U.S. Bike Trip

Final Days into SAN DIEGO!

2016-02-22T17:28:00.002-08:00

WE'RE MOVING OUR BLOG TO A NEW SITE. THE SITE WILL BE UP ONCE WE START THE SECOND HALF OF OUR BIKE TRIP & WILL HAVE OUR BLOG ALONG WITH REVIEWS AND OTHER GOOD STUFF -> http://lifeultralight.com/
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Oh, Hey!! It's been a while since we updated everyone on our travels. As you probably noticed, Joe and I stopped keeping up with the blog RIGHT before we got into San Diego. We were just so excited to finally make it to San Diego....then thanksgiving came along...then Christmas...then well, you get the point. So this is our update for the final days into San Diego. Our next post will explain what the heck we've been doing since then ;)

November 21, 2015
Glamis -> Ocotillo: 70 miles

Happy 2 yr anniversary to us! We've done a lot together and almost biked across the country. It's been an awesome 2 years :)

For today, we packed up camp in a sand storm. Not literally, but it was VERY windy and it might as well have been a sand storm. I kinda maybe drank too much the night before and was not feeling good! That's the joy of these bike trips though...if you're hungover or not feeling the best you bike through it. I'm sure there are days where you don't want to go to the gym or wherever...well I HAVE to go haha and I'm okay with that! I never have to worry about getting exercise.

After some greasy food and long, never ending roads we ended in Ocotillo. Population 240. I think I could see the whole town if I stood in the middle of it. There was basically 1 bar, 1 restaurant, and 1 motel (w/ 4 rooms). Joe figured out earlier that the restaurant lets bikers camp in the back. Since we had our campsite figured out for the night we decided to head to the bar and play a game of pool...and it was about the only option we had for our anniversary. It was fun whooping Joe's butt ;)

November 22, 2015
Ocotillo -> before Pine Valley: 40 miles

We had a great breakfast at the diner we slept next to. That was the least we could do to say thank you and we needed the energy for a full day of climbing! One more mountain to go....thank YOU! If there was one thing I have had enough of (for the moment) it's mountains. I also thought we would be getting to San Diego today and after seeing that we still had 100 miles, I realized that probably wasn't going to happen.

Do you see how close Jacumba Hot Springs is to the border!? Our maps routed us through that odd little town and we ended up biking right next to the wall that separates us from Mexico. We had to go through another border patrol checkpoint...the first one since Texas. They always just ask us questions about our trip and don't care too much about what is in our bags. Of course we would be silly to be smuggling drugs...very slowly...on bicycles :P

Both of us were felling pretty beat around mile 35 and saw this cool campsite on the side of the road. After several hours of pedaling up a mountain, the thought of relaxing by our tent for the rest of the afternoon seemed like a greaaaaat idea. And that's just what we did. I wrote in my sketchbook, we gathered firewood, set up our tent and sleeping gear, made some dinner, and ate by the fire.

November 23, 2015

Pine Valley -> SAN DIEGOOOOOOO:

Today was eventful! I never thought I would make it this far and it definitely doesn't feel like I just cycled across the country! Today was supposed to be a slight uphill and the rest downhill into San Diego. We went pretty slow in the morning knowing that we were basically going to cruise into town. Little did we know that there were 20 more hills to climb...AND that getting into San Diego isn't really a downhill at all. We were very confused. Ended up getting to the beach around 5 in the afternoon where our moms met us! They came running down the beach with balloons and champagne hahaha. That was pretty funny, but also very welcoming. We all had a great dinner together then we were off to the house that we rented for a week.

5 Days in the Dunes

2015-11-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

November 16, 2015

Brawley -> Glamis: 29 miles

The group that we were meeting in Glamis wasn't supposed to be there until 2pm. We are only about 30 miles away...AND going to have a cranking tail wind. It will only take us 2 hours to get there and we couldn't really get there early, because we would just be sitting in the sand waiting. So we went to Starbucks first thing in the morning. Walmart was just next-door too and we always need something from there so we kept busy for a little bit. Eventually we had run out of things to do in Brawley. There's not much going on there. Not to mention the group is stuck in traffic and won't be to Glamis until dark. Joe and I decided to head there anyways and bike SUPER slow.

We still beat them there haha. Ryan got there early too and we just hung out until the rest of the crew got there. Just so you know the crew: Ryan S., DeAnna, Kirk, Curtis, Ryan R., Trey, Brady, Dave, me & Joe and Dave & Sean came for a few days too. Once everyone arrived we set up camp and got the toys out of the RV's then ate dinner around the campfire. Joe came to Glamis with all of the same people and more in February of this year so he knew the drill. That included a night time ride through the dunes. That was awesome!!

November 17-20

Hanging out in Glamis

This week was AWESOME! To tell you what this week was all about: Ryan Shaw has a paramotoring business and had this great idea to bring a couple RV's, ATV's, parameters, and a RZR to Glamis for a week. So it's basically a paramotoring event and everyone there knows how to fly...except for me. That was alright though...I had a great time taking pictures. Everyday went mostly like this: wake up to coffee, everyone went flying if the wind was good, and if the wind wasn't good we went for a ride on the ATV's. At night we sat around the campfire and every night was basically a party haha and there would always be a late night ride through the dunes.

The wind was too rough to fly the first day and we thought the trip was going to be cut short because the wind forecast looked bad for thursday, friday, & saturday. The wind ended up being perfect! I'll just list some highlights of the week: DeAnna rolled the RZR and popped the tire off the rim, a lot of people flipped ATV's, Joe destroyed a wing, I flipped the RZR front over back and back on the wheels again, Trey went to the hospital, Ryan went to the hospital, I ejected Joe from the RZR (he flipped over it), Joe Brady & Ryan all got to go free flying off a huge sand dune, the Trio (Ryan, Trey & Joe) reunited :P , and I'm sure I'm missing something. It was a great time and I'm glad I got to be there :) DeAnna cooked us great food and I was stoked to get pictures of everyone flying.

you can see part of camp in this picture

beautiful sunset!

Ryan free flying in the background!

the crew minus Dave & Sean

Slab City + Salvation Mountain

2015-11-26T17:49:00.001-08:00

November 15, 2015

Salton Sea -> Brawley, CA: 45 miles

On our way to Brawley we stopped by Slab City. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and almost everyone lives in a camper or tent. There is no electricity or running water so everyone lives off the grid. It's definitely a site to see. People come visit slab city to check out Salvation Mountain, a giant hill painted with bible verses by this dude Leonard Knight. Pretty crazy! There's even a mound that you can walk inside with a prayer room and a bunch of tiny rooms.

