Mace in the Face

First of all, we made it into Mississippi today. Yay! Hopefully Alabama tomorrow, or the next day at the latest. We're running into really rough weather right now, which is likely because I am a big fat jinx. I just HAD to brag about the fact that we only had 20 minutes of rain in the first 5 weeks of the trip. *Sigh*. It has rained almost 50% of the time since then. Now we're getting tornado warnings and threats of hail. Sheesh. Squishy and wet shoes are the worst!

And here is the story....it will probably be quick.

We have noticed, particularly in the south, that there are unchained dogs EVERYWHERE. You think I'm exaggerating when I capitalize "everywhere", but I'm not kidding. Every half-mile, sometimes quarter-mile, some freakishly large dog-horse thing comes charging out from under a pick-up truck. Sometimes they hop a fence. Sometimes they appear out of nowhere. There are always 2 or more, and they come at you strategically. Oh, yes, they have done this before, and they have worked out a solid plan. I love animals, but I don't mind telling you that I wouldn't be upset if some of these dogs accidentally tripped and face-planted into a ditch on their way to terrorize us.

Well, we've become pretty good at dealing with the dogs. The pepper spray is always in easy reach if it gets out of control, but I think they know I mean business. I can be very intimidating. Stop laughing. If all else fails, I'll slow down just enough for them to catch up to Bethany, then speed off as fast as I can. She can probably handle herself. :).

On one occasion in Kansas, we were still with Joel and Jessica. They hiked the Appalachian Trail several years ago, and still have the can of Grizzly Mace that they used for that trip. I'm not sure, but I think it is 30% more powerful than your average can of mace. So, we were just on our way out of Kansas...Joel and Jessica were about 20 yards ahead of us. A big black dog came bounding off of a porch, headed straight for Joel. It was barking like it was ready to tear something apart. Almost as a reflex, Joel pulled out his Grizzly Mace and hosed the dog. HOSED it. Right in the face. The FACE! I just want you to get a clear image of what was happening. It looked like a garden hose went rogue. And it sounded like a fire extinguisher. It was actually pretty cool. And I made a mental note not to upset Joel for any reason.

The poor dog had no idea what happened. It stopped barking immediately and ran off with its tail between its legs. Bethany and I saw the whole thing happen, and we were happy that neither one of us would have to deal with the dog. We watched it run off, feeling a little bad, but also a little relieved. Just as I turned my focus back to the road, I was slammed with the fog of the remaining mace. Half a second later, Bethany rode through it too. UGH! Eyes burning! Lungs not working! Coughing! Sneezing! My eyes burned like someone had poured acid in them. I couldn't breathe because it burned my lungs. Bethany and I both immediately started coughing. Because I couldn't see, I had to stop the bike in the middle of the road and pray that no oncoming cars hit me. Bethany managed to avoid getting it in the eyes, so she pulled over to safety. It was so miserable. My eyes teared for a bit before I could see well enough to continue. Fortunately Bethany recovered quickly. The effects lingered on me for a little while. I like to think that I was protecting her....you know, being the first in line (and the big sister). I think you should also know that Bethany finds that extremely hilarious. And unlikely. :)

I should also mention that my lips burned for nearly half an hour. We were 20 yards behind the initial spray, and it was still miserable. I can't imagine what the poor dog felt. Hence, I will only use the pepper spray if the dog is chewing my leg off. Mostly because I'm afraid I will do it wrong and end up spraying myself. You know that would happen. That's how I roll.

I should also mention that Joel got a huge kick out of the whole situation. And we would make him retell the story over and over, only because he did killer impressions of us the second we were hit. Have I mentioned how much fun this trip is? :)

So there you have it....a short story, somewhat unsatisfying now that I've written it down in its entirety. But the fact remains, we were hit with Grizzly Mace, even if it was accidental.

Next up: Royal Gorge and whitewater rafting!

Love the comments. It makes us happy. I wish I could respond to everyone, but I have no idea how. :) Curses, technology!

Update

We're in lower Tennessee....crossing into Mississippi tomorrow. We're staying with Jim and Beth (who picked us up at the grocery store!). They gave us a tour of the Tennessee River (I think?) in their boat, and I had a chance to do some cliff jumping. They're letting us stay in their guest cottage, which is nicer than most hotels. More updates later!

