This morning I woke up feeling pretty sick. I had a sore throat most likely just from the dry air- I don't know if I could ever live in such a dry place! My stuffy nose was worse and my head was just congested in general. But I was happy that I was in a nice comfy bed instead of in our tent outside. Anne gave me some sore throat spray that helped a lot. It was a little slow going this morning, but once I got moving around I started to feel a little better. I had french toast and sausage for breakfast, which made me feel a little better too just simply because it's my favorite breakfast ever. Joe got put to work a little while we were here helping move furniture- it worked out great that he was here to help move stuff. Around 11 we headed off to pick up all of the stuff for the next leg of the journey. Lou was super nice and let us borrow her car to go to get everything we needed. It ended up being about a 15 mile drive to go to the only bike shop that we could find that had what we needed in stock. On the way, we stopped at REI and FINALLY got Joey his new sleeping bag. Now we shouldn't have to worry about us being too cold unless it drops below 20 or 25 at night. We also picked up a new bottle of camp soap for washing the dishes (the one that is almost empty now lasted us since Utah!). At the bike shop, we got 2 new tires, 2 new chains, 6 new tubes (just to be safe), and some more patches. Now we should be set to make it close to Florida if not past Florida. We made a quick stop at Wally world before heading back to the house. While I relaxed since I still wasn't feeling 100%, Joey worked on putting the new tires on the bikes. Later on that evening, we enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner with baked potatoes and broccoli. The steak was cooked perfectly- another wonderful meal. Not only did we have a wonderful meal, but Anne and Lou brought home the yummies chocolate moose cake for dessert! SOOO good! We feel like we are living in a little paradise here with the big comfy bed, great food, and great company. It is going to be hard to leave, but luckily we have one more day to enjoy before we hit the road again. For the rest of the evening, we enjoyed watching the finals of Dancing with the Stars- it was pretty intense! By the end of the day, my "sickness" was feeling a little better, so hopefully it will be all gone tomorrow morning, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed! I guess it works out to be a little sick on the rest days instead of the days we are riding- that wouldn't be very fun!
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We had a great nights sleep in the comfy bed last night. Even still, I woke up with the same stuffy nose I keep getting every morning since we were near Vegas. First it was a little bit of a sore throat, and then it turned into a stuffy nose. Luckily I feel pretty good besides that, so it's not the flu. Joe spent the morning researching bike shops in the area to try to find one that would have the tires and chains we need in stock. It took a while, but somehow there was one bike shop that had what we needed. That was a lucky find because otherwise we would have to wait for a pretty long time before they came in the mail. I spent a little time updating photos and the website and then we relaxed on the couch for a little bit. I got to make some french toast for breakfast, too! Originally we planned to go get the stuff to fix the bikes today, but it ended up working out better for everyone (Lou was going to let us borrow her car) to go tomorrow. So, for most of the day we just enjoyed some R & R. We watched movies and looked forward to later on this afternoon. Last night we got a text from Papa Mike who saw that we were in Phoenix. Today he is on his way from San Bernidino, CA to Tuscon where his girlfriend Helena lives. They would be passing through the area just in time for dinner and he wanted to meet up with us since we were here. What a great surprise that was! It ended up working out really well that we got to Phoenix early! They were in the mood for Indian and had asked us to look up a place while we were waiting for them to get here. To our surprise, there were two Indian restaurants within 2 miles of where we were, it was perfect. Papa Mike arrived with Helena around quarter after 4. We were all pretty excited to get to see each other again, and for Joey and I to get to meet Helena. We had a lot to catch up on since we last saw Papa Mike in August. It was fun sharing stories about our rides down the west coast especially. When we got to the restaurant, we found out that it didn't open for dinner until 5. We had about a half hour to wait, so we just walked around for a little bit. This was Joe's and my first time having Indian food. Papa Mike ordered a couple orders of bread and hummus which was delicious! We both got a chicken dish. Mine was a little spicier and Joe's was on the barbaque. It was so yummy. The sauce on the chicken was really good with the rice and the best part was that stuffy nose that I had cleared right up! So, now we know we like Indian food, or at least what we ordered! After a wonderful dinner, we headed back to Lou and Anne's house. It was sad to have to say goodbye to Papa Mike again, but it was just so awesome that we got to see him again! We had such a great time! For the rest of the evening, we watched Dancing with the Stars with Anne and Lou and enjoyed some yummy popcorn with melted butter. Another great day!! Tomorrow is another rest day, but there is quite a lot to do even still.