After checking that out we booked it to Brawley where we had a warm showers set up. The wind was going crazy on the way there. Luckily we got to Bill and Teresa's house just as the wind started blowing 20mph. Bill was at a local (once a year) Rodeo when we got into town. We swung by to watch from the top of a hill. That night Teresa made an awesome dinner with butternut squash, salad, and chicken YUM! They were more than welcoming and it was the coolest thing...they had 5 giant birds! All of them were on the porch sitting on their own perch when we arrived :)

Salton Sea

2015-11-16T11:26:00.002-08:00

November 14, 2015
Indio -> Bombay Beach: 47 miles

Left Deede & Richards house and headed to the Salton Sea! For anyone that doesn't know about the Salton Sea it's the largest body of water in California. It was made by accident in 1905. Engineers were trying to get water in the area for farming and dug canals from the Colorado River. The Colorado River overflowed one year and drained into their canals for 2 years and created the Salton Sea. It's super salty so there are dead fish everywhere. Tilapia is the only fish in the water, however, there are about 400 species of bird.

The coolest part about the area is that in the 1950's the Salton Sea was a HUGE summer destination. Due to agricultural runoff, pollution, and salinity of the lake it's basically been deserted. The fish died off except for tilapia. All along the shores there are abandoned buildings and signs of a once awesome summer destination. I didn't get many pictures of the buildings like I wanted, but I'll go back one day and do that...when I have a car.

Most people probably wouldn't want to camp there, but it wasn't too bad. We found a spot with no dead fish :P

leaving Deede & Richard's

first sight of the Salton Sea

gross. dead fish everywhere...EVERYWHERE

see....not so bad of a spot

Hike in La Quinta

2015-11-16T09:05:00.003-08:00

November 13, 2015
Staying in Indio: 0 miles

Had a great break day! Starting with a great egg & spaghetti squash breakfast and coffee of course :) Then we made a much needed trip to Walmart! Stocked up on groceries before leaving town. Joe and I spent more than we have this whole trip on groceries. Better to have too much than not enough though. In the afternoon the 4 of us went on a little hike in La Quinta! Town was very cool. I like the neighborhoods a lot. Indio is right next to Coachella, a town that has a huge music festival every year (https://www.coachella.com). Joe and I wanted to check out Coachella, but apparently theres not too much going on in town. Only during the festival. So we stayed in Indio and went to In & Out again...

Joe got introduced to Rocky Horror Picture Show and he really liked it, because now he realizes why his friend Mike Adelman likes it so much. It was nice staying at Richard & Deede's house, because we felt so much at home. We could relax and not feel like we were imposing. They were so generous, welcoming, and more like friends than strangers.

Joe, me, Deede, Richard, & Thor

ah so cute!

In & Out Burger

2015-11-15T20:48:00.001-08:00

November 11, 2015
Hidden Valley-> South entrance of Joshua Tree: 50 miles

We got a great view of the park! Rode straight through the whole thing. To be honest, after we left Hidden Valley campground there wasn't much to see besides rocks. Don't get me wrong, it was very beautiful, just nothing crazy awesome. After riding through the park we found a place to camp along i10. Joe said that we couldn't have a fire because there wasn't enough wood around. Well I wanted a fire! haha and after we both looked around a little...well just look at the picture. I think we found enough firewood.

November 12, 2015

Joshua Tree -> Indio: 29 miles

This was the lowest we've ever been on food. For breakfast we each had 3 bites of oatmeal and 1 plain tortilla. We needed a grocery store BAD! Ok, we weren't going to die of starvation. If anything happened we still had 1 cup of rice and 1 box of spaghetti noodles. That was all though...definitely the least amount of food that we've ever carried on the trip.

Good thing we had a GREAT downhill into Indio. Going from about 4000ft to sea level in 30 miles! Joe got a flat early in the morning and we couldn't figure out what that metal thing was that popped his tire. Of course after our tiny breakfast...as soon as we got into Indio and went straight to In and Out Burger! It was delicious! Neither of us had been to one before so we were pretty clueless about ordering but their menu isn't too hard to read. Burgers, Fries, & Shakes, the end.

After lunch we headed to a Warm Showers house. Deede and Richard were stoked to have us! And we were stoked to have a shower! We had a very delicious soup dinner and talked for hours. It was a perfectly relaxing night.

Hidden Valley

2015-11-15T17:03:00.005-08:00

November 10, 2015
Joshua Tree -> Joshua Tree National Park: 13 miles

Somehow it's so hot when we wake up. With the sun beating down on the tent. Yet still managed to be cold while riding through Joshua Tree National Forest. I was not feeling too great though. We rode 14 miles to the campsite that Chris & Jill said they would share with us. It was the coolest campsite! Surrounded by boulders and basically in the middle of a ton of climbs. Every which way you look there would be a person on the top of a huge rock.

We scurried up one next to our campsite and it was awesome watching people lead climb on the next wall over. Had a great view from the top and apparently that was the only place anyone could get service around haha

In the next campsite there was a sprinter van that we were told we had to go checkout. Joe was very intrigued since we might want to get one in the future. It was awesome...you could tell they put a lot of time into it. Joe and I ended up hanging out by their fire after dinner and Chris & Jill came over too. Everyone was so generous with their food! Joe and I ended up getting a second dinner :)

saw this guy crossing the road!

We were debating setting up camp in this rock. It was so cool! Would have been too cold though

Me, Joe, Jill, & Chris

campsite for the night :)

Joshua Tree

2015-11-13T11:16:00.001-08:00

November 9, 2015
Staying put in Joshua Tree

Woke up to the sun shining on our tent. I wanted to get up and make some coffee before Joe woke up. It was finally not freezing! For the past month it has been pretty cold. Cold enough to where Joe and I don't want to hangout outside the tent after the sun goes down and where we want to sleep in to wait for it to get warmer. I was happy to get up early this morning :) After talking to my mom on the phone (& getting exciting about seeing her in 2 weeks) I made some coffee and oatmeal with raisins and granola. My mom is coming to visit me in San Diego!! Joe's mom AND my mom are going to meet us in San Diego in 2 weeks when we arrive. We're all going to spend Thanksgiving together. I CANNOT wait!

Like I said before, Joe and I have some time to kill. We're going to the Glamis sand dunes for a fun week with ATV's, flying paramotors, and hanging out with close friends. That starts November 16 and we're only about 170 miles away from Glamis. We could get there with 3 easy days of riding...and we have 6 days from today.

Our day consisted of wandering around town, hanging out at the library, and getting coffee. Joe and I decided we would bike into the national park tomorrow instead of today. The wind was cranking and it would be at our faces if we tried going to the park. We planned on camping at The Pit again. The other campsite in town got shut down so that was kind of our only option.

We stopped by a store to stock up on 2 days worth of water and met Chris. Him and his wife Jill are camping in the park and offered their campsite for us to camp in! Which is awesome because that saves us $20. We said we will see them tomorrow when we head that way!

The night was fun. We had bourbon and coke in our aluminum mugs. Played a card game then made some spaghetti dinner. We were sitting behind a mound of sand so that we were blocked by the chilly wind.

I slept pretty well until about 1:30am when Joe said "hey can I use your camera? I can't sleep so I'm going to try and take a Milky Way shot". So of course I get up too and it's actually not freezing outside like I thought it would be. Joe had been studying what settings are best for starry night pictures. With little help from me he got a really awesome picture...I was impressed.

