likes to talk about, one of them is urination. On the salt flats nothing is hidden. I contemplated offering the service of writing a message in the salt for a nominal fee to those passing by, however I felt it might be a conflict of interest with the job I was hired to do.

I found out today while chatting with the bunch how valuable striking up a simple conversation can be. I am a fairly random person so when I chat with someone I generally stray away from topics that are irrelevant, to me at least, like the weather. Instead I get right into things and it usually speeds up the conversation to the good stuff. I was talking with one of the guys on the trip who happened to be in the military in the early 1960s. He was stationed in Turkey and broke Russian codes. I was fascinated. I have been like a kid in a candy store finding out about each person. Tom, a different guy, is a real cut up. Tom is always quick with a witty remark but after talking to him I found out that he designed jet fighters and also developed flight simulators for the Air Force.

Today we rode 117 miles on our bikes, which gave us plenty of time to talk. It was a long day and my brain is fried. This blog entry is terrible. I promise that the next entry will be better because this is two boring ones in a row. I'll get a good nights sleep and come back strong tomorrow. Here are some pictures to enjoy in the mean time.