We weren't very excited about the day when we woke up this morning since we knew we had a lot of work to do. Sure enough, we had one more flat tire to add to the list of things to fix this morning. I made some oatmeal while Joey put away the tent. We ate the last of our bananas and then got packed up. In the daylight, we were able to find a less thorn prone path down the hill, which hopefully helped a little. Again, we decided to do a little walking. This time we walked under the bridge to the other side of the freeway to where the open restaurant/shops/gas station was. We had a chance to plug in our phones since they were both completely dead at that point, while we sat outside at the picnic tables working on the bikes. Joey started with his back tire while I got out the tweezers and started pulling thorns out of the tires. We were worried that even if the thorns that I was pulling out didn't cause the flat, that when we actually rode on them, the might cause a flat with the extra pressure. It took FOREVER to pull all of the thorns out. I must have pulled out 200-300 thorns between all the tires and it probably took about 2 hours. After Joey fixed his flat, we were pretty sure there was nothing left in his tire or rim that would cause any more flats. We checked it over and over again, but for some reason he still got another flat- right after he had just changed the one from last night. At that point we were getting very worried because we were running out of patches (since there were now more than just one hole in the tubes) and we didn't have any brand new tubes to alleviate the problem. Thank goodness the second time he changed it, the tire held. Now on to my tire. We were so happy that the tire held on the first try. Either way, we were still out of patches and would be going on prayers to make it all the way to Phoenix before getting any more flats. As for my little computer, I had a couple spare mini-zip ties, that somehow did the job. It's not very pretty in any means, but it is much better than having to hold it the entire time I am riding. As we were sitting there fixing things, the guy on the red mountain bike that we had passed yesterday and who slept somewhat near us last night, came over and talked to us for quite a while. Turns out he had a flat tire too- go figure. After a very long frustrating morning, we figured we would give it a go and hope for the best. There was what looked like a frontage road that we could take instead of the highway to get to 93. Signs were posted along the road indicating that it would take us to 93. We decided to take it since anything is better than riding on the interstate. The road was much more hilly that the nicely graded interstate, but it had almost no traffic whatsoever. After we made it about a mile and a half down the road, the 93 sign pointed down a very bumpy dirt road. At first we figured we would go with it, but after riding on what felt like a washboard, we decided that it would be just miserable to go the whole way on that. We decided to turn around and go the interstate afterwards. Ughh. On the way, I heard a light "Psssss" sound. Wouldn't ya know it- I had another flat tire. Now this was a really big problem! We had NO way to fix it since we were now out of patches, had no new tubes, and were stuck riding these "Panaracres" (spare folding tires) that apparently will just continue to give us flats over and over again when we are in "Goat Head" thorn country. For quite a while we tried to figure out what we would do. Eventually we came to a decision- we would just have to hitchhike a ride to the next town that had a bike shop- which would be Phoenix. We thought about going back to Kingman, but since it was Sunday- the shop would most likely be closed anyways. While I waited near the on ramp, Joe walked back up to the gas station we camped at because he remembered seeing a piece of cardboard that we could use to make a sign. When he got back, I started writing "Broken bike, trying to get to Phoenix" on the cardboard. All I got written was "Broken Bi" before someone pulled over to give us a lift! It was a nice guy with a pickup truck who even had tie downs so the bikes wouldn't be bouncing around in the back. To make both bikes fit (he had a big truck tool chest in the bed), I took all the panniers off of my bike. As if we didn't already think