Firehouse Fun

First, thanks to our cousin Matt, who brought us tons of snacks and shampoo (whee!), and drove all the way from Tulsa to see us in Kansas. We were so glad you could come see us!


Second, thanks to Mom and Dad for coming to visit us, 11.5 hours from Pennsylvania. We needed the mental lift, thats for sure!


Anyway, on to the story.


We had just made it to Eads, Colorado (keep in mind, this was a few weeks ago). It was the last city in Colorado before we crossed into Kansas the next day. There was a little city park, and we were allowed to camp for free. There was also a little swimming pool, and after a long day of riding, we were really excited to take a refreshing dip. This was the first day that we had met Joel, Jessica and Chad, some other cyclists going East. We all made our way to the pool, but the weather was looking a little precarious. Big clouds were rolling in, and it was getting darker. But the swimming pool also had showers (free for cyclists!), and the need for clean was strong.


We made it to the pool just in time...because of the weather coming in, they were closing early, but we had the chance to get in a get a shower. I won't even discuss the shower, because it was too strange to explain. Suffice it to say that we needed two people to operate it. We had to shower in our clothing, because it was a combination shower/toilet situation. And any time the door opened, people walking by could see in. Such a good time.


After the shower, there was no place to change, so we had to go outside in our dripping wet clothing. When we got out, we were amazed by the change in the weather. The wind was whipping leaves and gravel and junk into the air, and it looked like it could start pouring any minute. We ran to our bikes, but we weren't really sure where to go for cover. There were 5 of us with our equipment, and we take up a lot of space:).


Just as we were leaving, a big black pick-up pulled up. The driver was a volunteer firefighter, and he knew the storm was going to get bad. He offered to open up the firestation so we could wait out the storm. How cool was that?! Answer: Totally.



Since the town was pretty small, it didn't take us long to get there. True to his word, the man came over to open up the firestation. He told us that not only could we wait out the storm inside, but we could stay the night if we wanted to. We just needed to close up in the morning when we left, and make sure not to block the ambulance, just in case there was an emergency:). Goodness, small town hospitality is amazing.



There were some other cyclists still at the city park, so someone went over to get them. That brought to total to 7: Bethany and I, Joel, Jessica, Chad, David and Diego. Quite a motley crew. I have some great photos, but I can't upload them! Curses, technology. The guys set up a long table and 7 chairs in the middle of the firehouse floor. Everyone made some dinner and sat at the table, sharing stories of their trips so far. It was crazy fun. There is a certain camaraderie between cyclists....and it was nice to share such an extended amount of time with so many fun people. Normally, we pass each other on the road, talk for 10 minutes, then get on our way. It was great to have more time to hear about sights that we couldn't miss, scary areas to avoid (dogs! saddle sores! Kentucky!), and fantastically entertaining stories of the trips so far.


Dinner ran long, so after we cleaned up, it was pretty much time to get to bed (we planned on waking up at 5am to start the next day with Drill Sergeant Joel and his colon-busting coffee). The firehouse floor was disgusting, and there were roaches/crickets running across the floor. So, yeah, not sleeping on that. We looked around for alternates, and Diego came up with a fabulous plan....sleep on top of the fire trucks! Yes, you heard it here first.


There were three fire trucks (two ambulances, and a few other emergency vehicles), so it was easy to pair off. Bethany and I took one, Diego and David took one, and Chad took the last one (Joel and Jess braved the firehouse floor - you guys are rockstars). I'm sure this would have been frowned upon if the volunteer firefighters knew about it, but I'm also sure that they would have wanted us to be comfortable. And like we said in the picture album below, if it was illegal, or even not recommended, we probably did it.


We all set up our sleeping pads and sleeping bags on top of the trucks.....technically on top of the firehoses, which were coiled perfectly on top of the trucks. The hoses are pretty solid; they're not as soft and comfortable as one might think. Good thing we had the sleeping pads for the extra cushion:). Getting to sleep was much easier once we didn't have to worry about a roach crawling into our hair (or nostril...*gasp*!).


