The day started with overcast and scattered showers but not enough to warrant a raincoat. A sweater yes, because the early morning temperatures were in the 50s. The first part of the ride was alongside I-80 to the town of Sinclair. I am not sure what came first the oil refinery or the town because the oil refinery was a Sinclair facility. The town had a little bit of charm in the its downtown area but was still engulfed by the massive refinery.
After getting through Sinclair it was time to get on to I-80. Yes there is a 12 mile stretch where all TransAm riders must get onto the Interstate Highway. Part of the interstate was under construction. The sign person told me to take the frontage road. What frontage road? There wasn’t one. So down the on ramp I carefully proceeded to the next sign person. It was clear that the section of interstate going in my direction was closed and all traffic was diverted to the opposite set of lanes into two-way traffic. The construction worker told me that today was my lucky day and that I should stay on the closed lanes but ride in the left shoulder because the right lane and shoulder was being paved. It was my lucky day. I had 7 miles of interstate riding with no traffic. That ended all too soon and I was on the right shoulder with trucks, RVs, cars, and semis whizzing by. The shoulder was great, it was wide and I never really noticed the cars going by me at 70+ mph. In this section of roadway I saw 6 other cyclists going the opposite direction but they were on the lanes opposite from me. Poor riders I thought because they were going to have to ride on the shoulder where all the traffic was also going.
I was glad to get off the Interstate and back onto smaller roads with less traffic. The next section of road was relatively deserted and all signs of rain were gone. It was now getting hot. I stopped in Saratoga and found a picnic table under a tree which gave me enough space for a 10 minute siesta. Once back on the bike and before I left Saratoga 4 more cyclists arrived. Two guys were in my demographic. One was from Fairfax County, VA and the other from Williamsburg, VA. Small world. One was another person that I had emailed with before leaving for she was looking for riders going east to west. Smaller world. Her peeps were the group of six passed earlier but called this group her new peeps.
Once I was back on the road it was onto Riverside into headwinds and diminishing water. I decided to camp in this town and the campsite was good. It was in this campsite that I met Mikey, a retired school teacher, living out of converted school bus. Mikey had a lot of stories to tell including how the bicycle feel off the back of the bus on the way to this campground. After dinner I made my way to one of the bars across the street to get a beer. It seems like all 39 people that live in this town were at the bar watching the NBA finals, or they go to the bar every night.
Today’s stats: total miles 60.26; average speed 13.0 mph; max speed 32.5 mph; elevation gain 1568 feet; elevation loss 1181 feet.