we were really lucky, when Jesse (the driver) asked us where we were going in Phoenix, we found out that he was pretty much going to the same place since he also lived in Chandler. How could we have gotten that lucky!?!? We were amazed. It reminded us so much of how the other time we were broken down the guys who picked us up were fellow cyclists doing a supported tour across the USA. What are the odds that we got this lucky a second time!? So, after a few minutes of packing the bikes into the truck, we were screaming down the highway. We weren't all that happy to be taking a ride, but at the same time were so grateful that someone picked us up that fast and that they were going to the same place. From where we were to Phoenix, we had about 3 and a half hours of driving to do (we were about 175 miles away). Right away I tried to get a hold of Cousin Anne, since instead of being there in 3-4 days, we would be there today! At first I couldn't get a hold of her because she must have still been at church, but when I did, we gave her the warning that we were on our way. Despite the short notice that we would be there today (since we didn't expect to have it come to taking a ride), she was totally ok with it and sounded excited. I knew that I was really excited now because I didn't expect to get to see her TODAY, when we woke up this morning! To pass the time in the truck, I watched movies with Jesse, Jesse's 8 year old son. As we drove, we passed so many of the big cactus and I was a little sad that we weren't getting to ride by them. But at the same time, there were quite a lot of hills, some of which were very long. I was a little glad that we got to miss some hills. It felt like such a long ride in the truck just since we haven't been in a vehicle for any real length of time in a long time. Whenever I'm in a car, I just feel like we are supposed to just be there already because it is supposed to be so much faster than our bikes. Just from sitting still in the back seat of the truck, my legs were cramping a bit-- they just aren't used to just being in one position for that long since we're always peddling. As we were coming into civilization, it was just like another one of the huge valleys we've seen so much of lately, except it was just full of buildings and roads. Going down the interstates, we passed the Cardinals football stadium and the Diamondbacks baseball stadium, the airport, and downtown Phoenix. When we plugged in Cousin Anne's address to Jesse's GPS, we found out that she only lives about 2 miles from their house- it couldn't have worked out any better. We arrived at Cousin Anne's house very easily with the GPS- no navigating required on our part, we were just driving along and then we were all of a sudden there. I was just so excited to see Anne and to meet her roommate Lou. They helped us get our bikes all unloaded and then we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Jesse and Jesse. It was very surreal to already be there. No effort required, it was like a time warp. We got to put our bikes out on the enclosed porch to their unit and then we each got to enjoy a nice hot shower to get us freshened up. We found out that Lou was going to give up here super comfy king size bed and private bath so that we could sleep there while we were here. It was amazing- just like a hotel. We definitely felt a bit spoiled!! After enjoying catching up and answering any questions they had about our trip, we enjoyed some yummy cheese and crackers and later on some tortilla chips with salsa and melted cheese! My new favorite treat! For dinner, we had some awesome Italian food from one of the local restaurants. Chicken, rigatoni, salad, bread, wine and beer. It was SO yummy! For the rest of the evening, we relaxed on the comfy couch and watched some television. We are definitely looking forward to sleeping in that gigantic comfy bed!! I just can't believe we are already to Phoenix! Despite all the problems with the bikes and having to take a ride, I am very happy to be here. If we didn't break down and had gotten to ride the whole way, we would already be at 10,000 miles so far on the trip, but that's ok. We only rode/walked 3.31 miles and were in the truck for about 175 miles. What an interesting day- it was definitely one of those days where we felt almost every emotion in the book at some point.
