Friday Alicia and Albey had to go to grand junction, but we ended up staying at the house because we needed to repair our bikes and just didn't want to leave yet. We had the most relaxing of mornings.
In Moab we got to pick apricots from Alicia and Albey's friend's tree. we would tap the branches and little orange juicy orbs would rain down on us like a thunderstorm. We collected and ate what seemed like hundreds. Later we would make apricot juice, muffins, and apricot tofu salad. In town we went to FOUR bike shops. very annoying. I really don't like bike shops because there is no standard bike knowledge. IT's all opinion. I needed a new chain and Jocelyn needed both a new chain and cassette. PHEW.
Done with bike repairs and ready to cook up a healthy feast. We got veggies and cheese from the market and headed back to the desert house. We made veggie pizzas (home-made crust), tofu salad, and apricot muffins. YUMM
It was so much fun cooking and listening to the Beatles.
We stayed up late writing and reading (a rare treat on this trip- usually we pass out around 9pm).
Alicia and Albey were so nice to bring us to Montecello so we wouldn't have to back track (that's the worst!). We were sad to part with the two of them because we had been having the most incredible esoteric/ philosophical conversations. It really got us thinking about things beyond cadence, gears, hills, WATER, lunch, soar elbows (jocelyn) and knees (me).
HEAD WIND all the way to bridges national park. It was rough. But the landscape was sooo beautiful it was almost nice we had to bike so slowly.
We were caught in the only thunderstorm that made it to the desert ground. Sheets of rain were pouring down in front of us. We couldn't see ANYTHING except the white line on the side of the road that we desperately tried to follow. drenched and actually cold, we rounded a canyon and suddenly the storm was gone. It disappeared just as quickly as it arrived. We dried off in two seconds and found a great cliff to climb.
When we finally made it to Bridges we were incredibly winy and irritable. We annoyed the park rangers for a while, watched a wilderness 16 min movie for kids and became junior rangers.
Ranger Dale swore us in and issued our badges. Although he was kind of creepy like the park ranger in Kentucky who ate ALL our fig Newtons, he was nice and concerned about our water supply. He ended up giving us 17 bottles of water and powerade for the next day (100 mile stretch without water).
We went to ranger Dale's outdoor lecture on how to take pictures in national parks (not that it would be of any use because we don't have a real camera, but we wanted to be nice). TIPS: dont put the horizon line in the middle of the frame, use the golden rule of 3rds, vary focus, texture, tone... blah blahblah. I don't even look through a lens when I snap a photo. I just hold up the phone, point it in the right direction and click. By the way, the above pictures are in no order and we will organize them when/if we get a chance.
OK so we left bridges with 8.5 liters of water each, thinking we had to bike 100 miles through the desert with no place to refill. Hite park, however, had a beautiful lake and a general store WITH WATER!
this was 50 miles into the ride. We spent the whole afternoon swimming and sunning on the rocks siren style as our chamois dried.
The water was amazing. Here we were in a LAKE in the middle of this dry, desert earth. it was certainly an oasis.
We met Joe, another west-bounder, and sufficiently creeped him out. I love it when we do that. he thought we were crazy, but really we were just loopy from too much sun.
we said goodbye to Joe, who was also pretty out of it, and set off on the next 50 miles to Hanksville. This is when things got a little rough. We had a terrible head wind. we were tired. Jocelyn had cyst pain and was quite upset. I was concerned there was no skin left on my bottom from the chamois and friction. We rode into the sunset as it dipped behind a row of blue and grey canyons. The night dawned. Stars filled the sky, but without a moon, so darkness everywhere.
We kept pushing on though. We could see headlights for miles before they got to us and im sure they could see us just as well (we ride with strobes at night).
FINALLY we made it to Hanksville (11pm). At the gas station this enthusiastic boy our age jumped off a boat and trotted over to us. We were not feeling social. He wanted to know everything about our trip and told us he talks to all the cyclists he sees. that's pretty neat, but we were so tired and bummed.
We snuck into a campsite to use the showers with the radio tuned to some oldies of course.
Then we explored the creepiest church I had ever seen. This was really scary actually. The door was unlocked so we crept inside. It was huge and had all of these passageways and closed doors. we used a red light to see, which made the whole thing feel like it was part of a horror film. THen the worst part. As we were sufficiently creeped out and leaving, jocelyn happened to see the alarm system. We had triggered a silent alarm and the control box said "trouble" and flashed. AGHHHH!
we had to get out of there!
We grabbed our bikes which were leaning against the wall behind the bushes and jumped on them. It felt too slow. everything was in slow motion and i wanted us to get away faster.
My shoe got stuck in my wheel as we peeled out of the parking lot. No time to fix it. I rode with the sole rubbing against the wheel until we were a block away and jocelyn came to the rescue to remove it. A car was following us. We sped down the rode and took the first left. The car disappeared and we raced down this road for several miles. We were exhausted.
We started looking for a place to stealth camp. I found a spot between two hills where we could pitch out tent concealed from the road.
Ahhh. Sleep.
we passed out no problem.
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