Day 46: McPhee Reservoir, CO to Blanding, UT, or "I thought we were supposed to be in the desert!"

Miles today: 71. So, we were welcomed to Utah with another hail storm... not very desert-like. I'm sure I'll be wishing for rain in a couple days, but for now I'm really sick of hail and headwinds. Bring on the dry heat! Holed up in Monticello for a little while to wait out the storm. Did some laundry (which provided for one of the most satisfying experiences: a clean sleeping bag!), had coffee to warm up and wrote some postcards. On our way out of town we stopped at a grocery, and as I made my way around a cute little motormouth boy shopping with his mother, he says to her loudly, "Mom, she's a little lady! That's a little lady, Mom!" Hearing little kids talk to their parents about me when they don't think I can't hear them has become one of my favorite things. Managed to make it a little farther to just before Blanding, where we found the most perfect little secluded place to camp next to a reservoir, and made the first (yes, first!) campfire of the trip. Don't know how much cell service I'll be getting through Utah and Nevada, so the morning coffee readers may be disappointed a little more frequently... Sorry in advance, guys. I'll do what I can.

Day 45: Telluride, CO to McPhee Reservoir, a few miles past Dolores, CO.

Miles today: 76.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to inform you that I have hauled myself over the Rockies in one piece. Of course, on our last and longest descent Mother Nature saw fit to have the wind blowing in our faces AND throw a storm our way, but we got through it. Breakfast this morning was expensive but delicious (best sourdough toast ever), lunch was expensive and not so delicious (worst veggie burger ever). Camping tonight in a nice man's yard, where I realized that I left my flip flops in Telluride this morning. Major disappointment. Karina, if you read this before you leave tomorrow, rescue them from the bathroom!

Day 44: Montrose, CO to Telluride, CO.

Miles today: 65.

Today was better than yesterday: no storms! Met a father, Peter, and his daughter, Karina, who is my new hero. This chick is 13 years old biking from Connecticut to San Francisco and has a great attitude. What a rockstar. I wish I was that cool when I was 13.

Rode through a canyon for a while that had some really indescribably amazing scenery of the mountains around and the river below. I wanted to stop every quarter mile to take a picture, but that's pretty much been the case all through the Rockies. Telluride isn't marked on the elevation profile we have on our map, but we thought it was right before a particularly steep-looking climb. Surprise; turns out Telluride was AFTER it. Had a really fun time with that one at the end of the day! It was even steeper than we thought, of course, and with absolutely no shoulder, but we survived. When we got into Telluride we got a tip from a couple walking down Main Street about a "locals special" at the Italian restaurant a block down; I can't express how worth the $12 that bowl of pasta and glass of wine was. It really hit the spot. Turns out our waiter had done a cross country tour a few years ago, and he hooked us up with the special we weren't really supposed to be able to get. Awesome.

Day 43: Nowhere, CO to Montrose, CO.

Miles today: 68.

Wow... today kinda sucked. While going up a long hill with very little shoulder, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then it started to hail. The hail started really stinging, the next town was several miles away, and Lou was way ahead as usual and nowhere to be seen, so the only thing to do was pull over and cover up with the tent's rain fly. I have to say that I have definitely been much drier and MUCH warmer than I was for that lovely half hour crouching by the side of the road alone. The ride into town wasn't much more comfortable, and it was really fun to discover Lou having been at a cafe for the past hour. Dry.

Ok, so enough of the bad attitude: cool things for the day included having been mistaken for a goat by some other goats. At least I'm pretty sure that's what happened. They baaed at me as I rode by in a tone that made me believe they fully expected me to baa back. I could not, because I am in fact not a goat. Also, we spent the night in a real live tepee. Or teepee. Whatever. It was a first for me and was actually kind of exciting.

Day 42: Salida, CO to some BLM land 5 miles east of Gunnison, CO.

Miles today: 74.