Rolling Through the Desert

2015-11-09T13:31:00.002-08:00

November 7, 2015
Barstow -> Lucerne Valley, CA: 38 miles

We said our goodbyes to Becky and Chris as they head North to San Francisco. It was so much fun biking with them, sharing stories, and creating new stories :) Joe and I were heading South to warmer weather!! Hopefully warmer weather. One of the first places we stopped at was a cafe that had an off roading event for the weekend. There was a ton of people there! We ordered some burgers and headed up the never ending hill.

The rest of the day was pretty boring. I could see our turn in the distance and it didn't look too far away, but took an hour or 2 to get to. I was very happy to get into town. We went to the gas station to stock up on water then headed out of town to find a place to camp. There was a fire station about a minute down the road. We stopped and asked them how safe town was, where we could set up our tent, etc. They said we could camp in the back and they would turn the sprinklers off for us :P

It ended up being a COLD night for us. Joe's sleeping pad deflated about 4 times during the night and we could hear the air leaking out of it. He was sleeping on the cold ground half of the night.

Joe calls this the creeper hill. It doesn't look like much, but it was definitely a climb.

November 8, 2015
Lucerne Valley -> Joshua Tree, CA: 53 miles

Early and chilly start to the day. We wanted to leave the fire station early so we didn't feel like we were imposing...even though we were camping out back. Spent our morning in Cafe 247 and had a very delicious breakfast! After that we headed towards Joshua Tree. The miles were going by very slowly. Long roads of sand and no landmarks. We passed by a cool spot with huge boulders and even debated on camping there because time was passing by so slowly. We kept on pedaling. At one point Joe said "With any luck we'll have a 5 mile downhill into town". That's exactly what we had! It was great coasting into Joshua Tree.

Earlier we spoke to a few people about where to stay. There was a Warm Showers couple that said we could camp in their yard, but their house was 5 miles out of the way. 5 miles isn't too far out of the way, but their house was also 5 miles up a steep hill so we decided not to do that. Joe talked to another guy that couldn't host us because he was out of town, but he gave us many camping options. One of them was The Pit, a plot of land that a guy owns and just lets people camp there. This was the more social option. With Joshua Tree being a big attraction for climbers there was usually other people camping there. We were the only ones there for the night, but it was still a cool spot. Great view of the town and we were smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood, but literally in a sand pit. You couldn't see the camp spot from the road or nearby houses.

It was so nice to have a fire for once. Joe got a fire started just as it was getting cold outside. I was able to cook dinner and not have to rush because I was cold. We had pasta with broccoli, cheese, and carrots. As I was cooking dinner Joe was gluing his sleeping pad so he didn't have another night of sleeping on the ground.

Found this beer at a local grocery store. It was actually very good & perfect amount of spicy

California!!

2015-11-07T09:41:00.001-08:00

November 4, 2015

Jean, NV -> Primm: 14 miles

We had a very productive day! Being in a group doesn't get us very far :P After waiting out the storm in Denny's we headed towards the snowy mountains. Didn't make it too far until we had to take a break again to wait out another tiny storm cell. The quick break turned into us staying there for the night. None of us wanted to bike over the mountain with snow and we don't have a schedule. Buffalo Bills it was! Its easy to travel with 4 people...it was only $10 each to stay there. It was also a Casino and I'm sure it was so cheap because they assume we are going to gamble.

there was a rollercoaster around the hotel

November 5, 2015

Primm, NV -> Baker, California: 52 miles

We made it to Cali! Buffalo Bills was only about a mile from the border. We were so close! The morning was very chilly and Joe said this was the coldest that he has been riding for our whole trip. For the past week or so the 4 of us have been riding on highway 15 so we are ready to get out of traffic! As we were riding Joe said "Paramotor! Ryan's car! Dude that was Ryan!". The car stopped a little bit up the road, it was Ryan! Ryan and his wife Jess lived in Charleston and recently moved to San Diego. We will be staying with them for a little bit after Thanksgiving. It was CRAZY that he drove past us!

Baker is where we ended up for the day. Becky shipped some stuff at the post office and talked to the lady there about camping. She made a few calls and said that we could camp in the park, but that we might not want to camp on the grass because the sprinklers come on at midnight. With that being said we set up camp in the playground :)

these mountains and the roads were covered in snow the day before

November 6, 2015
Baker, CA -> Barstow: 65 miles

Busy highway all day and heavy traffic. A cross country race passed us...all super nice cars. For the afternoon we were riding on Route 66! Pulled into Barstow and we decided to get a hotel because they are so cheap. Also because it was getting dark & we all wanted to go out to dinner together and hangout since we were parting ways in the morning. We went to a local Italian spot that was delicious! A really nice couple bought us drinks because they loved what we're doing. That was very sweet of them! After dinner we went back to the hotel and made some funny videos and had a good last night together.

Joe shaking out the tent

the only store around was closed

Leaving Vegas - Into the Snow

2015-11-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

(Oh by the way my camera got fixed about a week ago! YAY!! Joe somehow convinced the Best Buy people to exchange my lens for free!)

November 3, 2015
Las Vegas -> Jean: 30 miles

The 4 of us left on Tuesday morning, stopped by the Las Vegas sign that we hadn't seen yet, and made our way towards Jean, NV. There was a headwind all day and considering we didn't start biking until after lunch we didn't make it too far. Jean is only 30 miles outside of Las Vegas and thats where we stayed for the night. Before we set up camp we stopped by the gas station in town. People were insanely nice and asked us all about our trip. One guy handed Becky money out of nowhere. We met a sheriff at the gas station that said we could camp anywhere in town. We went down a dirt road and found a spot. We could see a casino from camp :P

saying bye to Wyatt

the dogs didn't want us to leave :)

view from our campsite

November 4, 2015

Still in Jean, NV

Woke up in a panic. It was super windy so I woke joe up and asked him to check the radar. There was a huge storm coming and we all started packing up as fast as we could. Denny's in the distance sounds way better than waiting in the tent in a storm. Becky and Chris packed up faster than us and started heading towards Denny's. Chris realized he had a flat tire as he was leaving! With his new tires. All of us rushed to Denny's and somehow made it without getting wet. We've been at Denny's waiting out the storm, but we're about to start biking in about 30 minutes. I would love some warm weather already!!

Denny's is in the casino haha

we're not in a rush...no reason to bike in that

VIVA LAS VEGAS

2015-11-04T10:59:00.001-08:00

October 30, 2015
Mesquite, NV -> LAS VEGAS: 86 miles

Long day for us, but we wanted to make it into Las Vegas! Joe's cousin Wyatt lives in Vegas and said we could stay with him so we just wanted to book it into town even if it was dark. It was a beautiful ride into the city! We arrived just as it was getting dark & the four of us were biking in the city lights in the middle of Las Vegas. It was pretty awesome. We went straight to Wyatt's work, Vdara Hotel. We had a couple drinks, walked around, saw the Bellagio lights, and waited a couple hours for Wyatt to get off work. Once Wyatt got off we got some craft beers and stayed up all night at Wyatt's house.

