Pueblo, CO to Carthage, MO

Gone are the bright blue skies and striking scenery. We have been shackled by a cruel wind from the east and punishing temperatures. Yes Dorothy, we're talking about Kansas. Western Kansas was a waste of eyesight and Dodge City with it's bazillion cow feeder lots and a temperature of 102 was an affront to the olfactory glands. As we moved eastward the scenery improved a bit starting to look more like home. The area around Chanute was especially nice. Today we made it to Missouri. We are excited to be less than 500 miles from home and hope to return to Owensboro within the week.

I am not making the miles I thought I would despite being on the road at sunrise and putting in a solid 6 hours of riding each day. The wind has really gotten on my last nerve. And yes, the forecast for the next few days in Missouri, pronounced misery, is 10 to 12 mph wind from the east north east. Thank goodness the end is in sight.

Gunnison, CO to Pueblo,CO

The end is near.....the end of the mountains that is. I've been thinking about climbing Monarch Pass ever since I decided to do this trip. I was familiar with the pass from inside a car or atop a motorcycle so I really had concerns about being able to pedal myself up. All along my route I had challenging climbs that I thought would make me stronger but it didn't happen and now here I am with the grand-daddy of them all.

I departed Gunnison on the last major climb. For the occasion I donned my Hill Slug jersey. For those not familiar with team Hill Slug, when I started riding I had a terrible time with hills as most overweight senior citizens do. As a joke my wife bought me a jersey with a slug riding a bicycle. I've worn this jersey on every major climb on this trip and this will be the last and highest.

Gunnison to Sargents was the easy part with 35 miles and only about 900 ft of elevation change. At Sargents the real climb began. In 10 miles the elevation rose from 8400 to a leg and lung searing 11,312 ft.

My low gear at a cadence of about 75 is 6 mph. With several stops to try get my heart rate down and my legs back it took over two hours. I was certainly ready for a break in the sag trailer at the summit.

And now for the descent.I have learned to dread the descents more than the climbs. I dug out my winter jacket as the temp was 40 degrees. I had to ride in the center of the lane or risk being blown of the road with the wind gusting to 35 to 40 mph. Most of the road had no guard rail so if you leave the asphalt you will become a glider. Some motorists were annoyed by this maneuver and would give me the you're number 1 signal. One even suggested that I ride my bike elsewhere.

In spite of all this I made it off the mountain and coasted into Salida. The sag lady found a great campground on the Arkansas river. We spent the afternoon icing my sore ankle in the river and watching people in rafts shoot the rapids. As we sat there a mallard duck came floating down the river and bobbed through the rapids. In a few minutes he flew back by. He may have been icing his sore ankle too. We hated to leave such a great spot but is was time to move on to Pueblo and WalMart.

After a rest day it will be time to tackle the great nothingness of Kansas.

Have you zoomed to see Colby on the mountain yet?

Blanding, UT to Gunnison, CO

The thought of finally getting out of Utah with it's continual climbing and horrible road surfaces was maintaining me through some tough riding. Colorado was the promised land, it would have silky smooth roads and have beautiful scenery and all would be right with the world. Not quite.

I left Blanding early because it was an 80 mile ride to Delores, CO . I was enjoying the smooth asphalt when a state trooper pulled me over and informed me I couldn't ride on his road. He said I had to ride on the shoulder. I informed him the shoulder was full of debris and would cut my tires. He didn't seem to care. I waited until he left and continued on the road. We made it to Delores without further incident.

The next morning I began the 50 mile climb up Lizard Head Pass and on to Ridgeway CO . The grade was not as bad as I anticipated and I made it over the top in about 6 hours and had another brake frying coast into Ridgeway.

The ride from Ridgeway to Gunnison began good enough. I caught up with a rider named Jeff from Louisville. I was wearing my UK jersey and he made some good natured rude remarks about it. We were almost to Gunnison when I realized the sag lady hadn't caught up. She will have to tell the rest of the story.