Grandma note: One week later (Dec. 2nd) I was talking to someone who has a relative in Kingman, who not only has a pickup truck, but also a small plane. She said he would have been more than glad to have helped out Joe and Em. What are the chances ?? Boy was it a cold one last night! The worst part is that it was probably only in the 30s. The idea of going to the Grand Canyon is slipping away. If we were cold at 30, then 15 would be just awful. We are so close and we know this is going to be the only opportunity to ride our bikes there, but unfortunately I think it's just too unrealistic to try to go there when it is that cold. Both of us really wanted to go, probably me more than Joey just since I've never seen it before. At one point we thought about renting a car when we got to Phoenix so we could drive up to see it, but we ended up deciding against it. Although we are close, it would still be a 3-4 hour drive just to get there. We also might have run into problems with the whole renting process since neither of us are 25 yet. Although we still have the option to ride to the canyon right now, we will have to finalize our decision by the end of our lunch break today because that will be the turning point to either head to the canyon or head towards Phoenix. We woke up pretty early today and got everything packed up pretty quickly. After having some oatmeal and a banana for breakfast we pushed our bikes back down the sandy dirt road that we had gone down last night to camp. The road was just as bad as yesterday ( having not an inch of shoulder) for about 15 miles or so. There were a couple sections where there was a shoulder for about a mile and then the road would go right back to having no shoulder again. About 10 miles into the ride, we passed the road that went to Chloride, AZ (the original destination we hoped to get to last night). It turns out that we didn't miss anything at all by not getting here last night. There was a kind of gas stationish building on the main road and then the 2 or 3 buildings that were visible near the town were a mile or so off the main road. We did ok with our camping spot last night, there weren't any good spots near Chloride, so it worked out good that we didn't make it there. The road continued on its gradual uphill for quite a while. Since this was how the road was all afternoon yesterday, the road had to turn into a gradual downhill at some point. And it did. But then, we started climbing again, this time it was quite a bit steeper.At one point we were riding along and saw a couple bill boards saying "free clean restrooms," "cold drinks," "etc... Next right." That was a welcome surprise since by that time we both had to pee. As we were coming up the hill near where this supposed stop was, we began to hear music blaring. When we got to the top and saw the restaurant/bar/gift shop it was even louder. Michael Jackson was coming in loud and clear. That boosted our spirits just because it was pretty funny- especially since there was almost no one around. After a quick break, we continued on up the long climb. We didn't have too much further to go to get to the city of Kingman. There was a nice downhill into what we thought was the town. When we got there we found out that the main part of town that had the grocery store, etc. was a couple miles down the I-40 on the other side of a big hill. So, we continued on, down the I-40 which was ok to ride on since there was no sign that said bicycles were prohibited. Instead the sign said "Bicycles on Shoulder Only." Either way, it was the only way to go without going an extra 5 miles or more out of the way. It is still not very fun riding on the interstate. Even though there is a nice big shoulder, the cars still go by so fast and are just so loud- makes me glad I have an earplug for my left ear now! After we made it over the hill, it was pretty easy to find the Safeway so we could re-stock on our food and get a little something for lunch. We decided on having cereal and milk for lunch just to change things up. While I went to do the shopping, Joe watched the bikes and ended up talking to a guy that was sitting outside the store drinking beer. The guy kept saying how great the road was that went to the Grand Canyon and through the Indian Reservation. He told us that we should definitely go that way instead of taking the interstate. Poor Joey had to sit there for a while listening to the guy go on an on about how great it was, unfortunately he was pretty much saying the same exact thing over and over again. Overall though, he was a nice guy and he meant well. We ate our cereal and milk outside the store on one of the benches. There were some boy scouts outside selling their popcorn nearby. It was nice to see them out there working hard on their Saturday to sell their popcorn. As we were sitting there, a guy on a bicycle inquired about our trip, and also told us that there was a bike shop right around the corner if we needed anything. We figured we were pretty set on everything, but after restocking our food, we decided to swing by there just in case they had any chains that would work for us since they are getting close to needing to be changed again. Golly- if it weren't for the maintenance part of the trip, this trip would be so much cheaper! They didn't have anything that would work for us, so we headed over to McDonald's to use the internet real quick before getting back on the road. We checked the weather one last time near the Grand Canyon and finalized our