The next few days we stayed in Vegas. Halloween was awesome, but we didn't see as many crazy costumes as we thought. Chris, Becky, Joe, and I all walked along the strip, got some free shots and drinks! On November 1st we went out to a nice dinner at Honey Salt...it was so good! We were going to go out downtown, but we were pretty tired so we just went back to Wyatt's.

Monday = Monday night football and sports betting. We went to a showroom and watched the Colts vs. Panthers. Wyatt and his friends are pretty into sports betting so we just tagged along with them. Once you place a bet you get free drink tickets for the showroom. One of Wyatt's friends, Nate, was loved by one of the ladies that hands out drink tickets...we had enough free drinks for a party of 30 people...and there were 8 of us. Joe and I left the game early and went to a Cirque du Soleil show called LOVE. It was the Beatles show and it was awesome!! I love it so much, my mom has been to Las Vegas several times and told me that I needed to go to a Cirque du Soleil show.

Joe and I have a relaxed schedule for the rest of the month. We have an event in Glamis to get to on November 15th and it is only a few days away on a bike. The 2 of us have been trying to figure out what we want to do with our time and where we want to go. Becky and Chris were going to leave Las Vegas on Monday, but were waiting for Chris' new tires to come in the mail. He's had lots of flats and upgraded to Shwalbe tires. The average life span is 10,000 miles and Shwalbe tires are super thick, they rarely go flat. With all of this waiting around we all decided that the 4 of us should bike towards Los Angeles together. Joe and I are going to bike almost to the coast with them, then turn around and head towards Glamis. Tuesday morning we are heading out!

Vegas on the horizon!

the beautiful lights!

Wyatt's bottle cap collection

Becky is a chef and wanted to check out a nice restaurant in town :)

the most expensive bottles we've seen

Becky helping Wyatt with a paper

so many free drink tickets! this was maybe 1/4 of them

Camping on the Moon

2015-11-03T19:37:00.001-08:00

October 29, 2015
St. George -> Mesquite: 55 miles

I will let the pictures do most of the talking. I do want to add that we love biking with Chris & Becky! We had a little bit of headwinds at the beginning of the day but the winds turned around towards the end of the day. This was the first time any of us had trouble finding a place to camp. The city of Mesquite does not allow camping...anywhere. Not even at the RV parks where there are usually tent spots. A fire station gave us some tips and just outside of town is BLM and free to camp anywhere. We started heading that way and found a closer spot in some sand piles. It was a pretty cool spot. That night some of us had a hard time sleeping it was so windy!

we camped on the moon!

Zion National Park

2015-11-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

October 27, 2015
Kanab -> Zion National Park: 42 miles

Kanab is a really cool town...I would suggest visiting and having a car with you. It's in the middle of 3 awesome parks: the Grand Canyon, Zion, & Bryce. Joe and I would have definitely visited Bryce if we had a car, because most people that we met said they LOVE Bryce and Zion.

I can't get over how beautiful Zion is!! If you asked me, I would pick Zion over the Grand Canyon by far! As soon as we got into the park we probably stopped every 500ft to take a picture. Gigantic cliffs on either side of us with green, tall trees spread out everywhere...it was so beautiful!! There are 2 tunnels you have to drive through when going through the park and one of the tunnels doesn't allow bicycles. So you have to hitch a ride through the tunnel. We waited and another touring couple (from West Virginia), Chris & Becky, pulled up also waiting for a ride. I told them about camping and how the campgrounds were booked in Zion, but if joe and I found a spot that we would save room for them. Eventually a super nice family with a sprinter van took us through to the other side. & The other side of the tunnel was even more beautiful! It was just more grande with bigger cliffs surrounding you :) I was very sad I didn't have my camera.

The campgrounds were full, but I think there was a designated spot for walk-ins because they gave us the only one open. Chris & Becky pulled up not too long after and all of us shared a campsite. Talk about an awesome campsite! It was right next to the river and just an amazing view :)

We love Becky & Chris they are really cool people. We made dinner, talked quite a bit, & decided to do Angels Landing hike together super early in the morning!

biking through Zion!

Campsite in Zion (before Becky & Chris got there)

October 28, 2015

Zion -> St. George, UT: 41.5 miles

We woke up early-ish and headed to angels landing. It was overcast so the sun never really came up. All of us were so excited to do the Angels Landing hike. We've had tons of people tell us that it is a must & do it either early in the morning or late in the evening, because it's so crowded otherwise! It was an awesome hike & Joe made a rock pile at the top. There are parts where there is a chain to hold on to because on either side of you is 1,000 foot drop...scary! After the hike all four of us did 40 miles to St. George where Becky found us a place to stay via Couch Surfing. We stayed with Kate & Caiden and it was Kate's birthday!! They were having a birthday party for her with cake, ice cream and all! We played a crazy card game that ended up being really fun even though we didn't know ANY of the rules when we started.

taking it all in :)

Chris & Becky

They are huge Harry Potter fans :) as you can see

UTAH - another border crossed!

2015-10-27T09:45:00.002-07:00

October 24, 2015

Desert View -> a few miles past Gap: 68 miles

This morning we had a GREAT 30 mile long down hill. And it was finally sunny with clear skies! That definitely warmed us up :) Just a few miles after camp we passed the park exit and realized that we had camped where we weren't supposed to. Oops!

We entered an Indian reservation just a few miles after the park exit and rode in it all day. There were lots of little markets with handmade jewelry and lots of Navajo Indian stuff. Other than that, it was just beautiful pink & red cliffs and the road we were biking on. Keep in mind were still following the edge of the Grand Canyon, so we can see it every once in a while.

At one point we pulled up to this small scenic overlook that you wouldn't expect to pay money for. You basically just pull off on the side of the road and it's right there. It was $10 to go in 20ft to see but the lady at the fee booth (before we said anything) said "you guys can go, I know bikers don't have money." Hahah - umm ok! It was a beautiful view though! Huge red cliffs that dropped down ~1,000ft to the Colorado river.

After more pedaling we made it to Gap. I guess it's a town - it just has a gas station and a grocery store. Our plan for the day was to make it to Gap then find a place to camp along the side of the road. The barb wired fence on both sides of the road made this quite difficult. However, we ended up finding a great spot where the fence was pushed back 50ft. Our tent is surrounded by trees and cacti! :P

scenic pull off

October 25, 2015

Gap, AZ -> the side of the road again: 61 miles

Considering we have been sleeping in the woods for the past 2 days I would really like a shower!! Not being at a campground is nice sometimes, but having a shower is key! Our destination is Jacob Lake & there IS a campground there. We went through some cool little places today like Marble Canyon and crossed what we thought was the only bridge that went across the Grand Canyon. Turns out it crossed a different canyon BUT it does cross the Colorado River that goes through the Grand Canyon. We also went through Cliff Dwellers and it had some cool rock houses. We ended up not making it to Jacob Lake...of course no shower once again! I know...gross. Luckily its been cold so we haven't been sweating our butts off, but still...we need to shower. We decided to stop at the bottom of the mountain and make the climb in the morning. There was no place to put up a tent except for on the side of the road. We don't really like the idea of having our tent next to a road where cars are driving really fast. There were a couple RV's pulled off on the side of the road so we decided to talk to them and see if we can hide our tent behind one of their RV's. They were really cool and thats where we stayed for the night!

bridge that crosses the Colorado River

Cliff Dwellings

camping next to the RV's

October 26, 2015

the side of the road, AZ -> Kanab, UTAH: 51 miles

Well we woke up and started our day with a climb! 2700ft in 13 miles, but it wasn't so bad. At the top, ice cream cookies and hot coffee waiting for us :) and boy was that DELICIOUS!