My morning at the campground had been lovely. Look out the window over the kitchen sink and see snow capped mountains, look out the dining table window and see a large reservoir nestled in mountains, oh the tranquility. I became restless and decided to pull out a little ahead of schedule and do a little shopping in Montrose. I found Dakota bread at the Great Harvest and a 50% off sale at Penney's. Took off toward Colby who had more than a 4 hour head start. I started up the first climb and was tickled when I could pass another large camper being pulled by a Tundra. Usually I'm the one who gets passed by the diesel pick-ups. Up I go to the summit feeling smug and then as I start descending it became apparent that something was not right. There was hardly any shoulder but I managed to get it over just outside the white line. Got out to look...driver side fine...passenger side....oh no....trailer tire blown to smithereens. Got the cell phone out only to find no bars. Stood there a while as cars and campers and semis raced down the mountain with no one stopping. I knew I could cry or try to do something. Doing something was a daunting thought as I had never even changed a tire on a car. Thought about unhitching and going on to get Colby but it was such a steep grade I was pretty sure the trailer would not hold. Wasn't sure if insurance covered accidental launches off mountains....so I began my task.

The extent of training Colby had given me was ...1.get the bolts loose before jacking and 2. you don't have to unhitch. Alrighty...the bolts came off fairly easy and now to get the bottle jack under the axle.....oops....it fit for Colby when the tires were inflated but it did not fit when they were flat. I had to dig a hole using a piece of pipe and a piece of 2 x 4. Got it under, jacked er up got the new tire on and was about to do the final tightening when a young man, his wife and friends stopped. He cranked the nuts down hard for me and made sure I got off ok before leaving me. So for those of you thinking about applying for sag lady you might want to think twice or bring a blond in a bikini with you in case of breakdowns

Torrey, UT to Blanding, UT (almost)

Made 87 miles yesterday from Torrey to past Hanksville UT. We both agreed that Capital Reef National Park, just past Torrey a bit, was the prettiest of all the parks we've seen so far. The last part of the ride was desending through deep narrow sandstone canyons. The camera could not do justice to them but we tried anyhow.

This morning I started near Hite. We were still in the deep sandstone canyon and in the early morning it was so quiet it almost hurt my ears. I crossed the Colorado River and began to climb, and climb, and climb. I climbed almost the whole 55 miles I rode today. The grades varied from gentle to 10 per cent. Utah's catch phrase is "life elevated". I think I see why.

The sag lady will drop me where I left off today and I will enjoy more climbing to Monticello I hope.

Job opportunity- The sag lady signed on for 2500 miles and today we realized that it was actually going to be slightly more than 2800 . So... I will be needing a replacement over in Missouri somewhere. If interested...

Our Trip to Torrey

The day dawned bright and sunny. It was going to be a nice 65 mile run from Escalante to Torrey.

About 35 miles into the ride things started to go south. It started to rain and the temp began to drop. My sag lady came to my rescue. For you people who don't ride, sag is an acronym for rider support. With it beginning to snow I did the only thing a tough guy would do. I jumped in the truck.

The rest of the ride to Torrey was uneventful with the temp dropping to 31 degrees with snow and fog.

In all the blogs you have read the sag lady has barely been mentioned, but without her this trip would be impossible. She has a great time all day pulling a 25 ft camper around on bumpy crooked roads. She cooks and cleans, does the laundry, shoots most of the pictures, and posts most of the blogs. In her spare time she does the shopping. She even has to occasionally rescue me from the elements.

Oh, and if you want to play where's Colby.....just zoom the picture of the road through the sandstone. Have fun!

Thanks sag lady.

Still in Escalante, UT rain rain go away

It rained all night and most of this morning so we decided to take a side trip to Kodachrome State Park. The sun came out in the afternoon so we were able to take some good pictures. The cactus seemed particularly happy to get a little moisture. All the color is difficult to capture by two rookies with a camera.

We hope to get started again tomorrow with another difficult climb at Boulder. We checked weather there today and it was snowing at the summit (9600 ft) but should be gone tomorrow.

Cedar City, UT to Escalante, UT

Good Day -Bad Day

Started out the day facing the 20 miles of 6-8% grade up Highway 14 out of Cedar City. This would take me from about 5000 ft to 10,500. I donned my Hill Slug jersey especially for the climb. While I rode down Main Street toward the highway I was practically hyperventilating just thinking of the task ahead.

After a few hours of pedaling my brains out I made it. I was exhilerated but at the same time exhausted....so exhausted that I missed my turn at the top. Before I knew it I had descended several miles down a canyon with a 12 - 14% grade. I couldn't have climbed that grade on fresh legs, let alone toasted ones.

I had no cell phone,(it wouldn't have worked anyway) no money, a power bar and one bottle of water. I was up the creek or down the canyon as it were. Luckily, as I was contemplating whether mountain lions liked power bars a sheriff came by in a 4-wheel drive pickup. I stuck out my thumb and was saved. He gave me a ride back up to the turn I missed.