decision not to ride there. That was probably one of the hardest decisions we've made the whole trip, just because we knew there wouldn't be another opportunity to ride there. In the end though, I think we made the right decision- I just hope it's not one of those things that we will regret not doing later on. I checked to see if my Cousin Anne, who lives near Phoenix emailed me back yet, but when she hadn't I gave her a call instead. I am getting really excited that we get to see her soon! It should only take us about 3-4 days to get there from where we are since we aren't going to the canyon. When we were ready to go, we hopped back on the I-40 destined for Phoenix. It was such a weird feeling because we were still not 100% sure we made the right decision. The whole rest of the days ride, I couldn't help but think about how we weren't going to get to see the Grand Canyon, but also about how cold it would have been to camp up there in northern AZ. At one point we were riding along and passed a guy riding an old mountain bike. Although I didn't think we were going that fast, we left him in the dust pretty quick. All of a sudden we looked back and he was so far behind. Almost the entire distance from Kingman to where we planned to make it to was uphill, most of which was pretty gradual, so it wasn't too bad. I stopped at one point to check a licence plate that was upside down on the side of the road and couldn't believe where it was from when I turned it over- Pennsylvania! Eventually we made it within 5 miles of highway 93 which would take us all the way to Phoenix. We planned on making it to that intersection so that we would be able to find a place to camp easier and away from all of the traffic of the interstate. Just after we passed Exit 66, we were riding along and heard a loud "POP" sound. It was Joey's back tire-and now it was flat! What horrible timing since we only had about a half hour before it would be dark. Either way, we had to fix it in order to make it those last 5 miles. As we were there in the little section of land between the highway and that dumb barbed wire fence that they seem to have along all of the roadways here in AZ, we found out the really bad news. The tire was not just flat, but whatever Joey hit that made it go flat also made a huge slice in his tire. Because of that, the tire (which was just put on in Portland, OR and had PLENTY of miles left on it) was now unusable. The slice went clear through the entire thickness of the tire. Even though it was a waste of a perfectly good tire that was supposed to last us at least until Dallas, we did still have the not so great folding tires as a spare. So, Joe worked on changing the tire while I worked on patching one of our old tubes. Things were going great until we went to put air in the newly changed tire and found out that it was flat again. At that point, it was pretty much dark and we didn't want to ride on the interstate at night, even if it was just for 5 miles. Since it was going to take us a while to change the tire for a third time, and it was already getting chilly out, we decided it would be best to just walk back to the exit we just passed to find a place to camp. It ended up being about a mile walk, but at least we wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere tomorrow morning (there was a gas station/restaurant/shop at that exit). As we were walking up the on ramp, we saw an old gas station up on the top of the hill. It was clearly closed for good, so we decided that would be a good place to hide out for the night. As we were pushing our bikes up the hill, we got about half way up before I decided to turn on my bike light and noticed that our wheels were covered in hundreds of thorns. Papa Mike had mentioned at one point that there were these thorns called "goat heads" down south, but this was our first encounter with them. At that point, it was too late to turn back since the wheels were already covered, so we just kept going and got to the top of the hill. As if we weren't already bummed enough, we figured by morning we were bound to have another flat or two to fix. We just said heck with everything and figured it would be much easier to fix everything in the daylight. To make matters worse, somewhere in the time we were pushing our bikes off the road to fix the first flat, my bike computer broke off my handlebars and was just dangling by the wire now- another thing to fix, wonder how we will fix that. Even with the horrible thorns, the camp spot was pretty good because we were on a hill above the interstate where no one would see us- and where it was a little quieter. After a very frustrating evening, we made the frozen pasta, veggie and chicken dinner we got at the grocery store and snacked on some cheese and carrots. As we were getting ready to go to bed, I could have sworn I heard someone throwing rocks over by the main building of the gas station (we were camped under the overhang where the gas pumps used to be.) Joey went out to take a look. Sure enough, I had heard something. It turns out that it was the guy that was on the mountain bike that we passed quite a long time ago. Guess he thought this was a good place to sleep for the night too. It is pretty funny though because he said that he didn't even see us over there- and we had the light on in our tent! We tried to forget about all the bike problems that we had today so that we could go to sleep. It will be an interesting morning tomorrow I'm sure. Our miles totaled 51.36 today.
