June 14, Day 14
Provo to Price, UT
Mileage: 75.14
Weather: Cool and windy (very) to start and hot by the end of the day

Dear All

We started out today with the wind right smack dab in our nose and as each mile rolled by it became stronger and stronger. By the time we reached the canyon (the name of which I don't know) it was howling and right at us. With John pulling and Amy hanging on his wheel we were able to muster somewhere around 9 mph, max. We passed a bunch of windmills like the ones in Lackawanna but they were clearly turned off. If they had been on, our guess is that they could have lit the city of Buffalo for a week given the strength of the wind. Our thoughts were that if this wind were to continue it was going to be a hell of a long day. The canyon was beautiful. Pictures would not do it justice.

We were climbing all morning but the real stuff didn't hit until about the 38 mile mark where we had a SAG stop. There was a little creek at the SAG stop and we decided, along with others, to test the waters. We've been in cold water before but this was something else. We're convinced that the ice melted 10 minutes before we got there.

After the stop we started the climb up to Soldiers Summit at 7,447 feet. It was long (about 6 miles) but with Amy's new found strength and her knees feeling better by the day, we handled it quite nicely, thank you. Boy oh boy is Amy getting strong. The traffic was heavy and the road was under construction which added to the difficulty since the shoulder was virtually non existent. But, as you can see we made it (we're the two on the left in the picture).

From the top it was a long and very rough downhill. Just before descending we stopped in at a place called Hill Top Country Service which looks like it came straight out of the movies and is run by an old guy whose grandfather was a friend of Butch Cassidy.

This old guy (pictured with Amy) had some wonderful stories to tell and a picture of Butch (he's the guy on the left). What a great old store and what great stories he had to tell. On the way out, we gandered at the old gas pumps. Just in case you can't read it, it says 39.9 cents a gallon. Ah, those were the days.

The road down from Hill Top was really trouble given the construction so much so that some of the riders decided that, discretion being the better part of valor, it was wisest to take the SAG wagon down. Amy had some trepidation about it but ultimately decided to give it a go. It was hard. At one point John hit a rumble strip wrong which sent him careening off the road, down a gravel bank and into the side of a rock cliff. Don't worry, the bike didn't suffer a scratch. Oh, John's OK too.

As we descended we began to see just what we thought Utah would look like. Cliffs that go straight up with red rock and mesas. Absolutely beautiful. At one of the stops to rest our rear quarters, Amy decided to help out nature by holding one of the cliffs up as you can see in the picture.

We rolled into Price after a pretty tough day. But the sights were worth the effort.

Keep praying to the weather gods and sending good vibes.

Amy and John