25

Sunday, 6-29-08, Eureka Park, Nevada
I woke up before the others and wrote in the journal. I had fallen so far behind. I hope to be more diligent from now on. It's so quiet here. No wind and the terrain is a perfect setting for a western movie. Today we should arrive in Eureka by around noon. I guess I'll wake everyone up now. It's about 7:30.
LATER... We finally left around 9:00 am. The ride was pretty level the whole way until around 5 miles before Eureka. We saw a buck running parallel to us along the road. The wind turned against us (or maybe we turned against it) the last 5 miles uphill to Eureka. Like Austin, it wa all uphill right when you're hot and tired. A funny sounding noise is coming from the rear crank of the tandem. It doesn't seem to affect the performance but it bugs me. With every turn of the crank, there's a click. Otherwise it runs great.
We arrived around 2:30 and bought (and refilled twice) a large Pepsi from a mini mart. At first we were going to camp at an RV campground, but I asked the Sheriff's office and he said we could camp in the park - a perfect setting, lush green grass, clean restrooms, shade, and picnic tables. we dropped the kids at the public pool - only $4.00 per family - and we bought food and ice and set up camp. By the time we made it back to the pool, they were closing early for tomorrow's swim meet. At least they let us shower and the kids had a couple of hours to swim.
When we got back to the camp, Sarah, John, and I made dinner - pork, hard-boiled eggs, and Top Ramen. Sarah and John stirred the food and did most of the cooking. They were excited and proud about that. By the time we finished all our evening activities, it was getting dark. Tomorrow should be a long day, our longest anticipated ride, to Ely, 75-80 miles. We have to get up early, before the crack of dawn. 48 miles.