Friday, June 7:  Sparks, Nevada to Lovelock, Nevada
Distance:  92.4 miles
Total time:  7 hours 41 minutes
Riding time:  6 hours 34 minutes

Today was a slog.  Very different from the climbs of the past two days.  Today, the enemy was the wind instead of the terrain.  The wind was blowing this hard, often in our faces or at a tough angle.  This is how hard it was blowing:

I guess I knew that Nevada was a desert.  It is.  It looked like this for the entire 92 mile ride:

We rode for over 60 miles on Interstate 80 because there is no other road to ride on.  While it's absolutely illegal to ride on the Interstates back home, out here you can ride on them when there is no other road.

Here are my cycling mates on the road today - Michael from Ohio, Jamie from Maine, and your humble servant:

I don't know if I mentioned that there is a group of riders from the UK in our group.  They are great trip companions and excellent riders.  They, and the lone U.S. rider under 48 years of age (he's 27, meaning both of his legs added together are younger than I am), ride together.  Here they are riding into a rest stop today:

At one of our rest stops I met this guy, who told me that he rode his bike across the country years ago to celebrate his 65th birthday.  I guess that's what I'm doing as well, six months early.  See the sweet camper in the background?  That's how he crosses the country now.

Lovelock is a small town, but it has a nice hotel and a great cafe where we had dinner, and where we'll have breakfast in the morning.  In case you're curious how we find enough calories to bike 92 miles, the Cowpoke Cafe knows how to do calories:

This being Nevada, the hotel is also a casino.  I can't say I was tempted.

Tomorrow should be more of the same - I-80 and wind, but shorter; "only" 77 miles.