Tour Divide Day 11.

170km. Ashton to Bondurant(ish).
Total time: 12.5 hours

There are two conditions of hunger when you are on the bike. The first, you don't feel hungry, but you should eat. The second, you feel hungry and you should have eaten a while ago.

It is so hard to eat enough to properly satisfy a body that is in motion for most of the day. I'm eating all of the time. ALL of the time. I eat real meals whenever I can, but it is not always an option; not when the distances between pockets of civilization are so large. So, a good portion of my calories come from the convenience store. A typical grocery list might go like this:

...Three bags of peanut m and m's...
...A sack of gummy bears...
...No, wait, are those gummy slugs? I'll take those instead...
...One litre of chocolate milk...
...A big bag of beef jerky...

The other day, a cashier lady remarked how nice it must be to be able to eat so much candy. I suppose. But, actually, it is a bit much at times. It just comes down to what you can get in the system easily.

Sometimes my jaw hurts from chewing. Sometimes the roof of my mouth is tender from the roughness of the foods that I've been eating. Sometime you just have to eat what you have and if that's a cold, soggy, subway sandwich for breakfast, that's life.

I've learned that those fancy granola bars that I bought at the organic store - those gourmet looking ones that cost like 4 bucks a pop - is a great emergency food. Great for this purpose because the likelihood that I'm going to eat that thing under any other circumstances is effectively nil.
I stopped in Driggs for lunch and a guy named Hope Strong bought me lunch at this awesome bakery called Pendls in exchange for an interview. Possibly the best sandwich that I've had on this trip. I think that he was hoping for some more upbeat answers to his questions, but the honest answers to most questions aren't especially cheerful.

A random guy passed us on the bike path outside of Driggs and gave us some free energy bars. Tasty ones, too. www.katesrealfood.com. I am spending like 30 bucks a day at the convenience store. Bring on the free stuff!

Reached another milestone today, crossing from Idaho into Wyoming. Yeah!

We set up our bivies in the covered entrance of a one-pump gas station that is only open thursday though sunday. Today is monday. My sleeping bag is still moist with condensation from its last use. Cars keep coming to get gas and the headlights illuminate our little makeshift camp. I can't tell whether it will be a short night or a long one.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network