I'm thinking Salida is one of my favorite towns so far. After we left the library where I wrote my last post, we stopped at a pizza place and a group sitting outside invited us to sit with them. They were all super cool and we had a good time talking and telling stories for a while before we headed across town to bed.

Left extra early this morning and climbed up to Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet! The climb took awhile but it was much different than the Appalachians. The grades were less steep, and it was steady uphill for miles instead of up and down and back up and back down, which was a lot less frustrating; it's incredibly disappointing to climb up a steep hill for a while and have to go downhill again only to earn back all that elevation over and over. This was the highest elevation I'd been to and towards the end I really started feeling its effects. Nothing too scary, but the lightheadedness and quicker pulse did make me stop more often than usual. The descent was the most fun I've had riding so far- not at all as terrifying as the one from the Blue Ridge Parkway-- gradual enough not to scare the crap out of me but steep enough to not have to do any work to keep going. The wind held us back from going too fast and I was cruising at 30 mph most of the way, which was kinda perfect.

Those headwinds weren't as welcome on the more gradual downhills we came to after getting off the mountain, and the storm they brought was even less welcome. We'd planned on making it farther but decided to stop for the day near Gunnison. There was nothing in the way of camping close to town, so we headed farther along and a little off route to an area owned by the Bureau of Land Management where we were told you can camp for free. A couple miles of dirt and gravel road later, we set up the tent on very uneven ground covered with sage and tufts of grass (the best option available) while being eaten alive by some voracious bugs. Not so ideal, but hey, we survived another night.

Day 41: Westcliffe, CO to Salida, CO.

Miles today: 52.

Another short day today, but only 11 miles short of where we'd planned instead of um... 50. We're still used to the free city park camping options all through Kansas and were finding it difficult to bring ourselves to pay for camping two nights in a row. When we asked for advice in an outdoor store in Salida and were offered the backyard of one of the employees, we were more than willing to promise ourselves we'd get up an hour earlier to make up the extra miles.

Spent a little time this morning in Westcliffe having breakfast at an Amish bakery in town with delicious quiche and saying goodbye to the campground owner and the ice cream shop guy. The ride was easier today, and we actually encountered roads other than 96, which we'd been on since somewhere in the middle of Kansas (really). US-50 has the most breathtaking views and the least courteous drivers that we've found the entire trip; we unfortunately happen to be traveling on it during a weekend along with hundreds of tourists with huge RVs and no willingness to move over or wait 8 extra seconds to pass us safely. Thanks, guys.

Our map tells us that Salida has one of the oldest historic districts in the country, and it's a pretty cute one, too. Lots of character and people bustling around. Stopped at a bike shop to get new brake pads and the guy running it was pretty enthusiastic about our trip. Bought some new pads (in a dark orange color that I'm actually pretty excited about) and were offered some watermelon before we headed over here to the library. This time I don't have a timer counting down exactly one hour before it kicks me off!

Monarch Pass tomorrow, the highest up I will have ever been. Coming down the other side is my motivation for the 12 miles that are probably going to take me between 3 and 4 hours.

Day 40: Pueblo, CO to Westcliffe, CO, or "Oh, so THAT'S what uphill is like!"

Miles today: 63.

So I guess we're not in Kansas anymore. The world went from 600 miles of pancake-flat immediately to very big mountains. Had one 14-mile climb during which my favorite moment of the day happened: as I was chugging along slowly but surely at approximately 3 mph (I wish I were exaggerating), 10-year-old Bobby the Nerd in his round wire-rimmed glasses sticks his face up to the window of an old bright yellow VW van that was overtaking me like a train overtaking a slug. The look on his face, equal parts interest and what the hell?, made me smile. His face had disappeared by then (trains move faster than slugs), but when I waved goodbye to little Bobby he popped his head over to the back window and returned my wave, staring at me as the van left me in the dust.

