Shaping Up and Shipping Out

April 27 - 30,
After talking with the ranger at the campground, we found out that it was 100 miles to the next closest campground. The map showed one mountain pass and fairly hilly terrain, so we were prepared to hitchhike for a few miles at some point (not a habit we want to get into though). Fortunately, we had a strong tailwind and the pass that was on the map was nonexistent so we made the first 30 miles in a little over an hour. After that we just had 69 miles to go and that sounded a lot more reasonable. We had a tailwind for a few more miles, but when we took our next turn it turned into a crosswind and that slowed us down a bit. The road we were riding on had some beautiful scenery and we rode by sand dunes, cliffs, and canyons. At one point when we descended into a canyon there was a pretty steep hill and our odometer read 51mph -- our fasted speed yet! Thankfully the climb out of the canyon was a little more gradual. By the end of the day our pace had slowed down a bit and there was still one last hill into the campground, we weren't sure if we were going to make it up by pedalling but out of nowhere came 3 dogs barking and biting at our heels -- that was just the motivation we needed to speed up the hill and into camp.



The next morning we did some bike maintenance and that led to a slightly later start. We talked to the ranger and found out that the next major town was 90 miles away and that the first 25 miles of our ride would be a gradual but steady incline gaining 2,000 ft. We had our work cut out for us . There were some smaller towns listed on the map so we were hopeful that we could find somewhere to stay that was closer than 90 miles. We made it up the hill and had our usual lunch of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. The map we had didn't show terrain, so we had no idea what lay ahead of us for the next 65 miles. It turned out to be fairly hilly but there were also a lot of tall pine trees along the road which was a welcomed change of scenery -- it had been a long time since we had seen a forest. We kept on trekking along for another 45 miles until the next small town hoping to stay there for the night. Unfortunately the town had a gas station and a small grocery store but no campgrounds or motels. After talking to some of the locals we found out that the closest place to stay was a town called Window Rock, another 20 miles down the road. After going 170 miles in 2 days we did not feel like going any further, but we bought an energy drink and made the last 20 miles in an hour. We treated ourselves to a hotel (and a much needed shower) before collapsing into bed.

The next morning we planned out our route to Albuquerque and it was 130 miles of busy frontage roads. That sort of biking is pretty stressful and more mentally tiring than physically tiring because the roads are not bike-friendly so we have to be very aware of the traffic around us while making sure that we are finding all our turns. Instead, we decided to bike Gallup which is just west of Albuquerque and buy a greyhound ticket into the city to pick up the rental car. The ride to Gallup was a short 25 miles and we crossed into New Mexico but we were fighting traffic and wind the whole time and when we got to our campsite we were really glad we opted for the bus.

After setting up camp, we took the bike apart (so that it will fit in the car) and we realised that we are not ready to be finished biking and we are really glad the trip is not over yet. The past 2 days were our highest milage yet (and we're not even sore) so we can safely say that we are in good biking shape. We are excited that we still have another 1,000 miles ahead of us from Michigan to Massachusetts.

Ahead of us today we have a 20 hour drive and car rented for 24 hours -- it's going to be a whirl wind tour through Colorado and the Rockies and then up to Iowa. It would be neat to say that we rode up the Rockies with our bike, but this early in the year we don't want to get caught in bad weather up there. Maybe someday we'll come back and bike it (without 60 lbs of gear). We have found that we have a much greater appreciation for vehicles now -- what would take us a little more than 2 weeks on a bike will take 20 hours in a car. What amazing inventions! We are really looking forward to some R & R with family for a few days and hoping to get rid of our ridiculous farmers tans and sock tans.