True to our word, we got up the next morning at 5....or 5:15. Ok, 5:30, but it was still a really good effort. This was the day we did our first 100 miles (we did two more days over a hundred miles. Holla). We ate breakfast and got on the road as the sun was rising. We said goodbye to Diego and David, but we kept riding with Joel, Jess and Chad for a few more days, where much more fun ensued.


Stay tuned: Grizzly mace!


Good times. :)

Finally got a chance to add some pictures!

Our parents are visiting for a few days to carry our equipment (YAY!!!!!), and they brought a laptop and some cords...so we were able to figure out how to add some pictures to the blog. This is just a fraction, so hopefully some are enjoyable:). PS....we were biking in a pretty big rainstorm, and unfortunately, my phone was a casualty. So, just in case you have tried to contact me in the last week, I have not gotten it, and I can't respond just yet. FYI:)





How did this one little spot manage to stay dry? Seriously. The entire shirt is soaked, but this one little spot escaped? Something is weird....

Someone is sweaty and is NOT happy about it. Thank you, 100% humidity.

Was this photo staged? Yes. Is it still funny? I think so.

We rode to one of these places to spend the night. Which one do you think it was?

No walking? Across the Mississippi River? Whatever, if it was illegal, or it was recommended that we didn't do it....we probably did it.

I saved a turtle from the middle of the road! How did he thank me? Pee.

This way to Success!!! *Sigh* We went to Houston.

An impromptu stop to pet some horses. I wanted to ride one, but the barbed wire was a pretty good deterrent. Also, I have no idea how to ride a horse.

Horses!

Our riding buddies for a few days...Jessica and Joel. As you can tell, they were quite the fun couple.

Some sisters do normal things like going out to the movies....we prefer the extreme.

Keeping it positive (not trying to hitchhike)!

Empty Kansas road....too bad you can't get a picture of the headwind.

Phyllis and Bob! They put us up for a couple of days, and spoiled us rotten. We had a really hard time leaving:)

We take our whitewater rafting very seriously.

The Royal Gorge, Colorado. We hopped over a fence and went to the very edge of the rocks to get a better view. It was well worth it.

No, I am NOT a bad influence. Good times breaking the rules! Bethany did this all on her own. But if we didn't, we never would have been able to see the Royal Gorge.

Mmmmm, meat. Bethany is mad that I'm putting this picture on at all, so I can't say anything mean.

Tub laundry! We got really good at cleaning our clothes in less than optimal conditions:) Also, we were reeeeeaaaalllly dirty, and it was gross to see the water when we were done.

McDonalds? With only one arch? And a weird little guy saying "I'm Speedee!"? I guess this is some kind of rare sign, but it was creepy....mostly because I was sure that McDonalds couldn't afford to fix their sign, and that little guy was really scary-looking.

Telluride, Colorado....the most magical town on the planet:) We got a few good pictures on the gondola ride to the top of the pass.

Pie eating contest in Telluride! It was us against the kids:) Yummmmmmmmmy.

The giant Colorado sign welcomes us. And Bethany is very excited.

Lower Calf Creek Falls, Utah. We hiked back a few miles to see this waterfall (with Don, Nicole and Mitch...hi, guys!). As with everything, the pictures don't really do it justice...and it is a lot taller than it looks.

Lonely Utah road. This is where I came up with most of the random thoughts....why is it that no matter how far from civilization you may be, you can always find a discarded beer can/bottle? Nevada desert? Budweiser. Kansas plains? Natural Light. Kinda scary. Or weird.

Bryce Canyon, Utah. One of the most amazing places on the planet. We hiked a couple of miles around the rim to get as many different views as possible.

Bryce Canyon, Utah. If you look really hard, you can see me on the right hand side in black and purple. There are no railings or barriers of any kind, so a good wind could come along and blow us right in to the canyon. There are tons of great pictures, and most of them look like we're about ready to slide right down the side of the canyon walls...but those pictures are on my camera, and I don't have the adapter:)

I know you're jealous of my sweet outfit. The wind was blowing so hard that we had to put on several layers of clothing so we didn't freeze. I swear I'm not wearing a black unitard. And the sunglasses just kept out the grit...I don't really wear my sunglasses at night:) This picture is taken right outside of the place that we "broke into" in Minersville to sleep inside. As you can tell, there was good reason to try to find cover!