After the descent we stopped for pizza and beer in a small town (Silver Cliff) who shares a border with another small town (Westcliffe) that was surprisingly well taken care of. We've been through countless small middle-of-nowhere towns along the way, and have pretty much gotten used to the fact that a lot of the businesses would be closed and/or run down, but this one was um... not. We took a walk "downtown" and were amazed by how cute and updated everything looked. Asked the woman working at a really cool smoothie place why this town was so much nicer than all the small towns we'd been through until this point, and she told us the town was founded by cattle ranchers over 200 years ago and is now also home to artists and Texans with summer homes. The variety of businesses in Westcliffe show evidence of a seasonal population; real estate agencies, art galleries, and cafés make up the bulk of them.

We decided not to push on to Salida since it was getting a little late; I don't really know what we were thinking when we figured we could continue the 100-mile days in the Rockies, but we fell a little short. After a little searching around we found an RV park/campground that was opened just last year by a school principal and her husband. The campground owner, a super nice and welcoming woman, told us that the ice cream shop next door had the best malts in town. Malts are a big staple of our diet on this trip, so of course we were sold. The shop, Hunger Buster, is owned by the former sound guy for the band KISS. He had unfortunately closed the shop 15 minutes early, but poked out the back door to say hello; he was impressed with our trip and apologized for having turned off the ice cream machines but wished us luck.

Met 6 more riders today: a father and son from Iowa whose blog I had actually read before leaving on this trip, and four British guys about our age, one of whom was kind enough to provide the quote of the day. We stopped and said hello as is customary when passing fellow loaded cyclists, and as we said our Take-cares and Good-lucks I noticed aloud that one of the group and Lou had on the same pair of mountain-bike style shoes. The guy said that his companions, who were all wearing road-style (i.e. more conspicuously cycling-related) shoes, had been making fun of him for holding them back with his clunky shoes. I caught one of the other guys responding to him jokingly as we pulled away, "Yeah... it's not just the shoes."

Day 39: Denver!

Sorry for the interruption in posts, people, but I needed a rest. On Monday we left Ordway and a series of frustrating circumstances (having to do with the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere) kept us from getting breakfast for much longer than we would have liked. We eventually found a town, off route of course, that boasted a restaurant that opened before 11am. Had a nice chat with an old man over pancakes and when I went up to pay our check the waitress told us that the man had already paid it! Another of the many examples of people helping us out along the way. This trip is showing us in a big way that kindness still does exist in this world.

Later on, our friend Will drove down to Pueblo and brought us back to his house in Denver to take a rest day before tackling the Rockies. The rest day turned into two rest days after Lou woke up feeling sick the next morning and I thought my hand could use the extra day to recuperate. My left hand has actually been showing some kind of alarming signs of nerve damage over the past week, and something really needed to be done if I wanted to continue the trip.

To start solving the problem I bought a new stem, the part that holds up the handlebars, which puts me in a more upright riding position and takes some pressure off my hands. Before this point we'd gone 1500 miles without seeing a bike shop (well, one that was open at least), and we really needed to find one here. The guys at Campus Cycles in Denver very generously helped me out with a complete checkup for really just the cost of the stem. They called a local distributor for the part I needed and Nate, my guardian angel, went on his lunch break to pick it up and install it for me that same day! He said he'd been helped out by bike shops on his own tour of the west coast and knew how it was, but these guys really went out of their way for me and I wish I could tell them how much I appreciate them.

Will's mom was able to provide some professional medical advice over the phone and I think the wrist brace she recommended is helping as well. Denver is a really nice city, with beautiful parks and a well-planned public transportation system. Lou and I took the light rail over to the biggest REI we'd ever seen and got some things we needed before Will drove us back to Pueblo, where home tonight is the backyard of a fire station. We're hoping to knock out some miles tomorrow to put us at a good starting point to conquer Monarch Pass the next day. 11,000 feet: yikes.

Day 36: Sheridan Lake, CO to Ordway, CO.

Miles today: 91.

