Ely, NV to Baker, NV

Today was suppose to be an easy day. 60 miles, a lot of it downhill. Instead, it was pretty frustrating.
I decided to ride with Trend and John. However, I didn't realize they wanted to sweep for today. In cycling terms, sweeping means being the last cyclist during the entire ride, making sure no one is left behind. However, there was a rack point today, 45 miles by 10:00 AM (roughly 3 hours from the start), a pretty lofty goal. I was real nervous I would be racked, so I rushed my paceline to the point that we were a few bike lengths apart from the next paceline.Unfortunately, we could never past them because we were the sweeps. It seriously felt like a Greek tragedy enforced by Zeus, himself. Although we didn't make rack point, the crew decided not to rack us, as we were still good on time.
As far as scenery goes, there is noting more boring than the Nevada, tundra-esque desert. Throw in the occasional slimy snake and 4 inch lizard, and you got Nevada wildlife in a nutshell. I did see signs for some wild bull, but all it led to was real big disappointment.
Once we arrived, we set up lodging at the local townhall/school gym/church/recreational arena/multipurpose building. To give you an idea of the town, it felt like nothing had changed since the 1950's with the exception of age. It looked a little decrepit. And with a population of 57, the nightlife wasn't exactly booming. There was no cellphone reception, but surprisingly, there was wifi at the local "trad'n'post"/restaurant/grocery store...seriously, this town knows how to multi-task.
After talking to a few locals, I guess Baker is known for its quality tasting water and Los Vegas is planning on stealing its water, kind of like what LA did to central California in the early 1930's, which would literally turn Baker into a ghost town.
The locals here was real friendly. For dinner, we were greeted by a pot luck dinner from the entire town. The home cooked food was a real treat, definitely top 3 meals so far on the trip. The main meal was pulled pork but the real winner was the homemade barbecue sauce that had a little kick like no other. Likewise, for dessert, the icecream and brownie cake was great and all, but the homemade hot fudge made it legendary. After a great meal, we introduced ourselves. I find it a little embarrassing that my "claim to fame" on this trip is my ridiculous tanline...seriously, I've been applying SPF 90 every day. After dinner, we returned back to lodging where we rested for tomorrow, our second century ride.