I was long overdue to our rendevous spot and Elise had started to get concerned. Once she heard my tale and we both caught our breath and thanked the Lord we continued upon our merry way. All's well that ends well.

Today I had a beautiful ride through Red Rock Canyon in the Dixie National Forest and Bryce Canyon. I covered 68 miles and was pleased as my legs were still a bit gone from yesterdays adventure. I've got a bit of a climb through Boulder tomorrow but then it should be a lot of downhill to Torrey,UT our hoped for destination. There is a 50% chance of thunderstorms so we will just have to see how it plays out.

Ely, NV to Cedar City, UT

Today was great...I took the day off! I had ridden for 11 straight days and needed a break before a difficult climb tomorrow. I have ridden 782 miles so far averaging 71 miles a day. That will decrease dramatically with the terrain I am in now. Once again we will be without cell/internet service for extended periods so the blog will languish.

Most of the section I have just completed was climb,summit, descend, ride immense valleys lined with sagebrush and scrub cedars, then repeat over and over ad nauseum. On these roads you could ride for 75 miles without ever seeing any homes or businesses and maybe get passed by a car once an hour.

On Sunday afternoon after I had finished my ride we went to Great Basin National Park. We took the scenic drive to the top of Wheeler Peak. It was 94 degrees when we started and by the time we got to the top it was 62 degrees. Felt great and had wonderful views.

Today we went on a reconnaissance mission for tomorrows ride and visited Cedar Breaks National Monument. I almost wish I had not seen the mountain I have to climb, but the red rock formations were stunning.

Will post again in few days when we are over the moutain and have service again.

Carson City, NV to Ely, NV

We have now traveled from near paradise to the land that time forgot....if you don't have Verizon cell service. For the past few days there was no TV and only carriers on the radio. Thank goodness for John Wayne videos and XM radio. (Sat dish wouldn't work, too close to mountain)

On Thursday I made my first century ride, actually 113 miles. As I rode along between Fallon and Austin I was entertained by the Navy top guns out dog-fighting.

I spotted a rattlesnake in the highway yesterday(dead of course) ,but I didn't have anything to cut the rattles off. I put some scissors in my pack today but there were no rattlers to be found today.

The route I am following is the old pony express route. When they were hiring riders they posted the following ad

Wanted: Young skinny,wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert rider willing to risk life daily.Orphans preferred. $25 per week.

Most of the Indian trouble the riders had was in Nevada and I think I know why. The Indians were so mad at having to live in such a desolate place they took their anger out on anyone they could find. Lucky for me they are gone.

There are many ruins from the 1860's on this route. In addition to pony express stops I have also seen a Butterfield stage stop and the Stokes Castle.

The Butterfield stage stop consisted of walls of stacked rock and would have had a willow roof. This stop was on the Salt Lake City to Genoa, NV route. It opened in 1861 and closed in 1869 a victim of the transcontinental railroad.

The Stokes Castle was built in 1896 for Ansom Stokes a prominent mine developer and railroad magnate from the east. He built it as a summer home for his sons. It had 3 floors each with plate glass windows and fireplaces. There were balconies and a roof top terrace. They had the most modern plumbing of the day and it was sumptuously furnished. They lived there for 2 months in 1897 and then never returned. It has been unoccupied ever since, Weird huh?

Next stop Utah!

Sacramento CA to Carson City NV

Today I conquered the Sierras! We made it to Carson City,NV. On Saturday I had made it to Sacramento. Sunday I made it to Placerville with a great deal of difficulty. I rode 75 miles but due to poor signage only about 65 of that was actually on the trail. I had a flat tire and at the end my seat came loose. Monday I learned that you can't slow down once you are going 60mph down a 7% grade on a really rough road. I would like to thank Pastor Liberty for blessing my bike as I had an encounter that was nothing short of miraculous to have escaped unharmed. As I was riding a desolate county road I heard an awful racket coming up the road behind me. As it got closer I saw that it was a small pickup dragging a motorcyle on the end of a 20 ft logging chain. It would swing wildly from one side of the road to the other. There was no shoulder just straight down the mountain, I thought I was toast. Fortunately as he passed by me it was swinging to the left and I was safe. Today was a good ride,about 30 miles of hard climbing to the summit of Carson Pass and then the downhill plunge. Today I did not let my speed build up like before, but I did burn up a set of brakes. Luckily Carson City had a super bike shop where I purchased some new ones. I also wanted to thank David and the spinning gang for the Monkey Butt Powder, it's working great.