At 10,350 feet....Cedar Breaks in Utah. It was cold. And because I looked like a thug, no one bothered us.

If you look closely, you can see the rattlesnake that had curled up under my leg. He looks little there, but he's all coiled, and when I can upload video, you'll see him in all of his glory. I just got chills thinking about it again.

Just like the Sound of Music! Kirkwood, California, where Bethany just HAD to watch the Stanley Cup:) Go Penguins!

Survived the Loneliest Road in America! Barely.

Tree filled with shoes!! What a completely bizarre image. I definitely did a double-take, and of course we had to stop and take a picture.

Checking the map....standing in Nevada (left of the white line) and California (right of the white line)

This will be the last of the pictures for a while....the equipment goes home tomorrow:(

Update

Right now we're in the Ozarks, right in the heart of Missouri. There was a terrible thunderstorm, but we were rescued by a guy and his daughter, who brought us to his neighbors. Now we're staying with Charlie and Susie, retired educators who are spoiling us rotten. We had as much dinner as we could eat, and we did REAL laundry, not just rinsing in the sink with some shampoo:). They're so much fun! We're having a nightcap and chatting, so there really isn't too much time to blog.

There is definitely plenty to blog about....especially this one time that Bethany and I accidentally got hit with Grizzly Bear Mace. Good times:) More about that to come!

The Kindness of Strangers: Part 2 - Ivar and Vicki

I'm sitting here in a little motel room in Eureka, Kansas with my cousin Matt (who is the perfect combination of both of his parents), relaxing and writing in the blog. What a nice change from sleeping on a picnic table under a pavilion in the city park! We parted ways with our riding partners, Jessica and Joel. They are super cool, so we're hoping we can meet up with them again some time in the future. Anyway, this is a little bit of a continuation on the kindness of strangers:

Goodness, talk about blessings. Bethany and I had just spent the night in the guest house of a multimillionaire (read below!), and we weren't sure what to do for the Fourth of July. It's not usually a big holiday for me, but Bethany is a fan of the fireworks, so we wanted to find a place that had them. We had been biking for about 15 miles when we came to a crossroads, both literally and figuratively. We could go left and continue to follow our route, possibly ending up in a town with no fireworks, or we could go right, 3 miles off route, into Telluride. If we chose Telluride, there was definitely the possibility that there would be no available camping, and the hotels way too expensive. But we chose Telluride anyway. Tom Cruise did, so it couldn't be all that bad (but he's craaaazzzzzyyyyy with a capital K). We biked 3 miles down the road, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Towering in front and to each side were giant mountains covered in green trees. Telluride is kinda like a "no outlet" type of place, so there is only one way in and out. At the very back was a tiny sliver of white, which we were later able to determine was a waterfall. Everything about the place, from the surroundings to the Victorian-style homes were just drop-dead gorgeous. I was soooo happy we had made the decision to go to Telluride! Until I went to the Visitor's Center. At the Visitor's Center, a very sweet young man told me that all of the space on the campground were taken (of course, it was July 4th in Telluride. What were we expecting?), and the hotels were starting at $159 per night. What? Nope. And it wasn't like we could just throw up a tent anywhere....its a very small town, and they're very strict about unapproved camping. I was soooo mad we had made the decision to go to Telluride:(

I talked it over with Bethany, and as much as we hated to, we had to turn around leave. We would continue on our route, and hope that there would be fireworks in one of the really small towns. We were pretty angry that we just wasted 6 miles. Just as we were turning our bikes around, a white van slowed down, and the person in the passenger side rolled down the window and we heard "Is everything ok?". There was a couple (possibly 50's?) that had stopped to make sure we were alright. I guess we looked pretty upset:). I just gave them a brief overview of the situation, and they proceeded to confer with each other for a few seconds. Before I knew it, the driver was getting out of the van. He told us to follow him because "we might have a place for you".


Huh? Come again? We just met you 10 seconds ago.

