Day 41 - Cedar City

Today Mr. Mangum woke us all up bright and early as he usually does, however, it was rather hard for me to get myself going this morning. Yesterday was a such a nice little break! We were on the road by 7:45am and heading toward Cedar City. Cedar City is a 59 mile ride from Penguitch, but the first 35 miles are all climbing. We took our time today, we biked at a slow leisurely pace up the mountain. We were all feeling a bit tired and felt no reason to rush our ride since it's the shortest ride so far on our trip. Sam was being harassed by some big nasty horse flies. Sam really hates what she calls "rude" bugs. One was giving her a really rough time, and she wound up and swung at it. The force of her swing must have knocked her off balance because she tumbled to the ground. She was a good sport about it and we all had a good laugh. Bob and I don't seem to be targets for bugs, but Sam seems to have a bulls eye on her back (they can smell the fear).

The most interesting thing I saw today was a herd of sheep coming at me down the mountain. All three of us had to pull over to let the sheep herder, who was on horseback, his two dogs, and his flock pass. They were headed to a pasture down the road. There were cars stopped in both directions and from the reaction of the drivers, it seems to be a common occurrence in this area of Utah.

We reached the summit around 12:00 and had a nice long descent into Cedar City. I stopped and took a picture of Ashburn Gorge at Sunshine Point and we headed back down the mountain. We didn't even stop for lunch today which allowed us to reach Cedar City by 1:30pm.

Mr. Mangum had arranged for us to meet up with family friends for dinner. The McClaughlin's used to live in San Antonio 11 years ago but now live in Cedar City. We went over to their house where they grilled up some bbq chicken and Kerri made a huge bowl of pasta salad. Kerri and Allan have 6 children ranging in age from 15 to 2 years old. They were even nice enough to let me drive their ATV. It was a lot of fun riding it over some of the hills around their house.

It was a great day and an even better night spent getting to know the McClaughlin family. We are all heading over there tomorrow morning for breakfast before we head out to our 7th state....Nevada here we come!