Not to mention we had a great downhill afterwards! Since it was still pretty cold I bundled up for the downhill. We have great elevation charts as you can see:

BUT they aren't super accurate. The charts don't show small climbs, just the overall view. There ended up being about 5 steep uphills after I bundled up...it felt like I was in a sauna! I didn't want to take any jackets off, because I knew there would be a good downhill eventually. Anyways we did have a great long downhill and it was so beautiful! We coasted all the way into Fredonia where we had lunch. We were going to have lunch in the next town, Kanab, but we knew we had to have a quick lunch if we were going to make it to Mt. Caramel Junction so we decided to eat quickly in Fredonia. Just before Kanab, we crossed the border of Utah!! Whoo! & Kanab ended up being such a cool place that we decided to stay for the night :) Tomorrow we get to Zion National Park YAY. Sadly, I won't have my nice camera to take pictures...but we have our phones

Grand Canyon!

2015-10-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

October 22, 2015

Valle -> Grand Canyon: 32 miles

Started riding late in the morning because it was so cold!! We only had 30 miles to the Grand Canyon so it wasn't going to be a bad day at all. It was very sunny until mile 15 and it started raining...once again we were freezing. It was rainy and cloudy the whole rest of the day. Finally we got to the little town just before the canyon and sprinted to McDonalds for warmth and a coffee. We still had 6 miles to get into the park and I did not want to keep biking in the rain :( of course we kept going...we wanted to see the Grand Canyon!

The second we got there we reserved a camp spot and went straight to a view point at the canyon. AMAZING, HUGE, UNBELIEVABLE... what else can I say? It was beautiful! What everyone says is true, pictures don't do it justice...you have to see it for yourself!

We stayed in a hiker/biker campground area, which just means you will be camping next to other people and sharing fire pits, etc. We were totally okay with that, as you can imagine we only have each other to talk to all day :P We ended up camping next to a couple that is touring from Quebec to Florida. They were awesome & showed us up on making a fire haha we learned a few things.

It's Elk mating season

October 23, 2015

Grand Canyon -> Desert View: 24 miles

We rode around and checkout the Village in the park. There was an awesome art gallery there! Joe and I were also debating on wether or not we should hike down the canyon. We really wanted to but it would have taken hours and we would have had to camp at the bottom of the canyon and hike up the next day. You need a permit to camp down there and there was a waiting list until Sunday night! (2 days away) Clearly a hike wasn't in our plans.

Oh well, we started biking around the canyon, closer to where we wanted to camp for the night. Joe and I want to check out the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and to do that we actually have to bike out of the national park about 140 miles and then we go back into it. Anyways the plan for this day was to bike around the rim, check out the many different view points, and bike just outside of the park. There's a bike path that goes along the canyon and it is awesome!! So many cool views and somehow each curve you go around there's a view so different from the last.

Right when we started biking on the path I realized my camera was acting funny. It wasn't working at all, I couldn't focus, I couldn't change the shutter or aperture. Joe and I tried everything, but the drive mechanism in the lens stopped working :( no more pictures...we got 3000 miles and of course my camera breaks in the GRAND CANYON! Out of all places...I understand we can take pictures with our phones, but it's not the same for me. We won't be going by a camera store until Las Vegas. Before that we are going to anther beautiful place, Zion National Park. It makes me sad that I won't have my camera for that, but I'll survive.

So, like I said, we were going to bike just outside of the park. In the park, we're only allowed to camp in designated areas and there were none towards this end of the park. However, you ARE allowed to camp just outside of the park. We ended up camping where we weren't supposed to IN the Grand Canyon park. Not on purpose though, we though we were out of the park already. Oh well! We didn't get in trouble and it was fun :)

Snow on the Horizon

2015-10-22T10:03:00.002-07:00

October 20, 2015

Prescott, AZ -> Ash Fork: 54 miles
Time on bikes: 4:23hrs

Russ made us a delicious breakfast! Eggs, sausage, eggs, and fruit salad...sooooo good. He was the best host. Thanks again Russ! We ended up hanging out at his house for the morning to wait out the rain. Once the rain stopped we headed out of town and only made it about 20 miles before we had to take cover in a coffee shop. We didn't get back on the road until afternoon and still had about 40 miles to go. Joe and I wanted to make it further than we did, but it was very cold and we definitely didn't want to be biking when the sun went down. Ended up getting a motel in Ash Fork...it was $30, almost the same price as camping. So of course we picked motel! Apparently it's the cheapest motel in Arizona haha and we were very surprised that it wasn't so bad on the inside.

Leaving Russ' house

Hey...that's me!

waiting out the storm

October 21, 2015

Ash Fork, AZ -> Valle: 50 miles

Time on bikes: 4:40hrs

I TELL YOU WHAT...it's been COLD! Yesterday was 40° and today was so much worst. It was so cold this morning that we decided to wait until 9 to start biking. It wasn't much warmer though. Cloudy, rainy, and headwinds! We thought we were going to freeze. Took a long break at a grocery store and stocked up! We got a TON...this is what we ended up with: mashed potatoes, 40 tortillas, granola, pasta, pasta sauce, box of raisins, oatmeal, pop tarts, 2 individual fruit roll ups, small Parmesan cheese shaker, pancake mix, razors, hash browns, & beans w/rice. That's way more than we ever have but that will last us a while! And the worst part is that we can't really carry fruit or vegetables unless they are freeze dried :/ or if we buy them right before dinner of course. After getting groceries we headed to Valle about 20 miles away. It was a cold 20 miles! We were going to go further but we can't bike as fast when it's this cold...especially when I'm wearing 2 jackets and pants! Can you believe I'm still cold...while exercising...and wearing that much clothes! Good thing we stopped in Valle, because there were black clouds coming and it was getting colder and colder. While I was making dinner I saw mountains about 10 miles away with snow!! We stayed at this cool campground themed after the Flintstones haha

We were warned that this road has a lot of crap on the shoulder!

trying not to freeze while cooking dinner

Sunset w/ a thunderstorm

It's morning time now and we're about to head to the Grand Canyon!!! WHOO! So excited!!