Slightly confused, we followed him for less than a block, and he opened up the garage door behind a beautiful little house. He told us we could park our bikes there. At this point, Bethany and I are thinking he will let us camp out in the yard. If we're lucky. But no, we are taken inside the impeccable little house, shown the shower where we can clean up, and given a brief tour of the basement, where we can spend the night.


Again, HUH? WE JUST MET YOU 10 SECONDS AGO!!!!


Then he left, saying that they would be back around 7:30 if we wanted to go watch the fireworks with them. We didn't even get his name!!! Bethany and I stood, dumbfounded, for at least a good minute before either one of us said anything. When we did finally speak, it didn't make sense anyway. I couldn't believe that someone would just give us a place to stay without, you know, a background check or something. But as we came to learn over the course of the day; this is Telluride, and nothing normal happens here.

After we brought our stuff in and cleaned up a little bit, we decided to walk the town. I'm not kidding when I say that Telluride has a magical feel. It is impossible not to smile when you're walking down the street. Little shops, people everywhere, bicycles all over the place....there was nothing about this place that I didn't like.

We happened to stumble across a pie eating contest. Score! After very little convincing, Bethany and I were signed up. Shocking, I know. For $10 it was all-you-can-eat food and drink, as well as the pie. For hungry cyclists, $10 was a total steal. When we sat down at the table for the pie eating, we noticed that we were surrounded by kids 10 and under. Hmmmm. I guess the honorable thing to do would be to allow one of the kids win. So we did. (But I took second....beat that kiddies!)


After all the pie eating and the arm wrestling, there was a lot of socializing with what turned out to be some of the elite in Telluride. One guy owned a night club down the street. When he found out that we were doing our ride for the American Cancer Society, he pulled a big wad of cash out of his pocket, peeled off a $100 bill and handed it to us, then went back to the conversation. He didn't even blink. That was fantastically cool, and he trusted us!


We eventually got back in time to go to the fireworks with the family that let us use the house. We introduced ourselves in the car on the way to the city park. Their names were Ivar and Vicki, and they were the coolest people. It was amazing just getting the chance to talk and hang out with them for a few hours. They had made big fat brownies with chocolate icing (mmmm!), and Bethany and I had about 7 between the 2 of us. After the fireworks (there was a downpour just before they were supposed to start, and we thought they would be cancelled. All that for nothing!), Ivar and Vicki left us alone in the house, just making sure that we knew not to lock the doors when we left the next morning. Alone. In the house. By ourselves. I still can't believe how trusting they were:).


One big thing about this trip I have learned: We all watch too much of the news. It has made us all cynical and untrusting. Every single person we have met on this trip has been helpful, kind, and generous. We're amazed at the everyday kindnesses that people extend to complete strangers. I guess we just look incredibly non-threatening with our little helmets and half-finger gloves:)

The Kindness of Strangers: Part 1 - The Multi-Millionaire and Me (Us)

We're not dead! Just a long time between internet access:) We're always in town after the library closes (or on Sunday), so it gets very hard to blog.

Just as a quick update, we're now in central-ish Kansas.....I hate it almost as much as Nevada. All I have to say is "HEADWIND". Boo. We met up with a really awesome couple that is biking their way back to Virginia, and we've been hanging with them for several days now. They're a little more hardcore than we are, so it is definitely giving us good motivation. We had our first "century"....we biked 103 miles on 7/13, so that felt pretty good (for the mind, definitely not the body - ouch). We're going to keep up with them as long as we can, because they are great company:)

Wow, we've had such great experiences on this trip so far, and not nearly enough time to blog about it. There are so many amazing people. You've already heard about Don, Nicole and Mitch. There was also Wayne, Bob, Ron, Cynthia, Ivar, Vicki, Steve, Steve, etc. This is just one of the stories that we think you could find amusing.

