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May 6, 2004
What a Difference a Day Makes

After six days of temperatures in the 90's, Fernando Braz seeks shade and rest in a most unusual place. See more photos in our gallery

Heber City, Utah - Relay Director, Ron Kramer assembled the team at 6:00 AM for our pre-run briefing. Today we would cover a more modest number of miles ? 140 ? but the challenge would be the Wasatch Mountain Range that stood between Delta, Utah and our destination, Heber.  The weather forecast was for continued mild temperatures in the mid eighties under sunny skies.  The stiff winds blowing at 20-35 mph would be less accommodating as we reached some of the higher elevations. 

The ?Whiners? (group 1) began their journey in Delta, while the ?Moaners? (group 2) made their way 70 miles ahead to the foothills of the Wasatch Range.  Though the mantra of our team has been ?It will all come out in the wash?, it seems that two members of the ?Whiners? have had an inordinate dose of one medicine.  Paul McGovern has drawn the uphill card for the past three days.  If there was an unbelievable climb, you can believe that ?Gov? was on it.  Counterbalancing Gov?s misery was the quad pounding downhill?s encountered by Hap Farber.  At the risk of sounding overly melodramatic, upon seeing yet another 4 mile downhill, he exclaimed, ?God hates me!?  His team mates simply think that God has a sense of humor.

In the meantime, the ?Moaners? began their run through Provo and into the hills.  Having spent the previous day watching the straight roads disappear into the horizon, it was breathtaking to see the change of scenery.  The desolation of the desert faded behind us as the winding roads of the Wasatch Range rose above us.  Snow covered peeks, stunning waterfalls, and a dam retained lake made the day fly by.  The frosting on the cake was arriving at our hotel to learn that we would have a high speed wireless connection available.  A late night of returning emails is probably ahead!

Our journey today reminded us how different New England is from many parts of our country.  The open spaces, wildlife, and slower pace we have seen in the last few days has such a different feel than the daily commute on Rte. 93 into Boston! We are hard at work every moment of the day with TREK USA duties, business chores, and keeping in touch with family and friends, yet our surroundings seem to have a calming effect on the team.  Why, we even saw Dave McGillivray without a cell phone stuck in his ear for several minutes!  We hope that we can all bring a bit of that calmness all the way back home.

Tomorrow we venture another 140 miles at higher altitudes.  From Heber City, Utah we will cross into our fourth state.  Our target is Dinosaur National Park ? how fitting for a bunch of old guys!