Usually I don't eat out this much.
My typical day of food consumption consists of a lot of snacking: apples, homemade trail-mix from bulk foods, tortillas, carrots, bell peppers, cheese, etc.
Breakfast is usually peanut butter on a tortilla with banana and honey. Dinner is usually soup, with some sort of protein.
And I like to eat lunch out; something big coupled with a couple hour break. It gives me the energy to power through the afternoon.
Anyways, today started with me sitting for three hours in the tent, waiting for the rain to stop. Setting up camp in the rain is necessary if the weather is bad. However, taking down camp in the rain is miserable, and I'd rather just wait out the weather.
The bus protected me from the brutal wind last night. Everything is wet though.
Sensing a lapse in the rain, I took down camp and headed to Delish, a coffee & doughnut shop suggested by the locals the night before. They had freshly made breakfast burritos filled with eggs, potatoes and chorizo. I ordered one, some of their mini doughnuts, and a coffee.
The cheerful folks at Delish, owner Karyn-Ann on the right.
Everything tasted fantastic. Almost instantly, another cyclist entered the shop and we exchanged the usual: Where are you going, where did you ride from?
I peeked outside - it was the same cyclist I saw yesterday and unsuccessfully tried to flag down!
Meet Flavienne.
Residing in Quebec City, she is riding from Salt Lake City to Calgary. She works as an oceanographer and would normally be on an icebreaker in the arctic at this time. But the boat didn't go out, so instead, she took a month long vacation for a cycle tour!
I wish we had more time to talk (such a wonderful personality), but today she needed to ride to Jackson and escape the rain. I hope to visit her in Quebec City one day.
Safe travels!
After a long chat with Karyn-Ann, lunchtime was just around the corner and I was still hungry. Another suggestion from the locals was the taco bus, but it was new enough that it didn't exist on Google. I asked the librarian where it parked.
On the main street. If you cross the bridge, you've gone too far.
Unlike typical taco trucks, this one you could actually enter and eat inside. After all, it was a taco bus.
I ordered their lunch special: tacos - with copious amounts of lime, cilantro and onions, they were excellent. And spicy. Yum.
Still drizzling, I figured I better get going. I was only on the road for about ten minutes before I ran into Bruce.
From Muncie, Indiana, Bruce was riding the opposite direction of me. He had an interesting touring setup: a lightweight road bike with a trailer.
Although he has never ridden with racks and panniers, he knew someone who switched to a trailer system and would never go back. Maybe I'll try that out one day...
In the last two hours I've seen more cycle tourists than I've seen all week.
My ride paralleled the Palisades Reservoir, which made for an enjoyable ride, even in the poor weather. I didn't even notice the rain.
I arrived in Victor shortly before 7pm, but still at least three hours before sunset. I grabbed a salad and slice of pizza at a one of the local restaurants (technically I'm in Idaho now...) and then headed towards the Grand Teton Brewing Company to sample some of their brews.
I met another cyclist in the tap room, Aaron, who frequently bike-packs. Which is cycle touring, but the offroad version. My adventure bucket list is getting longer.
The sunset was absolutely stunning, both on the mountains to the west and the Grand Tetons to the east.
Between dinner and sampling the beer, I saw a couple walking three dogs and three goats and asked them if anyone would mind if I camped in an outdoor ice rink pavilion nearby. They said go for it.
So I'm camping in an ice rink. No ice though, thankfully.
Joe