Day 11 Wendover to Salt Lake City

I forgot to mention re yesterday's post that we also crossed our first time zone. I would like to think that I was going so fast that I did the Dr. Who bit and just leapt forward in time, but in reality Wendover is just in the Mountain Time zone and we were now one hour ahead of Pacific time. I thought that was quite cool until it dawned on me that I had just lost an hour, probably an hour of sleep. This is going to happen again, a couple of times before the journey's end.
As today's ride was one of the longer rides everone was in a state of frenzy to make sure that we left early enough and at 'route rap' the previous evening it was decided to have breakfast betwen 5 and 6 and load up at 6.30am. I could not be considered as a morning person, so my single vote for a leisurely breakfast and amble out about 11am was overwhelmingly defeated, as it has been every day up to now. So it was up at 5.00am, walk through the casino to see the old dears frittering away the kids inheritance and end up in McDonalds for breakfast. I know what you are thinking about McDonalds, but at least I wasn't asked to supersize. The hotel was only about a mile from the Utah state line so in the absence of signs about the states I took a photo of the state line drawn across the road with the names of the states on either side. The difference was like flicking a switch, the casinos stopped immediately and instead the side of the road was populated by gas stations (petrol stations in English), food outlets, estate agents and normal businesses. Again it was a little cool and cloudy, but the wind was in our direction as we dropped gently onto the salt flats and what a sight. flat as a pancke for as far as you could see ahead and white. the road, old faithful Interstate 80, was absolutely dead straight for over 40 miles. The sky was cloudy and there were even one or two large dark clouds floating about, but it didn't come to anything as usual and we ended up with a sunny day. The shoulder was really dirty with more delaminated tyres than you could shake a stick at and this debris is the worst kind because the wire in the little bits of debris stick in you tyre and are difficult to find when you get the inevitable puncture, so then you may get multiple punctures. We found David first as this had happened to him and he had no tubes left, got him going and on we went. The dead straight road through the salt flats was just incredible.
Eat up the miles at a good pace with a tail-wind and got to the first SAG at 42 miles ready for a rest. It was a long hop to the second SAG and we had a long drag up after the salt flats, but a long downhill and more flat meant we got to the second SAG in good shape. Al had a puncture in his rear wheel just before the SAG and we saw many other groups that had stopped with them, this was the worst day for punctures up to now all due to the dirty shoulder.
After rounding a point the Great Salt Lake was stretched out in front of us and looked just like a sea, it's not called 'Great' for nothing. Got off the interstate and road alongside the lake in towards the city. Looks impressive in the distance. The city is the state capital and the mountains surrounding it are incredible and still snowcapped. Glad to get into the hotel after a long day and looking forward to a day off tomorrow. Utah seems like we have returned to civilization after being in Nevada.
Today's distance was 116.3 miles.