July 3rd we were heading along our path as normal, and we decided to stop for lunch on a little bridge that crossed the Dolores River. We swung our legs over the edge and ate our healthy PopTart and NutriGrain bars. Before long, we heard someone yell "Don't do it! Don't jump!", so we turned around. Up a tiny hill on the other side was a pretty huge mansion - all wood. A guy was waving from his second floor balcony. We waved back. Then we forgot about it. A little while later, a cyclist came up to talk to us. As it turns out, he was the mansion guy. His name was Steve. He was kind of pompous at first...within 5 minutes we knew he had a Maserati and he lived in the huge mansion behind us. Ok, tough guy. He also offered us his phone number in case we were in Telluride, because he would take us around to the bars. I think Bethany and I both had to work really hard to keep our eyes from rolling back into our heads. The second he left, I told Bethany that I would be fine if we never saw this guy again. But things never work out as I think they will:)

Several miles after that, when we were looking for a place to spend the night, we came across a small town called Rico. There was only one place in town to get food, so we stopped at the gas station. And guess who was there? Steve. I KNOW! Anyway, we sat down and had a break, and ended up spending most of the time talking to Steve. He told us how he used to live in Tucson, and he had the best and most outrageous stories. Apparently he made his millions as a florist (who knew! I'm looking into that when I get home), and later he bought a night club. The Tucson police couldn't believe that he made his money without doing something illegal, so they had it "in" for him. He was shot at a couple times, two guys were killed outside of his club, Kid Rock played at his birthday, blah blah blah. And on and on and on. For 45 minutes/an hour, Steve talked. My responses consisted mostly of "wow!", or "no kidding!", or "I can't believe the Tucson Police had it out for you!", or "so, you're wife knew about your mistress?". Crazy stuff.

After Steve ran out of stories, he offered his 51 acre land for us to camp on. He said we could ride back down to his house, camp on his property, and then he would drive us back up to where we left off. It sounded like a great deal to me. Any day we could get free camping was a good day. Not to mention, although Steve was full of incredible (and possibly false) stories, both Bethany and I felt that he was completely harmless. Just a really outgoing type of guy that lived in a tiny tiny town, and was dying to tell his stories to new people. Plus, I had a really really big knife, just in case. So, we did it. We rode back down to his mansion, fully prepared to camp on his property. The only problem was this: mosquitos. I guess the season had been unusually rainy, and the mosquitos were breeding like crazy. They were all over Bethany like a bear on honey, and they were biting us through our clothing. Fortunately, Steve offered us his guest house.

Yes, guest house. He offered for us to stay in his 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom guest house. Then he made us a dinner of spaghetti and homemade sauce....during which time he told us more stories, each one crazier than the next. Even better, Steve, who is 50 years old, has a 25-year-old girlfriend. We were eventually introduced to her, and she looked more like 12. After a rough start, she ended up being very nice...:)

The next morning Steve made us the best oatmeal either one of us has have ever eaten. Then his girlfriend cut up a huge watermelon, and essentially the 4 of us ate it all. Then, true to his word, Steve drove us back to where we left off, and actually a few miles further (to avoid a big hill). He dropped us off, and then he was gone, leaving Bethany and I to wonder what in the world had just happened.

It is frustrating to have so many MANY stories, and not be able to type fast enough. I would imagine the next few blogs would be:

• Fourth of July in Telluride with Ivar and Vicki
• The night we slept in a volunteer firehouse with five other cyclist (on top of the firetrucks, no less!)
• Why Bethany was so traumatized in childhood (one guess: older siblings!)
• Peanut butter and jelly vs. Peanut butter and banana...the debate continues

Random thoughts...

We spend a lot of time on the bikes....between 6 and 8 hours, depending on the terrain. During this time, sooooo many things cross our minds. You can try to block out the random brain-thoughts with music, but there isn't a lot that can suppress an active brain on the open road. There isn't really a "story" in this blog, but I thought it would be fun to try to catalog as many of those random thoughts as possible, and list them. They really are....strange.

But before that, I'd like to give a giant shout-out to Don, Nicole and Mitch...a couple of our favorite people from this trip. They adopted us for the day! We all hiked back to a Lower Calf Creek Falls waterfall (and took some awesome and hilarious pictures). Then they went completely out of their way to take us to our hotel, and in the mean time, they bought our dinner! You guys were so much fun, and I'm glad we're still in touch!