Eastern Colorado may as well be Kansas in terms of scenery, town size, and services available (or not). More nothing on the sides of the roads and long stretches between tiny towns with everything closed. Met 5 other riders, all from Washington state but not all traveling together, which makes the count 75.

Best part of the day was second lunch/first dinner/whatever you want to call it on some railroad tracks in the middle of nowhere: beautiful light coming through the clouds and empty cars on the tracks that stretched for miles. Sunflowers grow all over the roadsides here and thousands of grasshoppers scatter if you step into the tall grass.

Camping tonight in another city park after being pulled over by the sheriff whose office we were trying to locate; he said my rear reflectors were not visible enough to him, but the two big (and very shiny) reflective spots on my rear bags plus the standard red one on the rear rack kinda makes me suspect he was either really enthusiastic or just bored. We received a "verbal warning" and directions to the park, and are now listening to the youth of Ordway finding ways to entertain themselves on this Sunday night in the summer. Most of it seems to involve walking through the park drunk and talking more loudly than they need to, but tired as I am, I'm thinking this won't really be too much of a problem. Pueblo and Denver tomorrow, meeting up with Will, and giving my sore hands and knees some needed rest with a short 50-mile day.

Day 35: Dighton, KS to Sheridan Lake, CO.

Miles today: 104.

So we've finally made it out of Kansas and I must say I'm not sad to see it go. We're in a new time zone and have the Rockies coming right up! Had about the worst Mexican food in the country today: in case you've been looking for it, it's in Scott City, Kansas. Really abysmally bad. Met a solo female rider today on the road, which I didn't expect to happen at all and was kinda cool to see. Staying tonight in a "hostel" in a town with a population of 66. It's basically a tiny empty house with (very) tricky plumbing, but it does have electrical outlets, a shower, and a washer and dryer, which at this point in my life may as well be paradise. Oh, and apparently it comes with dead bugs in the carpet. We found some souvenirs that Danny and Greg left behind when they stayed here last night- the towns are so few and far between that there aren't many options in the way of nightly destinations, and we've been staying in the same places as they did the previous night since the rest day in Pittsburg. Off to bed; here's hoping I'm not either devoured by bugs or drowned by the faulty plumbing here in Paradise.

Day 34: Larned, KS to Dighton, KS.

Miles today: 100.

More nothing today in western Kansas; I didn't think it was possible, but there's even less to see in these last 100 miles than yesterday's 100. It has been interesting, however, to be able to see the few things that do exist from many miles away, like the two storms we rode through today. Those kinda sucked when they finally got to us. But we do get to see the grain elevators for upcoming towns well in advance: the farthest was our destination tonight at 11 miles! Dighton is having their county fair here this weekend and tonight there were fireworks visible from the city park, which was a nice surprise. We also got followed by two incredibly cute dogs for long enough that we just had to stop and pet them. Their owner showed up in his car to collect them a few minutes later with apologies that were not at all needed.

Day 33: Newton, KS to Larned, KS.

Miles today: 116 long boring miles.

OK, so Kansas really is boring. We rode a bunch of miles today, saw some fields and cows and oil pumping things and only 3 towns in 116 miles, and now I'm way tired out. Tonight's another city park called Schnack Park. I am eating my schnack of pretzels, cheese and a chocolate chip cookie and crashing hard. I sent your postcards: be on the lookout. That is all.

Day 32: Toronto, KS to Newton, KS.

Miles today: 100.
Total miles: 2021.

Second century in a row and we broke 2000 miles! Today Kansas actually showed me some redeeming qualities. Had three meals in three different cafes with three different exceptionally nice ladies serving us. Scattered thunderstorms rained on us off and on all day, but at least the heat index was only 86 instead of yesterday's 110ish! The sky was actually really beautiful today. Clouds filtering the sunlight muted the colors of the open fields, which made for some amazing scenery, and it was interesting to be able to see the storms for miles over the flat Kansas terrain. I also got to enjoy a lot of one of my new favorite activities: passing by a field full of cows and seeing how many I can get to maintain eye contact with me until I've passed. I'm sure none of you know what I'm talking about, but it really is funny to see 30 heads slowly turning in unison to follow me. Super tired again and sleep is long overdue! Here's hoping tomorrow is as beautiful as today was...

