Day 9 Saturday June 16th

I'm going to catch you all up because before the three days from Hell we actually had some wonderful days. Shabbat was so relaxing and nice. We were in Eureka, NV. We went swimming in the public pool (home to the Eureka Penguins swim team). The boys had a blast and played for hours. Pictures to follow. We stocked up on groceries from the one grocery store which in addition to groceries, pharmaceuticals, hardware, etc., was also festooned with dead animal heads mounted all around the upper perimeter of the ceiling. It was a family owned store and the son (in addition to being one of the hunters, was one of the volunteer firefighters, head of the school board, and I suspect the Mayor of something...probably coaches the football team too (that would be the Eureka County High School Vandals...sort of a dubious mascot but the town seemed to be completely devoid of any signs of vandalism...teenagers too for that matter.)
We ate in what I had hoped was to be our last greasy diner (turned out not to be so...see Milford Day 12) and the boys learned how to play pool. Matt is surprisingly good at pool. I suspect a misspent youth hanging out in bars.
The boys have been really into spotting funny signs, thanks to a gift to Solomon from The Strauss/Schwartz clan called SignSpotting. The best is when we will be screaming down the backside of some 8,000 ft. summit, at 35mph and Solomon will swivel around on the tandem and scream back to me "mommy, did you get a picture of that?". Then at the bottom, 10 miles later, when he finds out I didn't, he gets really mad and wants me to ride back up and take it.
Some of the best signs.....this one on the door to the DMV in Eureka "No firearms allowed in this building". Next door to a building with a sign in the window stating "Join the NRA here". Or my favorite, on the window of the grocery store. Handwritten with a xerox image of a swamp cooler, that said "swamp cooler. $60. work good"
One of the highlights for the boys was watching Pirates of the Caribbean, the third one. We had everything packed and ready before we went to sleep because we woke up at 4am the next day for a 78 mile, 4 summit Father's Day ride to Ely, NV.
The highlights for me was getting FRESH FRUIT!!!! Strawberries, blueberries, nectarines, and grapes. Ahhhhh.