We woke up to another wonderful meal at Barb and David's! David made some waffles with pieces of apple and simmered maple syrup! We even had some fresh squeezed orange juice, which was a little tart, but good. After we got packed up, Kumar, Joey and I rode to Vons to restock on food before heading out of town. Kumar continued on west to Las Vegas where he planned to take a day to site see. We rode through the very cute little downtown portion of Boulder City and then had just a few miles to get to the entrance to the Hoover Dam. We climbed off of the main highway up and over the hill to where the security check to go over the dam was. It wasn't much of a check since they just waved us right through, but that's ok. We stopped to take a picture of the Hoover Dam sign and a really nice guy saw us, came over and asked if we wanted a picture with us and the sign and then took it for us! When we rode over the next little hill, there it was! It was really big, but for some reason I was thinking it was a lot wider. Either way, it was pretty cool that we would get to ride our bikes over the dam! There was a switchback as we were going downhill where we got a pretty neat view of the underside of the new bridge. Like all touristy places, there were quite a bit of people there. We crossed the line from NV to AZ (which for some reason I thought was painted right on the roadway, or at least that was what I remember seeing in a movie, but it wasn't). After taking a couple pictures, we headed up the hill with all of the switchbacks. We were happy to see a welcome to AZ sign so we could get our state picture. After the long climb out of the canyon where the dam was we got to the top and found out that the road was no longer a through road (apparently now that they have the bridge, the way into see the dam is also the only way out). There was a police officer, but it was pretty frustrating to waste so much time and energy just to have to come back down the hill, go across the dam back into NV and start climbing out of the canyon again on the other side. Amazingly, there was a line of cars all the way out to the main road. That was not the case at all on our way in- in fact there were no cars at all when we came in. I guess we had really good timing to beat the Thanksgiving weekend crowd. We finally got up and out of the canyon and back on the main road. The ride across the new bridge was boring since you couldn't see anything- but at the same time it would have been pretty scary if those big cement walls wouldn't have been there! For the first 20 miles it was a very hilly ride. After all the climbing we did around the Hoover Dam, I was already feeling tired, but eventually I got my second wind and it wasn't so bad. At one point we came to the top of a hill and we saw another long valley ahead of us. We descended down and then for a good majority of the time we were riding up a slight incline. It was a breeze though because we had such a great tailwind pushing us along. Even though we had a nice big shoulder the whole morning, the shoulder disappeared completely at one point and we were forced to ride right in the lane. The good news is that it was a double lane road at that point so most of the cars gave us a full lane. None the less, it was very nerve racking to worry about them not seeing us. Every once in a while a car would not move over to give us a lane, but there was still room between us, so we knew that they at least saw us. As we rode along we got a little worried because there was a fence all along the road on both sides- meaning it would not be easy to find a place to camp for the night. We took a little break at the only little cafe/shop we passed since we left Boulder City. After enjoying a little bit of our Hershey's chocolate, we continued on for a little bit before we started looking for a place to camp since it was getting close to being dark. We got very lucky to come to one of the few intersecting roads. Going down that we crossed a cattle guard and were able to get "inside" that fence. We stumbled upon a dirt road almost right away after turning onto this road and decided that looked like a good bet to find a place for the night. The road looked like it was a road to no where. There were quite a few desert bushes scattered around that made a perfect place for us to hide ourselves. It wasn't dark yet when we found our spot for the night, but we only had about 20 minutes left before it would be. We enjoyed a full size sandwich since we didn't have anything for lunch today after our great breakfast this morning. It didn't take long at all for it to get pretty chilly. We got our tent set up pretty quick and got in our sleeping bags so we would be warm. At this point we are still hoping to go to the Grand Canyon, but keep toying back and forth with the idea. We checked the weather for there and it gets down to 15-18 degrees at night now. We were cold tonight and it was only in the upper 30s/lower 40s. It would not be very fun at ALL to camp when it is 15! We will see what the next day or so brings to see if we will go to there or not. Part of the problem with going there is not just that it is that cold there, but in order to go to Phoenix afterwards we will have to go through some of the taller mountains, where we will run into the same problem with it being really cold. This is going to be a tough decision! Our miles totaled 59.33 today.