Cold, rainy days

2015-10-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

October 18, 2015

Tempe, AZ > Wickenburg, AZ: 73 miles

Time: 5:57 hrs

I’ll start with showing the elevation map for the next several days:

We left Dan & Jenny’s house and began biking on these cool bike paths along canals. I think we made a record for how many times we stopped at a dunkin donuts. As we left Phoenix there wasn’t much of anything. It was just a long road of nothing & I did not want to be biking. Probably due to too much caffeine…so I learned from that. We finally made it to Wickenburg and stocked up on groceries for dinner. As I was getting groceries, Joe met a nice guy that went to Florida Tech…the same school that Joe went to! I think that’s pretty crazy, but anyways after that we went to Aztec RV park and set up camp. Beverly runs the RV park and she is the sweetest lady. She gave us laundry detergent and big fluffy towels so that we didn’t have to use our tiny, not fluffy camp towels :)

Biked through a 1/2 iron man competition in Tempe

October 19, 2015

Wickenburg, AZ > Prescott, AZ: 62 miles

Time: 6:02 hrs

As you can see on the elevation chart, yesterday was a lot of uphill! We were expecting a difficult day into Prescott. Luckily, the ride wasn’t difficult at all. Those charts are deceiving! As soon as we got to Yarnell (at the top of one hill) we realized today was not going to be as bad as expected. We stopped at a gallery where we met Pete the Minor! Pete was awesome, he worked on Extreme Home Makeover for 8 years. My favorite show!! He also gave me an awesome shirt that I am currently wearing :) After the gallery we headed to the diner...It rained a little as we were eating lunch and then was cloudy and cold the rest of the day. No bueno. Joe and I got into Prescott around 5pm and we were more than ready for a warm shower! & Rus was more than welcoming! After we arrived he headed to the store to get groceries for dinner. Us made shepherds pie…YUM!!!! A bowl filled with deliciousness. While eating dinner we watched The Iron Giant, my favorite movie as a kid! We had great sleep in a comfy bed and woke up to coffee! However, at the moment it is FREEZING outside and just got done raining. I really don't want to bike today and be very cold...the sun is no where to be found :( but I guess its supposed to rain tomorrow too so we are about to get on our bikes.

Neighborhood Potluck

2015-10-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2015
Safford, AZ -> Superior: 107miles

Whew!! This was my second century & we had the winds on our side pushing us the whole way! Joe and I didn't check how long it took us but we were definitely going 20mph most of the time. We kept the stops short because we knew we had a lot of miles to go. Many people advised us not to go all the way to Superior and just stop in Globe, because it was a tough ride. Of course we wanted to prove them wrong. Even the nice couple we were staying with this night (Charles and Mari) didn't quite think we would make it. Mari drives from town to town as part of her job and she saw us multiple times. Once early in the morning just as we started and she called Charles and told him she saw us biking and that we probably weren't going to make it :P haha Well we made it! Arrived at their house just before it started raining a little. This was our favorite Warm Showers so far! Mari is quite the artist and does rock sculpting. This past year Joe started sculpting a falcon and never finished & Mari had a lot of advice/wisdom to share! She also gave us a ton of books to look at including some art ones for me. Oh yeah...& we stayed in their airstream next-door! I've always wanted to see the inside of an airstream. We had a TV that only played movies so of course we had to watch a couple :) Not to mention there was starbucks coffee packets in the morning. Great stay! Thanks Charles & Mari!

and we're off...

The top of this mountain is called The Top of the World...it wasn't that tall.

CHEERS to another 100+ mile day!

one of their three cute dogs :)

October 17, 2015
Superior, AZ -> Tempe: ~60miles

Today was mostly downhill. No complaints here! However, Joe did have a tire blow out today. He wasn't quite paying attention and ran over something crazy! This was the first time we've had to change an actual tire and not just the tube. Luckily we had plans to stop at an REI in Tempe. As soon as either of us get a flat tire we try to replace the spare asap. We got to Tempe and spent at least 2 hours in REI. Also stocking up on new, warmer sleeping bags. We've been freezing lately at night, but of course its about 70 degrees here in Tempe tonight. The warmer sleeping bags will be a life saver in the Grand Canyon though. It's hard to believe we will be in the Grand Canyon in a few days!!! So exciting!! Anyways, we had a Warm Showers lined up for tonight, but never got the address. Once we finished with REI we decided to get the address to their house and head that way. We thought it was about 25 miles from REI...nope. It was more like 40 miles away which would have made it another 100 mile day. I did NOT want to do that 2 days in a row! So we had to figure out a new plan sort of fast...it was 3pm and that doesn't leave ANY notice for people to have us at their house. Todd & Judy (a couple cycling that we met a few weeks ago) told us about Jenny & Dan who live in Tempe. Joe and I wanted to go further than Tempe, but like I said...we really didn't have much time & I already had Jenny & Dan's number written down in my sketchbook. We called them and they were happy to have us even though they were getting ready for a neighborhood potluck! How sweet of them...they even invited us to go with them. It was awesome!! Great food, live music, and lots of people to talk to :) Timing couldn't have been better! We are very thankful Jenny & Dan let us stay on such short notice.

A dad w/ his 2 daughters on violins. They were awesome!

Arizona

2015-10-15T21:32:00.001-07:00

October 13, 2015

We took a break day! I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking for the next 3 days, but this day we stayed up in Gila Springs and went to some cliff dwellings! Victor, a really cool hiker, ended up camping next to us and we hung out with him around a fire. He's been hiking for 4 months now and has less than a week left of his trip! (http://cdt2015.tumblr.com) Joe's talking about how this might be the next adventure. Maybe hike the AT in 2017?!??!

camp the night before

this was about 100ft from our tent

Coffee water!

hiking up to the cliff dwellings

October 14, 2015

Silver City, NM -> Mule Creek: 58miles

Time on bikes: 4:31hrs

Soo...we got a ride from Gila Springs to Silver City. Our route basically takes us up to the springs and dead ends there so we have to turn around and bike back over the same mountain. Joe and I were not stoked on that. A couple was generous enough to give us a ride back over the mountain and we started biking around 1pm from Silver City. We made it 58 miles after 1pm so that wasn't too bad. Our goal was to make it just over the border into Arizona, but it got dark and we stopped a little early in Mule Creek and camped outside of a community center (the gate was open).

October 15, 2015

Mule Creek, NM -> Safford, Arizona!: 56 miles

Time on bikes: 4:40 hours

Well we could have gone a lot further today. We didn't realize that Arizona does not acknowledge daylight savings and it was way earlier than we thought. We thought we were getting in around 4 or 5 and really after hanging around for a while it still was only 4! That being said today was a pretty easy day. We climbed out of camp for an hour or two then had one of the most beautiful and fun downhill rides for about 14 miles. We eat lunch at the bottom and drank coffee as we discussed our favorite candies. Biking gives you quite the sweet tooth. We left lunch into another hour climb that looked like it would be rough but the time passed easily and soon we were heading downhill to our final destination. Only one thing. We had a nice stiff headwind. So what should have been an easy coast into town, was a fight like another uphill. O well overall the day was still easy. Warm Showers tonight, we need the chance to do laundry and recharge. We will try for 100 miles tomorrow.

