Rest time

We made it. We finished 2 ACA maps and rode close to 1,000 miles. We ate probably 70,000 calories, saw at least 30 small towns, and met a ton of crazy and non-crazy people. I have tan lines on my legs, face, hands, and arms. Its pretty hawt.

Last night we camped at Panguitch Lake, halfway up our 10,000 + ft summit to Cedar Breaks Monument. It was incredibly beautiful up there, but I started to feel short of breath again. I don't really understand how I can acclimate in 3 days (in Denver), ride up to 11,000 on day 4 of bike tour, not descend below 5,500 for two weeks, and still feel short of breath at 8,000. Its like my body just doesn't understand the physics of mountains and lung capacity. I'm sure some doctor friend out there could illuminate this. Anyway, we made it here and its hott and feels great to rest a while.

Also, there's a number of things I've been thinking while I'm on the bicycle for hours and hours that I wanted to share with you:
1. Why is it that when you're not on biketour all you can think about IS biketour, and then when you ARE on biketour, all you can think about is eating icecream in a clean bed and watching bad movies on cable tv?
2. As one progresses through a number of climbs up hefty summits like we have, you would think you'd get stronger, more ready to tackle the next one. Your body is saying "more climbing, you're a beast!".
Wrong: As time progresses you may be getting stronger, but you also become more exhausted from the "barely sleep, unpack panniers, wake-up at 5, pack panniers, bike 8-10 hours, find place to sleep" cycle. I'm ready for a real rest.

And tomorrow on Greyhound will probably not be it. I'm signing off for now, Michelle is taking the reigns, I"ll be back in a week. Stay tuned!

July 30th- new heights

I'm really over caffeinated right now. Here's a photo of this place I biked past.

Here's another photo that was taken very close to place I took the initial photo.

This was taken at an altitude of eight-thousand feet. For some reason, at this exact height I start to feel altitude sickness. I get spinny, and numb, and nervous. We were going to climb to the top of whatever landmass we were set to climb, and couldn't because Krivanek can't handle altitude. Bummer. So we stopped after climbing about twenty-five-hundred feet, which isn't meager since we climbed fifteen-hundred additional feet earlier in the day. It's a good thing the climbs in Nevada only go to about eight-thousand.

I think the altitude is getting to my head. Why did I just drink coffee at 5 pm in ninety degree weather?

Holy Boulder

Who knew a tiny town nestled below the Staircase National Monument would be the home to so many sweet young people who like touring cyclists? Boulder, Utah is like summer camp ALL YEAR ROUND. We woke up this morning surrounded by canyons and walked the half mile through a washed out muddy road back to our bikes that we left next to the cute hippie cafe.

We had the best pancakes 8 bucks could by this morning and proceeded up a mountain to this road called "the hogback". It's a 3 mile stretch with not much shoulder and often no guardrail surrounded by steep canyons on either side. Super scary and exhillerating at the same time to ride across. As the name so aptly describes, "the hogback" it the ridge of a mountain with views on either side for miles, of canyons upon canyons upon mountains. Utah is amazingly beautiful. Today I almost felt proud to be American. I always thought we destroyed the beautiful parts of our country for industry, capitalism perhaps got the better of our judgement in terms of natural resources. But the last few days in Utah have proved some of that incorrect.

Im sitting in a cafe in Escalante, left my camera cable in Torrey, bummer. Be in henrieville tonight. Hopefully it wont rain.

July 28- Boulder & precision

It has occurred to me that I never factor in numbers of any sort, such as, the date, the exact amount of miles we rode, elevation, calories in that brownie I just ate. This bike trip is an opportunity for me to allow numbers to have a narrative, take on another meaning, become the more than 500 calories of pure sugar, and into fuel for that mountain. So I am going to include more numbers (I just ate a brownie and assume it had around 500 calories, which will fuel me up the climb of about a thousand feet, which is on the shorter end of the what we climb at one in a day.)
I've also been hating on Utah. Sorry Utah. I mean it. You are the home of five national parks, and none of them are lame. By that I mean, none of them are just, like, parks where you might eat a sandwich wrapped in plastic with a friend who has a medium sized dog that chases after the frisbee. You have to climb to get to them. While you climb to the spot of your choosing, there are creeks, and it smells like pine, and a little like fruit candy, and all the drivers are polite, and the Europeans on their rented motorcycles wave or flash the peace sign (which is so nineteen-nineties). And you don't feel healed. You feel anointed.

Torrey is my Haven

We made it through Capital Reef state park to Torrey yesterday. It was only 50 miles from Hanksville! Too bad we had to climb half a mountain to get to it. (yah, i said only half). (other half is today). Torrey is like a cute little town out of a storey book. We shelled out for a real room in a cute cabin off the main drag, (and by main drag I mean there's a general store and 3 restaurants, some motels and a lot of trees). And it was worth every penny. Most people stay in crappy motels because they don't plan to spend much time in the actual room. Michelle and I used every hour up in that room watching bad cable tv in our towels and eating oreos. I got a serious amount of sleep (10+ hours), a swim, free breakfast, and a hot shower.