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I still can't believe that Thanksgiving is already here. It is a perfect 70ish degrees out today and the sun is shining. What a weird feeling to not be home for the holidays; this is a first for both of us. We are just so thankful to have been welcomed into David and Barb's home for Thanksgiving! We slept in a little today, but not too late. Barb made some awesome homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we enjoyed orange juice and some super great hot cocoa with whipped cream. For most of the day we just relaxed. Kumar and Joey played a little wii sports for a little while today. There wasn't a whole lot to do in terms of dinner except for stuffing the turkey and putting it in the oven (some of the guests were bringing some of the side dishes). Everyone started showing up about 1:30-2 ish. Their daughter had one of the cutest little dogs ever!! His name was Bronte and he was so soft and cuddly. We had a great time chit chatting with everyone; there was probably close to 20 people, 2 kids and a baby included. Dinner was incredible to say the least! There was ham and turkey, corn casserole, all the mashed potatoes one could ever eat, homemade rolls and just so much more. What a great group of people. It was a lot of fun. There were 4 kinds of pie for dessert including the traditional pumpkin, sweet potato, apple caramel, and rhubarb/mixed berry. Later on that evening, when everyone left, the 5 of us that were left just relaxed and watched some tv before retiring pretty early from our food comas. An awesome turkey day to say the least- we are so glad that they invited us to join them for dinner- and that Kumar got to enjoy his first American Thanksgiving! The first holiday away from our families will be one that we will never forget. Thanks again David & Barb!!
We woke up nice and early today so that we would be able to get riding. After a shower and some great french toast that Shirley made, we got everything all packed up. It was a little sad to be leaving, but that is always how it is. My throat unfortunately isn't feeling all the better yet, but I'm sure it will eventually. Shirley is still pretty under the weather, so us being gone will give hear a good amount of time to rest. Before leaving the city, I wanted to get a picture of us by the famous "welcome to Las Vegas" sign. It would be about 7-10 miles of extra riding total to cut over to the end of the strip where the sign was and then back out to the road that would take us out of the valley. The first few miles were fine, but the last 2 miles proved to be a challenge. As expected, the traffic picked up significantly once we got close to the strip. Luckily for us, we were at the tail end of the strip and didn't have too far to go to get to the sign. We ended up crossing over onto the sidewalk to get away from the traffic because there was a barrier up making the road very narrow. Apparently where we crossed was a "construction site," although they weren't doing anything but unloading a couple things from a truck. A security guard from one of the hotels waved us over to tell us that we should be careful because cutting through a construction site like that could get us a pretty hefty fine and or jail time. The lady seemed a bit crazy, but either way- fine or no fine, we weren't about to get killed by a car on that road either. We decided not to go any further in that direction and to find a different way there. One of the construction workers saw that we were "lost" and helped us out. He was so nice in comparison to that security guard lady, and didn't seem to mind one bit that we were in that area. After much discussion about going to/not going to the sign, we ended up going to the sign. There was a road with much less traffic that would pop us out right after all of the big hotels. Going that way we also got to see the Pyramid and the monorail, which we missed the other day. After the main strip, Las Vegas Blvd. wasn't too bad to ride on and wasn't worse than any other busy road we've been on. I was so happy that we decided to ride to the sign- after all, we are only here once (or at least won't be back for quite a while) and this is probably the only time we will have ridden our bikes here, too. The sign was pretty awesome because unlike the other signs that were hard to get to, they made this one so that people could easily and safely go there to get their pictures. Amazingly there was a whole line of people there waiting to get their pictures done. We waited a couple minutes in line with our bikes until it was our turn. One of the people behind us was nice enough to take our picture for us. There was a lady there who was working as a photographer and said that she would be happy to take our photo. She also said that she works on tips but understands