Day 31: Pittsburg, KS to Toronto, KS.

Miles today: 105. Total miles: 1922. Did our first century today between two cities with some pretty original names. Good job, Kansas. Managed to find the only semi-formidable hill in this state which of course picked pretty much the worst time to appear around mile 98.5, but don't worry, I showed it who's boss. Met two more eastbounders this morning, including the first one we've seen riding a recumbent, on top of three yesterday morning which brings our cyclist count to an even 50. Not much else to talk about from today; Kansas is quite boring actually. Nice people, but towns are few, far between, and tiny. Going through towns like these with only one convenience store in them makes me seriously wonder what these people are eating with no grocery stores anywhere around. Ridiculously tired from stomping out all those miles today, so I'm going to bed right about... now.

Day 30: Rest day in Pittsburg.

I never have enough time to get everything done in the time limit in libraries. They're especially strict at this one, so not much time to post anything good, sorry guys...

A few links to blogs of people we've met:

Dave, who we met at the Cookie Lady's house: http://www.leftd.blogspot.com/
Tom, a freelance reporter, who's doing his Life's Too Short Tour in memory of his cousin: http://www.lifestooshorttour.net/

Met 3 new ones this morning, count is up to 45! More tonight by text if I have time. You can thank the Pittsburg Public Library policy for the short off-day post...

Day 29: Walnut Grove, MO to Pittsburg, KS.

Miles today: 76.
Total miles: 1812.

The terrain finally flattened out! Much better for my own self esteem in keeping up with the boys. Stopped in Golden City, Missouri to try the pie that we'd been hearing about since we got into Missouri. It was worth it! A million different types of pie and all of them delicious. Met three new cyclists today, two of which we had pie with. Dave and Kari are headed to Oregon and are planning on staying there and finding jobs; how adventurous! As soon as we sat down at the pie place, Cooky's Cafe, the waitress put a notebook on the table that had signatures from literally hundreds of bikers who'd stopped there. It was pretty cool to read some of them-- one person had drawn an illustration of a cyclist on his bike having a conveyor belt shovel pies into his mouth.

Crossed another state line and stopped for the night in Pittsburg, Kansas. Lou and I will be taking a rest day tomorrow and Danny and Greg are moving on. I'm pretty sad to have them leave us, but they don't want to take the day off tomorrow, so we'll be parting ways. Library tomorrow, so I'll try to do something about the photo situation and I'll be sending out those Missouri postcards. Last chance, people: send me yer postal information.

Day 28: Bendavis, MO to Walnut Grove, MO.

Miles today: 91 (another new high score!)

Not much to talk about today except the especially annoying hills (but not Ill-annoying, since we're in Missouri), and... a real rodeo! Had fun talking to the locals and generally being a spectacle. We were somehow convinced to try-- get this-- fried bull testicles. Apparently they are called "bull fries" here, and look similar to fried clams and taste similar to fried chicken skin. Not the most horrible thing I've ever tasted, but I think I'll be passing on those from now on.

Camping in another city park and super tired. Tomorrow: a new state and, as we've been told, the best pie we've ever had our lives. I'm pretty excited.

Days 26 and 27: Farmington, MO to Bendavis, MO.

Miles those days: 73 and 75.
Total miles: 1646.

The hardest part of the Ozarks are behind us! Lou informs me that the difficult parts are over until we get to the Rockies, but I'm skeptical; his and my ideas of "difficult" don't exactly always match up. At this point I'm just hoping for one solid day of tailwinds in Kansas for a little self esteem boost in the mileage area. Cross your fingers for me, y'all.

