JULY 30, Middlegate, Nevada, to Fallon, Nevada, 49 miles via U.S. Highway 50. Average speed today, 14.4 mph. Total trip mileage to date, 3,570. Average daily mileage since June 1, 59.5.

Kicked off the day with a late, leisurely and delicious breakfast at Middlegate (our in-the-dark starts are over for good). Then set out on what was to be a quick and easy day of riding into Fallon.

After climbing 4,600-foot Drumm Pass, the trip got a little interesting:

First we ran into Jonathan Bye, a Berkeley cyclist who only four days ago began a coast-to-coast trip on his fully loaded Cannondale bike. What’s more, he’s doing it at a century-a-day clip, notching 100 miles or more  every 24 hours. We were impressed, but not at all tempted to up our leisurely 60-mile-per-day pace.

Then came something a whole lot faster. So fast, in fact, that we did not  see it.  But we heard it: the scream of a Navy jet, then a loud explosion and rising cloud to our right. Target practice? A bomb? I don’t know, but it was pretty exciting.

But the ride continued. Before 10 we crested 4,644-foot Sand Springs Summit, the last grade we’ll climb before Sonora Pass on Saturday.

Next came a slide into Fallon, home to those jet. The only glitch? About eight miles of newly oiled pavement on Highway 50 east of town. Thought it might be slippery or sticky, but it was OK.

Got into Fallon before 1 p.m. and ate a huge Mexican lunch that may have had as many calories as we burned on the day’s ride.

Now the conclusion of our ride is coming into focus: We’ll be in Carson City tomorrow night, in Bridgeport Friday night, and, on Saturday, will climb and descend Sonora Pass into our hometown.

Our Washington Street arrival time? Hard to say, but probably mid- to late afternoon. We may end it with a lap around the Dunlavy Track, which funds raised by our ride will help replace.

If any of you Trekkies have not yet donated to the cause, now is the time.

We’ll finish the coast-to-coast trip Monday and Tuesday, dipping our wheels into the Pacific at Pajaro Dunes, just west of Watsonville. How exciting!!