Anyway, bring on the random thoughts, some related to cycling, some not:

• Why, out of all the different parts of my body that are sore, do my THUMBS hurt the most?
• How am I going to get rid of these ridiculous tan lines?
• Why can I only remember half of the Quadratic Equation? My math teachers would be so disappointed.
• Road kill or piece of tire? Road kill? Or tire? Road kill. No! Tire. Whew....tire. (this is a little game I like to play when you see something on the road in the distance and don't know what it is. It happens a LOT, and I'm getting better).
• How are the soles of my shoes falling off? They're on the pedals of the bike 90% of the day. I'll have to use Dad's fix-it method...duct tape.
• Ohhh, a penny!
• Colorado smells nice.
• "Free credit report dot com/Tell your friends, tell your dad, tell your mom/We've been singin' this song since we first showed up with our pirate hats on".....ugh, commercial jingles...
• When I hear a vehicle behind us, I try to figure out what kind it is by how the engine sounds. I'm 100% on 18-wheelers so far. Everything else, not so much.
• I think I would have made a good outlaw.
• I wish I could figure out how to reset the time on my watch. That way I wouldn't have to subtract 2 hours every time I try to figure out what the time is.
• Oh, man. My sunglass frames are broken. I'll have to use Dad's fix-it method...duct tape.
• On ER, when Doug Ross finds out that Carol is pregnant with his twins, why doesn't he come back?
• When will we see a town with more than 1,000 people?
• Will I live long enough to witness Bethany actually eating a vegetable? On purpose?
• It's probably not a wise decision to fly down a hill at 45 mph with only what essentially amounts to a tiny styrofoam cap on your head for protection.
• I have to use the restroom. And we're 30 miles from anything in either direction. Help.
• I wonder what passing motorists are thinking: "They are CRAZY", or "What a great idea. I might do that some day", or "50 points for the blonde one with the pigtails"?
• Again, with the passing motorists. When they see us in the middle of nowhere, do they worry even a tiny bit about us? Why don't they offer water? Why don't they offer a ride? Not that we'd take it, I'm just saying. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? So far the only ones to offer water are foreign. Figures. Americans are all "they're dumb, they deserve what they get".
• Why do I harbor such fiery hatred for people in vehicles?
• Why don't any of the motels have people working at the front desk?
• When passing motorcyclists wave, are they mocking us?
• Bethany's handlebars have some cuts in them. I'll have to use Dad's fix-it method....duct tape.
• The "Welcome to Utah" and "Welcome to Colorado" signs are 50 yards apart. Sooooo, what is that land in between?
• There are a ton of washers/bolts/nuts/nails on this road. Dad would have a field day.
• Can I build a log cabin in Miami?
• I wonder when the season premiere of Bones is scheduled.
• Dear God, please don't let the 18-wheeler hit us. We're not that good at staying on the shoulder...
• How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
• Why is this map taking us into the middle of nowhere with roads that don't have a shoulder? Safe? NO.
• Will I ever be able to pass through a tiny tiny town and not think of Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
• That root beer did NOT settle well.
• How can I work soooooo hard all day on the bike, and I'm still gaining weight?
• On a related note, why don't my legs look any different?
• Why, at the end of a perfectly good downhill, is there always an uphill?
• Would those people mind if we asked to ride their horses?
• Green is definitely my new favorite color.
• I wonder which one of us is adopted. I would guess me. Bethany would agree. We can't possibly be related.
• On an uphill: From 1 to 10, this rates a 14.35 on the "This is the Worst Idea Ever" scale.
• On a downhill: Hey, this isn't so bad!
• I smell burnt skin. Is that me?
• I wonder what I did with my passport? I should find that when I get home.
• Does hay have any nutritional value for humans? Might be good to know, just in case we get in some trouble one day.
• Is Bethany more miserable now, or will she be more miserable when she has to sleep in my apartment with all of the cats?
• Canyon is a weird word.

Here is what Bethany said she thinks about all day on the bike:

??

Anyway, we'll come back with a good story for the next blog, but this will have to hold until then. I'm sure we'll have some good stuff coming out of the Rockies!

And please comment! We looooooove reading the things you have to say, and it makes it more fun to write:)