Gila Hot Springs

2015-10-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

October 11, 2015

Las Cruses, NM -> Hillsboro: 84 miles
Time on bikes: 7:15hrs

We started off our morning with an egg breakfast & coffee that Sara made for us!! Thanks again Sara & Jason for everything :) The ride was very nice and it was the perfect temperature. Joe and I had been waiting for Sparky's all morning! Sparky's is a burger place that Joe and I had heard about from lots of people. They are famous for their green chile cheeseburger. It was delicious!!

There was another touring couple, Michael & Ingrid, at Sparky's and what's crazy is that they are going to be in Baja during the winter just like us! AND Michael kiteboards for Best Kiteboarding and Joe did the same thing! Anyways it's a crazy small world and we may end up sharing rent with them in Baja :) After lunch we had about 40 miles to go with some hill climbing at the end of the day. The last 30 miles were pretty tough. I was ready to be at the campsite. However the ride was beautiful! We saw the sunset over the mountains & pulled into Hillsboro just as it was getting dark. As we pulled into a random RV park we met a couple families that were sitting by their campfire. We probably said about 2 words to them before they asked if we wanted to shower in their RV and if we wanted some dinner. I couldn't have wanted anything more at that moment :) I took a shower and when I was done Lisa already had dinner ready for us. Pork chops, baked beans, Mac & cheese, baked potato, & salad!!! It was a feast for us! Not to mention pumpkin pie that we couldn't have enough of....ahh everything was so delicious. After we ate, all of us sat around the fire and shared stories :) it was a perfect relaxing end to a long day. At one point I smelled bacon and apparently Lisa was cooking us breakfast burritos for the morning time! That was incredibly sweet of her I can't even say thank you enough! In the morning we had the hearty burritos and coffee to get us going. While we were leaving, Lisa hands us chocolate, granola bars, and trail mix! Wow...after all that she had given us...she just kept giving! We are literally eating the snacks she gave us right now. Thank you SO much to Lisa, Calvin, Mercedes, Louise, Rick, & Alex!!!

October 12, 2015

Hillsboro, NM -> Gila Hot Springs: 79 miles
Time on bikes: 8:02hrs

It was a perfect start to an amazing day! Joe and I biked through the most beautiful places. The climbs were pretty rough. We climbed at least 5,000 ft today and got to probably the highest elevation for the whole trip (8,400). Halfway through our day we took a spur on our maps. We could either go 29 miles to Silver City OR go 98 miles to Silver City but get to go to hot springs somewhere in between. We decided to do the hot springs of course. When we got to about 60 miles we were ~14 miles and a giant hill away from the hot springs. Both of us were beat and it was already 5pm. Joe and I agreed that it wouldn't be horrible if we got a ride to the top of the hill considering we were taking a spur and going way more miles than we needed. No cars were around so we decided to start climbing the hill and stop if a car came by. No cars came & that was a never ending hill. We climbed 1300 ft at the end of the day within 9 miles. I honestly don't know how I did it...my legs didn't want to go any further. Somehow I made it to the top & even after that there were a few hills. It was dark as we were going down the mountain. I didn't get to enjoy that downhill at all...had my hands on the brakes the whole time bc I couldn't see the next turn & I didn't want to fly off the mountain. As bad as it sounds we didn't plan on biking that late, but we were too close to camp. We finally made it to Gila Hot Springs around 8pm. It took us 3 hours to bike 14 miles!! Haha That's how bad it was! Somehow I don't hate today though. We got to see so many beautiful places, sit in a hot spring, and I pushed myself harder than I ever have. We ended up biking 84 miles for the day! Tomorrow morning we sleep in :)

El Paso & New Mexico!

2015-10-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

October 9, 2015
Fort Hancock, TX -> El Paso: 58miles

This morning was awesome! We got great sleep & woke up not having to deal with wet camping gear! On top of that, I got to make pancakes on a real stove (way faster than our tiny little camp stove), made a pot of coffee, and watched the sun warm the mountains across the field in Mexico.

Just shortly out of town we met Matt who started biking from Vancouver in August.

We were riding next to the border all day and everything around us looked like Mexico. Biking into El Paso we had a heavy tailwind and managed to get into town pretty early. Joe and I wanted to stay near El Paso or just past El Paso. We ended up at Coffee Box, this really cool coffee shop and met a girl named Marina. She told us about an art event going on called Chalk The Block with DJ's and live painting! Marina also got one of her friends to have us at their house for the night! Very, very nice lady! CTB was awesome. Joe and I were biking around watching people paint with chalk. A guy named Victor biked up to us that night and asked us to join the pub crawl...on bikes. Him and his friends were going to the bars that are around CTB. We had all of our bags on the bikes, but we definitely wanted to ride with them anyways. It was fun! We still had a couple mile ride to Gus' house though so we left after going to a few bars...which was plenty!

We found out some interesting facts while we were in El Paso. It is the largest border city in the world. Juarez and El Paso are basically one city, but Juarez being on the Mexico side. Both cities together have a population of about 3 million!

Lunch! YUMMMMMM

coffee fuels tours

We missed the lasers & DJ while doing the pub crawl

Artists doing their chalk paintings

October 10, 2015
El Paso,TX -> Las Cruces, NEW MEXICO: 47miles
Time on bikes: 3:46hrs

So my Aunt Lee emailed me a week ago and said she had a great friend in Las Cruces, Sara, that would love to have us :) We decided that would be our stopping point for the day. Since we knew we had a short day ahead of us Gus took us out to breakfast in El Paso! He also showed us around town a little and took us up a mountain that had an awesome view of the city. After that we headed to Las Cruces. Got in around 3:30 and met Sara & Jason. They are awesome people with the coolest house ever! Jason made pizza for dinner...4 pizzas from scratch! So delicious! Then we went to High Desert Brewery for a couple beers.

Are we in Mexico?

2015-10-08T20:46:00.001-07:00

October 7, 2015
McDonald Observatory -> Van Horn, TX: 74 miles
Time on bikes: 5:28hrs

Unfortunately we didn't get to go to the Star Party last night. There were some really bad thunderstorms in the area and headed our way...not to mention HAIL the same day! People were showing us pictures of hail that was in the town we had just biked through! Crazy! So we were still at the Observatory and they just made the announcement of the bad weather and we had to decide what we were going to do about camping. The plan was to bike about 7 miles (after the star party) to a campsite just up the hill. BUT the storm was really close and we didn't want to get stuck in that...not to mention its like pitch black up at the Observatory. They keep lights to a minimum for the astronomers. The people working at the Observatory were very nice and found us a spot to camp about a mile away. We booked it! Joe and I did not want to set up our tent in the pouring rain. Thankfully we made it and got everything in the tent just minutes before it started raining :) Let's just say I didn't get the best sleep, the storms lasted all night & I even heard about 4 coyotes in the middle of the night! In the morning we were slow to wake up to our alarm & gooood thing we were lazy because it started raining again about 10 minutes after our alarm went off. YAY more sleep :) The rain didn't last too long. (side note: we camped on the side of the road just outside of someone's fence/driveway) While we were packing every thing up a truck with a couple guys in cowboy hats pull into the driveway. As they were driving down they turned on sirens and started honking and making loud noises. I was so confused haha I had no idea what they were doing! Then I heard a bunch of cows making noises and saw cows from miles away starting to walk over towards the men. That was the first time I had witnessed that haha but I'm assuming their goal was to wake the cows up. Anyways I had my first fall! Nothing to worry about, it was pretty hilarious. My foot got stuck in the clip and I basically fell over in slow motion :P So including the Charleston, SC -> Key West trip from last year, I've gone about 3,000 miles on my bike without falling...that's pretty good right?! I don't know the statistics on that one. About an hour later and halfway to Van Horn, we passed a group of 15 cyclists that were on their way to St. Augustine! We were the first cyclists going East that they've seen since leaving San Diego. We were about 37 miles from town when we saw everyone. Once we made it to town we stopped at the first RV park & it was the best! Only $10 to camp with water, electric & coffee in the morning! That's a good deal...Once again we got bad thunderstorms & it was COLD at night! We didn't bring the right gear for this! I think we're going to get some warm weather gear in Phoenix.