Tallied up all the other cyclists we've met up until this point and it came to 41 including the two guys we're traveling with now! 9 of the cyclists were women, and 3 of those were over 50, which is pretty inspiring. I've gotten some extra credit here and there for touring as a female, which I think is kinda cool but almost a little annoying in a way. I guess it's legitimate, because it's pretty apparent that this is tougher for me than for the guys. I'm always the caboose. Oh well. I did have a new high score today: 43.8 mph! I'm pretty sure none of the boys have clocked faster, so at least I've got that going for me I guess.

Funny moment of the day: passed a motorcyclist going the opposite direction who, seeing us, started pumping his legs furiously as if pedaling. We liked it.

Last but not least, I've got a boatload of Missouri-themed postcards to send, so the first 14 of you to post a comment with your address will receive one when I get to a library to read them. Ready... GO!

Day 24: Surprise, people, I'm in Missouri!

Miles today: 50.
Other days: I'll add 'em later.

Sorry for the lapse in posts on here, guys. Remember those allergies I mentioned having discovered? I'm not really convinced that it's allergies; I've been experiencing whatever it is since last Tuesday and it developed into an ear infection by Friday night. Spent a much-needed rest day finding a doctor and obtaining antibiotics. In the rain. Oh well: such is the life of a touring cyclist, I guess. It's not the worst thing that could have happened, but I have been super extra tired when we finally end up where we're going for the night, hence the serious lack of motivation to post.

In other news since the last one, we've moved past Kentucky with its scary dogs and Illinois with its terrible roads. The other guys have experienced some bike trouble here and there, Greg being the most unfortunate of them, but I've managed to avoid it lately somehow. Have met loads more interesting people, including maybe about 15 other Trans-Am cyclists, mostly all eastbound at this point. During a stop at a roadside fruit stand we met a guy who'd been walking around the country for 6 years; he said God tells him where to go and he just heads there and preaches. He had some interesting stories about life on the road. During a stop to fix a broken spoke on Greg's wheel, a really friendly man in a convertible pulled up and started a conversation by quoting Jeff Foxworthy ("Did you get a flat?...") and while headed down the road after a few minutes' conversation with him were chased down with boxed lunches he'd wanted to bring us. Seems to have been a recurring theme over the past few days; Danny was chased by a woman wanting to give him a bottle of water (she literally got out of her car and sprinted to him, which worried those of us behind him for a minute until we realized she wasn't mad) and Lou was chased by a woman wanting to give him $8! The first was a cyclist herself and the other had sons who'd done the Trans-America trail, and both wanted to let them know how much they admired what they were doing. There's a lot more that happened but I'll have to add it all when I see the inside of a library next!

As for today, we ended up taking a short day due to trouble with Greg's bike (yes, more) and decided to stop at one of six wineries within about ten miles of each other for a wine tasting. It was, in a word, delightful. Staying tonight at the fire station in Farmington, Missouri, INSIDE a fire truck. A little weird, but kinda cool, and the firefighters are super nice and helpful.

Quote for the day, which actually happened 2 days ago: when we crossed the ferry into Illinois the terrain got a little more hilly, and as soon as Greg rode in to the first stop to let everyone catch up, he says with a tone that clearly showed his pride in himself for having thought of it: "These hills are ILL-ANNOYING!"

Days 17 and 18: Booneville, KY to Springfield, KY.

Miles on Day 17: 67.
Miles on Day 18: 69.

We broke 1000 total miles today! The terrain is getting easier (i.e. less uphill climbs), so as long as the wind's not blowing against us, as it was today of course, we're much happier. Not much to talk about from the last two days, just a couple picnic lunches in the middle of a road and some bike trouble that took us off the route for a while today. We've discovered ginger ale here in Kentucky called Ale-81, pronounced (as explained on the label) "A late one", and we've been drinking it at every opportunity. I've also discovered that I have allergies. Thanks, Kentucky. That made today fun. Met Britni and George today, two eastbounders going from Pueblo, CO to somewhere in Kentucky. Tired tonight, I'll write a better post tomorrow!