Torrey looks like something out of Robinson Crusoe. Thanks for the peace Torrey. If only you had fruit in your general store. We're on to Boulder, Utah next. It's supposed to be similarly cute, and much cooler. Hopefully we won't get caught in the lightning storm (mom-disregard that).
Stay tuned for future updates and thanks for following our journey!

Dead Stuff

Next Stop: Hanksville. Hanksville was far from "Danksville" except for that awesome burger shack. All I can say is I got attacked by mosquitos and slept terribly. Oh and ate a sandwhich that almost make me puke called " A big Az sandwhich". no joke. It was big. It had 2 eggs and bacon and sausage and cheese in it. Almost like a manwhich. The food situation in Utah has become dire.

I wanted to illuminate those who don't traverse the highway via bicycle as to what's often on the side of the road in Colorado and Utah. You got your normal stuff like beer cans, soda cans, candy wrappers, and dirty undies, and then you got your dead stuff. Dead deer, squished squirrels, skunks, snakes, rabbits, lizards, etc. Then you got your usable stuff like bungee chords and unopened boxes of donettes. I have yet to find a pot of gold or something of any real value, but in pre-bonking fantasy land, I'm wishing for a pegasus bearing icecream. So can someone make that happen? Next time I pass a pile of bones, I promise to stop and grab some for those bone necklaces Michelle and I keep talking about.

100's of hundreds

We've been "in the sticks" so to speak and haven't had access to the world wide web via computer or our handy touch phones. We rode 100 miles from the small town of Montisello to
Natural Bridges state park (50 miles)- then to lake powell (50 more miles). It was extremely hott. There was no shade, but okay, it was pretty. We made it to the park in time to take cover from a serious rain storm and the nice ranger gace us matches to make coffee on our camping stove outside the visitor center. Many a German tourists stared.

Then we rode to Lake Powell. Holy Hott! I've been there before, but only by airconditioned vehicle. Dang. Thank the lord we got there as the sun was setting and there was a large body of water to swim in. Night swimming is better than daytime swimming. Nothing but rocks and the sky and the current, oh yah and that Effing spotlight of a moon that kept waking me up. We slept in the desert. Everytime I woke up, I kept thinking "turn off that damn streetlight, oh wait. thats the moon". You never think about how the moon rotates the earth like the sun. This was the first time I ever really thought about it. I woke up and it was north of me, then above me, then south of me. That streetlamp kept moving. Needless to say, it was more like moonwatching than sleep. I'm glad I experienced it.

Oh Torrey

Torrey is a little gem in the middle of the petrified turd known as Utah (a note from future Michelle, I'm going to take this back really soon). It is so incredible, it has changed the way I ride. Why wear a tiny bike cap with a small brim, when I can wear this?

Torrey has had such a profound effect on Ariel, that she has decided to scrap cycling altogether, sit on this chair, and read for the rest of her life.

Hanks for nothing, Hanksville

Literally, nothing. There's a dirty river, a couple gas station (one is a "hollowed out mountain," but more like a large rock that happens to cover a convenient store) to get groceries, and an unfinished park. We slept in the unfinished park.

We snuck into the RV park across the street and used the shower. Apparently, almond Dr. Bronner's is a mosquito attractant. We ran, slapping ourselves, over to the half finished park, put up the tent, took sleeping pills, and woke up many times to the sound of moving gravel.

Date-Up

I keep calling Utah, Iowa in my head, which I feel reflects on my ideas of both states. Or because the only book I have, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, which I have read twice now, is set in Iowa. Anyway. We slept at Lake Powel during the Morman Fourth of July, AKA, Founders Day. No one set off fireworks, or even a single bottle rocket out of some drunk guys pants.

Nice fourth of July, Mormans. Not only do you not know how to get festive, but your beer sucks. By request, I bought a Polygamy Porter, and it tasted like smokey water. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE BEER IN THIS BEER. You just can't have a porter with an ABV of 4.0. As I have told Ariel, the beer tastes too hydrating to drink. I'll be drunk, I mean, in Nevada in a week.

Side note- Lake Powel is a hundred dregree plus during the day, and at least twenty degrees cooler at night. We went night swimming. I just kinda floated on my back and fought a current a bit, kicking my legs every now and then. There aren't as many stars in utah as I thought there'd be. Instead, the moon is a spot light. It's weird. Can anyone explain that?

Easy Peasy

I"m officially blogging in addition to Michelle. Two heads and hearts might paint a more thorough picture of this adventure.

Yesterday was amazing, as Michelle said already, after climbing about 1,000 ft to lizard head pass and getting our pictures taken by some "real bikers", (they're everywhere- huge gangs of loud stinky motorcyclists, but they like us and flash us the peace sign when they pass us so it's okay) we had almost 45 miles of downhill into the tiny town of Dolores, Colorado- about 30 miles from the Utah border. With a population of close to 700, it was quite quiet and quaint. It was so nice to relax after dealing with 10 mile long hills and thunder storms. We happened to intercept 3 other touring cyclists who came from the west and headed to the east. We exchanged stories and tips, and watched them do push ups and talk about sketchy campsites. They also have a blog. It was nice to wake up at 530am and see 3 other sleepy heads in the kitchen this morning leaning over bowls of cereal and cliff bars. Side note: Our gracious host was super wonderful and accommodating and owned a number of ferrets who began to nibble at my toes while I sat, which I found amusing.

