Day 3: Price to Green River, Utah 67 miles. 1100 feet of climb

The big guy giveth.  The big guy taketh away.

Yesterday, we were blessed with a nice, soft tailwind through much of the climb up the Provo and Price Canyons.  Today, we had a hellacious 20 mile per hour headwind all the way into Green River.

More like…"the next 65 miles"

If I showed you the route map, you'd laugh.  The chart would show a, more or less, steady downhill run into Green River.  The riders, to a person, would beg to differ.  At dinner tonight, the most common comment was that it felt as though we were riding uphill the entire way.  With the exception of the fast riders from Europe (and now a couple of guys from Delaware and Pennsylvania who are now attached to that clan), everyone else finished at about five hours, or around 13.5 miles per hour average.  In all my riding, I don't think I've ever encountered winds that strong, right in my face, for that long a period of time.  It didn't help that our route ran straight into the wind the entire time, with no deviations away from the gusts.

Saw this on the morning ride out of Price.  Priceless!

This entire region of Southeastern Utah is replete with Dinosaur Museums and excavation sites.

It was one of those days when I needed to do a better job focusing on the road and the traffic and keeping my bike in the narrow alleys between gravel and rumbles strips.  I think I got a bit of divine intervention towards the end of my ride today.  As I was in the midst of barking at myself to keep focused, a lady bug alit on my route sheet (which I keep attached to my aerobars).  I took that both as a sign from above as well as a good luck charm.  She stayed with me all the way to the hotel but flew off before I could stop and take a picture of her.

The descent was appealing; the treacherous crosswinds made it oh so challenging.

The approach to Battleship Butte as we got closer to Green River.

Calf Mesa, overlooking the Green River and our hotel.

Just before entering Green River, we could see, far along the distant horizon, the outline of the southern Rockies.  Even that far away, they looked quite impressive.  Tomorrow, we're heading East and riding into Colorado.  Tomorrow starts the climb into the foothills of the Rockies.  The big climbing days are still two days hence (when the forecast calls for the potential of snow at higher elevations and morning temperatures in the 20's.  Oy!).

This was sitting in the parking lot next to our hotel.  I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation as to why it's there.  Must be an interesting story.

Green River, Utah, population 949, is NOT exactly the first place I'd think of for setting up a bunch of Tesla "filling stations."  These were just across the parking lot from that giant watermelon.  Serendipity or Connection?