Our bikes in the morning

happy campers! No...literally

Kent Public School

October 8, 2015
Van Horn -> Fort Hancock, TX: 71miles
Time on bikes: 5:11hrs

When it's cold outside it is very hard to get up in the morning! Joe and I ended up getting on the road at about 10 am, but we knew we were going through another time zone today so it wasn't too bad. We were on our way after a couple cups of coffee and our hot cereal/grits breakfast of course. The weather was basically crappy all day. Overcast, chilly and somehow we didn't get rained on even though we were surrounded by black clouds. It wasn't too bad though, at least I wasn't dying of heat. Earlier in the day Joe had mentioned that he thought it was ironic the one time we are both carrying 3 extra tubes each, neither of us has had a flat in weeks. Well, what do you think happened today? Only 3 flats haha All of this was less than 10 miles from Fort Hancock. As we were getting closer to town we could see the wall for the Mexican border! Apparently this is the only town that actually has a wall for the border haha and we talked to border patrol and they said people just go to the next town and walk around it. Sounds kind of pointless to me. Fort Hancock looked like we were biking through Mexico...sand, dirt, and cinderblock houses. Anyways, once we got to town Joe and I were looking for Linda. Cyclists we had met a week earlier told us that Linda has a church in town and would be more than happy to let us stay in it for the night. Fort Hancock is a very, very small town and we found her at the only restaurant there :) She took us to the church, let us in, and told us there were snacks, sodas, coffee and to make ourselves at home. She was not kidding! We walked in and there was a note for us next to a box of snacks! Linda lets a lot of cyclists stay in her church and I think that is the sweetest! It's nice sleeping inside after a couple rainy nights of camping.

Not So Good Timing...

2015-10-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

In the past few days we’ve gone from Marathon -> McDonald Observatory, TX: 77 miles

We’ve kind of been all over the place since we stayed in Marathon. We planned on waking up on Sunday and biking 30 miles to Alpine to rent a car until we realized that the rental place was closed on Sunday. So Sunday we hung out in Marathon...which worked out very well since it was the first rainy day since Louisiana. After hanging out for half of the day we biked 30 miles to Alpine and stayed there for the night. It was a chilly 30 miles!! Monday morning we woke up and headed straight to the rental place to get there when they opened. The guy working there was not helpful at all and there were no cars for rent…just 1 Uhaul. We were pretty bummed, because we were stoked to see Big Bend AND we waited around for a day to rent a car.

We're in a cloud!

Once we got over that we headed towards Marfa. Marfa isn’t on our route, but we were told that we needed to see Marfa…that it was an interesting, minimalist art town. Of course, I wanted to go check out all of the art. Marfa was definitely an interesting town! And since our timing has been so great for the past couple days…that didn’t change when we got to Marfa. Almost everything was closed, because apparently nothing is really open on Monday’s. Joe and I found a grocery store that was open and stocked up on rice, snacks, grits, etc.

Of course we had to get some donuts before heading to Marfa!

There were buildings like this everywhere in Marfa

Coffee shop we sat at for a bit

After hanging out in Marfa we headed towards Fort Davis and then on to the McDonalds Observatory just 10 miles past town. Fort Davis was a beautiful, cute little town! Our plan was to hit the McDonald Observatory that day…Joe has been stoked to check it out! They have Star Parties at night and we couldn’t pass that up! Once again, we found out that the star parties are only on Tuesday, Friday, or Saturday. So…………again we wait. It’s Monday and we know that to go to a Star Party we would have to take another break day. When are we going to get another chance to go to a star party at an observatory 7,000 ft up?!?! Probably not anytime soon…so we decided to camp just down the hill of the Observatory at Davis Mountains State Park. One of the ladies working at the park, Karen, ended up paying for our camping! She was the nicest! We were even debating wether to camp there because it was kind of expensive. After a cold night of camping we got our stuff together and headed up the steep mountain towards the Observatory. They have a cafe and day time tours so we went to check that out. So we just finished the day tour where we went to see the giant telescopes that they have here…so cool! & we are waiting in the cafe for the Star Party! It starts around 8:30. Hopefully the weather clears up a little…its been pretty rainy.

Market in Fort Davis

Almost there, almost there! Only 10 more climbs :P

This is one of many telescopes on the mountain

Another VERY large telescope!

La Loma Del Chivo

2015-10-04T08:22:00.001-07:00

Dryden -> Marathon, TX: 76 miles

Time on bikes: 6:29hrs

We had an awesome day…it was just easy constant riding. We had another tail wind and that seems like its going to be the trend for the next week of so. Even though we were heading up hill sightly all day the riding seems to fly by. The scenery was incredibly mountainous. Not what we expected Texas to look like. I was expecting FLAT, nothing for miles, dirt, and tumbleweeds. However, the more we head towards western Texas, the more we are seeing the dirt and cactus terrain.

So at the moment I’m sitting at La Loma Del Chivo, this very interesting place in Marathon, TX. The place is super cool! Reminds me of the pictures I’ve seen of the Burning Man festival. We pulled up after a long day and another cyclist, Bill, had just arrived! Not too long after that 2 more girls pulled up, Thea & Alicia. It was awesome & we just talked all night & told stories of our travels. Once again, hearing of the awesome people we had to stay with and places we had to see.

Its morning time now and we were planning on biking 30 miles to Alpine, renting a car, & driving south to Big Bend National Park. We’ve seen awesome pictures and we definitely want to go check it out! BUT it is Sunday and Joe found out that the car place isn’t open today. Since we definitely want to see Big Bend we’re going to take a break day and bike 30 miles to Alpine to hangout for the day. We just said bye to Thea & Alicia…they are off to Dryden & Del Rio! At the moment its sprinkling and cloudy. Its our first rainy day since Louisiana. With that being said we are taking our time…we are in no rush to get to Alpine.

Just getting into town - we stopped at The White Buffalo Bar to have a beer

I love outdoor kitchens!

the roof top

Bill, Alicia, Thea, Joe, Devon