Days 47-49: Blanding, UT to Torrey, UT.

Miles: 75, 65 and ugh, 50. Cell phone service, hooray! In the news from the past few days: we broke 3000 miles, we went 128 miles between towns (I have never been so happy to see a convenience store), and I got my first flat of the trip (which dashed my hopes of going the whole way across without one). Actually, Lou got 3 of them the following day, which makes me want to call up Utah and suggest they change their slogan from The Beehive State (I have seen no beehives whatsoever) to The Flat Tire Capital of America. I feel that title would be more accurate and deserved. The desert came up pretty much immediately after Blanding and we've been seeing some really amazing landforms ever since. I had no idea the geography of Utah was so beautiful, varied, and HUGE. Rocks and water can really do some amazing things. Met 7 new cyclists, all foreign, from England, Belgium and Germany. We weren't expecting to really meet anyone once we split off the Trans America route, which goes to Oregon and does not include a desert, to follow the Western Express route which definitely does, this late in the season. My theory is that the foreign people didn't have anyone to tell them that the desert in July is really, really hot. The Belgian, a 52-year-old science teacher, apparently has some knowledge of orthopedics and adjusted my wrist for me after we had breakfast together this morning. Super nice guy and we're super lucky to have met him! Today was Lou's birthday and after breakfast with the Belgian (pancakes, not waffles) we came across an organic bakery and coffee house a few miles farther into nowhere. The guy running the place was an interesting sort; went back and forth between being really nice and coming off as kind of a jerk as he bustled around the small kitchen. Later on we discussed our impressions of him and decided that he probably just spends too much time alone baking bread and tending to his plants and his goats. In either case, we had some freshly baked bread, freshly ground and brewed coffee, and freshly made feta cheese courtesy of the goats. After that, bike trouble plagued both of us for the rest of the day, and we decided to call it a day when we got to Torrey and heard about the bluegrass festival in town tonight. We'd been looking for one the whole trip and I kinda can't believe it took us til Utah to find one. Dealt with the bike trouble, showers for the second night in a row (an unfathomable luxury), and then heading to see some live music.