member !” Only too right mate ! Strangely , that gives me courage . I really am now almost crying but I don ’ t even have the choice to give up . No one is here to help me . I just have to get on the bike and continue .
Out of any long-distance bike trip I ’ ve done , this definitely has to be officially recorded as the Number 1 , most difficult and arduous day ever ! Worse by far than the first day of this trip , all that time ago , through the torrential storms in New Jersey . The second worst has to be setting out from London to reach the western tip of England in Cornwall with terrible winds blowing from Stonehenge and God Almighty rains all the way down the four-hour trip with nowhere to shelter . I never thought anything could get much worse . Move on to this one - bigger storm , bigger country , and bigger continent ! And much bigger fear !
I start the bike up and can only continue relentlessly through the cloud covered hills , rain soaked roads , until I get nearer to Salt Lake City , passing now the flatlands of Utah Lake . This I ’ m sure would be a beautiful place if only the weather was better ! Once again , I need to stop and map read to
know when to exit to find where in this large , new city I ’ ll be staying . My hands are numb , my boots and feet are soaked but I ’ ve just got to keep going . Worn out , I finally approach the city and exit towards Temple Square . Large avenues appear downtown and I finally find and drive up the narrow residential road I ’ ll be staying at .
I ’ ve arrived after 254 rainy , stormy miles . I park on the road and finally turn off the engine and pull the key out . I ’ m no longer in danger . I walk up like a shivering piece of lettuce to the main front door , probably look- ing like a drowned rat , to this beautiful Arts and Crafts Movement home – Inn on the Hill - and I ’ m welcomed with open arms .
Over the hardwood floors and up the grand carpeted staircase , I again enter another world . I ’ m shown to my room looking directly over to downtown Salt Lake City with the incredible white churches of Temple Square domineering everything .
A hot shower has never felt so good . And miraculously , as soon as I walk out onto the balcony the skies open up and it ’ s once again become a fabulous cloudless blue sky and hot afternoon . Wonders in this place will never cease . It ’ s like nothing bad had ever happened previously to man or beast . Or let ’ s make that woman or bike ! ZC
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