Today we headed out for a short 57 mile ride today. Just a few rollers, but I met a roadie in his seventies who was emulating the miles of the tour. For today's stage he was riding 136 miles, and had been doing this since the tour started! He barely asked me where I was headed or what I was doing, but that's okay we need guys like this inspire us to ride centuries back to back to back in our seventies.
So we landed in Monticello (pronounced 'Montisello'). With a tip from the chicks we get to sleep next to some real chicks in this cafe owner's yard. Horah! We got in so early today I even got a nap in. Might drink some wine, take a swim and do it all over tomorrow. What a day

Tomorrow's destination is Natural Bridges State Park

Hello, Monticello

We are in Monticello, Utah. That's right. We biked through the state of Colorado. It took us 500 miles, thigh blisters, and a bug bite of some sort that Ariel puts "salve" on. In order to commemorate our entrance, I put a little something on the ol' Hillborne.

What's the difference between straw and hay?

We didn't climb a twenty foot stack of straw outside Montrose.

Tellyourride We'll See You Later

There've been all sorts of bad puns on Telluride. What do you call Telluride in the winter, Tellurglide. What do you call Telluride at the end of an argument, Tellurwrong. There really isn't a supreme Telluride pun yet. They're all bad.

So Telluride happens to be beautiful, much like every other mountain town we've encountered. The difference between Telluride and most of those other towns, is that Telluride is full of healthy athletic white people, which is alarming. I'm not sure why, and am generally not comfortable around people that look like they're succeeding in being earnestly happy. I mean, they win. That's the point of life, right? To be happy, and beautiful, and wear breathable-hundred-dollar-mesh-long-sleeve shirts. And to be caucasion. I'm pretty sure that's apart of happiness. A happiness that I'd never measure up to. I mean, how could I. I'm thinking about all this while climbing Lizard Head Pass, blissing out. The thousand foot climb looks like it's about to end, and when it doesn't, I think, 'thank you. I am so blessed to be able to climb this beautiful mountain.' And I realize that I'm white, in athletic clothing, mostly muscled and tan. Despite the evidence, I don't think Telluride would let me in their club.

Less Sleep than Summit

If I don't start getting more than six hours of sleep a night, I'm going to scream. I'll do that thing that the people in the park with the matted hair and pet rodents do. That is, I'm going to randomly accuse strangers of whatever, or ask them for money. While one sounds cathartic, the other seems resourceful. I'm not sure which is which. We were climbing another huge landmass today, and I started thinking, 'multiple personality seems like a really reasonable way to cope.' Instead of doing something completely harmful, you retreat to another self. I was very close to retreating somewhere during our ten mile thousand foot climb.

at this place

And I hopped in this truck

I Stole a Shirt Too

Rim the Rumble Strip

Did more climbing and descending today. It was also around a hundred degrees today. I got a little more red-turning-into-a-tan today. Ran into the rumble strip a handful of times today. Broke into an abandoned motel today.

My First Post

So. Hello. I'm going to update you on the tour. I've been blogging on Facebook, which I'll continue to do. Although this will be a way to rant in a little more detail. Here's the recap:

July 15

Dear Denver, thanks for the lesson in lung capacity. nude midnight swimming in the creek with the villa villa kula house was nice. I owe you a punch in the lungs.

July 16

Dear Colorado Springs, you accomodated us like the south platte river trail accomodates retirement communities.We were housed well, were given a guided tour of the area, but were surprised by your need to be the home of right wing military officials. Sorry to that old lady with the visor that didnt see me on the path. Thanks for the 80 mile ride. XOXO-Michelle K

July 17

Dear Canon City, you are the lush home of seven prisons, one of which is maximum security, and a river that freely flows over rocks and knocks down small children. You are also oppresively hot at 102 degrees. Thanks for accommodating Ariel, myself, and seven other cyclists in the backyard of Spencer's bike shop. The fi...fty mile ride was worth the river alone. XOXO- Michelle K

July 18

Dear Salida, we found you along the arkansas river seated fifty some odd miles from our last stop. you gave me a free cup of coke. i believe there`s a coke song about giving the world a free beverage. i can assure you that the world would be a better place. thanks for letting us sleep in that barn. XOXO -Michelle

July 19

Dear Gunnison, WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN TO GET TO YOU. and what do you give us in return? forty miles of head wind. You have convinced Ariel that there were human pelvis bones on the side of the road. You can`t fool me Gunnison. I am not swayed to delirium by your coquettish mountain charm. The 70 mile ride seemed like a test. of what? i`ll get back to you on that, Gunnison. XOXO -Michelle K