Safe Return Doubtful

8 miles (13 km) – Total so far: 1,366 miles (2,199 km)

A day of leisure today, staying out of the sun, sorting the next stage of my route out, and even doing some laundry, proper laundry that is, as opposed to just taking the riding shirt and shorts into the shower with me.

Watched TV for the first time in 4 weeks. CNN is just a continual stream of attack on Trump. I am certainly not a supporter of his, but the childlike vindictiveness of it surprised me. I met a guy at Red Canyon who was driving to his cabin for 4 days off. He was 55 and a coal miner, recently relocated to Rock Springs Wyoming, from Utah previously. He hopes for another 6 or 7 years work so he can retire. Two years ago he feared for his immediate future as I guess miners have done for years. Trump has given his him some hope. It seems implausible that a country as powerful as the US could be in this situation, with a President who is clearly not up to it, but now, having been elected, is at war with the media. No sooner had he finished speaking in Arizona last night CNN launched their aggressive response. Sad for the world.

Is there a whiff of revolution on the Utah beer scene?

More than 50% of Utah are Mormons, and more than 80% in the county I am in. Though Salt Lake’s population is declining the outlying counties still have growing populations. Mormons don’t drink alcohol. Most states in the US restrict the strength of alcohol served in bars on draft and in grocery stores. For example, in Wyoming it was 6%. To get anything stronger it needs to be from a liquor store. In Idaho and Montana, there is no limit, so the brewery bars will have strong beer on tap. Restaurants are required to hide the mixing and pouring of alcoholic drinks (nicknamed the ‘Zion Curtain’). The drink driving limit is the lowest in the country, at 0.05%, and strictly enforced. Higher alcohol prices are coming. The liquor store’s are State run, in very plain buildings, and with no sort of advertising.

My first stop in Vernal (my first Utah town) was at the liquor store. I had good advice from Matt, but the selection of beers was small, from a couple of local breweries and Colorado, maybe 20 different beers. I visited the Vernal Brewery earlier this afternoon. On tap are there 6 standard beers, all brewed specially for Utah, 3.2%, and made in cans for grocery stores, at the same strength. I tested several, and they were quite plain. They serve cans (in the Brewery) that are stronger, just two of them, an IPA and a stout. I met the head brewer and we spoke for a while. Whereas things have changed in last ten years, as they have across the whole of the US, he doesn’t expect any change to the current law any time soon.

So, it’s possible to get decent beer, just more difficult than usual. It does seem a bit hypocritical. The Scottish zero-tolerance of alcohol and driving makes far more sense. Surely there is alcohol, or there isn’t. It seems impossible to please the Mormon population and those who want to increase tourism.

Great bike store if needed in Vernal.

I feel a lot bettter with 80 psi’s. Hard to get that much pressure in with a hand pump.

These guys offer free camping in their backyard to touring cyclists, though it will be noisy just a few metres off the highway.

The blackboard at the Vernal Brewery, all at 3.2%

Some samples – amusingly titled Polygamy Porter (6.5%) from Wasatch brewery in Park City, but best, the Dubhe Black IPA at 9.3% (IBU 109) brewed with hempseed

Storytime:

A Brief History of Cricket in Galveston

Nigel’s wedding to his ex-wife was in Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico. After the mishaps of the stag night out the group made its way down south to the sea. This being August the temperature was as high as ever in that part of the world, and also the humidity at close to 100%. If anyone went outside it was very briefly, and first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

Our little group, which consisted of Frank, Marcus and Caron, my friends from London, and Gordon and Damian, my ex-students from the Wirral, took a beach house on stilts (to prevent flooding) for a week. It was an excellent place for a wind down and base for the wedding.

As an additional part of the stag, we played a cricket match on a grassy area between the beach house where Nigel and family were, and our house. It was UK against USA, though any extended sort of life in the US gave qualification, so Nigel and a few other of his soccer friends played for the home team. This had been planned for a while, and as part of my luggage from England I had brought a full team bag of cricket gear, pads, gloves, stumps, bats and balls. Of course it wasn’t a test quality wicket, not even at Birkenhead Park club level. The grass had not been mown short, and as the ball would not bounce, certain rules had to be changed, bowling was on the full for example (no bounces). It was a proper spectacle through. The UK team had almost full white cricket clothing, and quite a few Anglicised Americans did also. Though played in the heat of the morning when no other person would dare go outside for longer than a minute, we attracted quite a few spectators, albeit in the air-conditioning comfort of their vehicles. We played for at least a couple of hours then retired for some much needed refreshment. My good friend Caron was particularly worried about snakes, and we had fuelled his fears by telling him they were quite common in the sort of grassy areas upon which we were playing. Some advance planning had also allowed me to bring with me a few rubber toy snakes which at the cross-over between overs I was careful to put in Caron’s pathway. The scheme worked as well as I could have expected.

Following the cricket and the very necessary cool down, we headed over to Nigel’s place for a barbeque later that afternoon. The temperature was even higher at this stage. As we had been in the north west and at some altitude in much cooler places, we all had with us cold weather and rain clothing. For the walk of about a mile we put on all of this gear and set out. I think our attempt at humour was lost on many of the holidaying locals, one of whom was nonchalantly driving his car on the quiet roads, saw us, could not quite believe what he had seen, and ended up driving his car off the road and onto the grassy verge.