if someone doesn't have the money for that and would be happy to take anyone's photo anyway. On the way in, we overheard a guy saying that "she wouldn't give my camera back until I tipped her." I swear everyone in this city is out to get your money! After we got our picture, we headed down Sunset Blvd. which was a lot less busy than the other roads near the strip. It paralleled the airport and runway. Just in the time we were next to the airport, we saw 4-5 planes take off. One right after the other. So many planes for the busy holiday weekend. Eventually we found ourselves back on the road that we took into the city. We climbed the hill and took our last looks at Las Vegas. Just as it has been with every single place we've gone, we feel like we just got there and we're leaving. We didn't see everything there was to see, but we did have a great time walking around and spending time with Papa Mike's sister Shirley. About 8 miles from the top of the hill was our host's house in Boulder City. On the way there, we passed the intersection with the long road that brought us into NV- the one with that incredible downhill! On the way into town, we saw a bike shop and decided to stop to see if they had any anti- chafing cream. With this dry weather, chafing and saddle soreness had become more of a problem for some reason. There was an incredible amount of traffic on the road that we had to cross to get there, so Joey ended up just waiting for me on the other side of the road and I wiggled my way across to the bike shop. Luckily, they had some cream, so it was worth waiting forever to cross that road. We didn't have any trouble finding our way to our host's house, which is always really nice. When we got there, we were not only greeted by our host, but also by Kumar- another cyclist!! There were going to be three of us spending Thanksgiving there! It was just so cool. Kumar is from Australia and is riding from Boston to LA, so he is almost done with his trip! Our hosts David and Barb were just great. Since there were two of us, we ended up sleeping on the pull down bed in the office and Kumar got the rv trailer all to himself. He was pretty excited to sleep in one because he had always seen them on the highway but had never been inside one before. So I guess it worked out perfectly! Later on, Kumar and I went with David down the hill to work on their Christmas float for the parade. They were in the very beginning stages of it, but seemed like they were having a lot of fun with it. For a snack, we all enjoyed some tortilla chips- from the biggest bag of them I'd ever seen. It was a 3 lb bag of tortilla chips! David joked that it was because people in the southwestern USA eat so many of them. Barb and David made all three of us a wonderful dinner. David grilled up some chicken and Barb made some carrots, and Quinua Salad. We also enjoyed some baguette bread with butter and wine/beer. What a great dinner! After dinner, us cyclists helped move the tables around and get everything in place for tomorrows Thanksgiving dinner. It worked out good that we were there so that Kumar and Joey could do all the heavy lifting! Later, we all watched a movie and then turned in for the night. A pretty good morning and a great afternoon. Even though it was a relatively short ride from N. Las Vegas to Boulder City, we ended up with 43.94 miles after our little detour to go down to the Vegas sign.
Today we slept in a little after a long day of walking yesterday. For most of the day, I did computer work, uploading photos, etc while Joey watched a movie or two. We had a burrito for lunch that was left over from our burritos the other day (they gave Shirley the wrong kind-so there was an extra one she didn't want). Later on that evening, Shirley made an awesome roast dinner fit with potatoes and carrots. We had Klondike bars for dessert and had a chance to do a little laundry. It was an extremely relaxing day! Not only did it give my blisters a little break, but my throat as well- hopefully it is better by tomorrow. We also got an email from our Warm Shower's host in Boulder City that said we were "Cordially Invited" to spend Thanksgiving dinner with them and their family. Originally we had only planned on spending one day there, and figured we would be out in the middle of the desert for Thanksgiving. We couldn't believe that we would get to enjoy a real Thanksgiving!!! It still amazes me how much kindness and hospitality we have been shown on this trip- we are just so incredibly blessed to have met and stayed with so many great people. Our trip would definitely not have been as fun if we hadn't, that's for sure! We can't wait for Thanksgiving now!
Today is the day we get to explore the Las Vegas Strip. I had a hard time falling asleep even though I had an amazingly comfy bed. Since it is just so dry out here, my throat hurt a little last night. This morning, it didn't feel any better- in fact it felt a little worse. Shirley woke up with a sore throat too, except hers was most likely from the flu (she was much sicker than I was!). We had free run of the kitchen and could make anything we wanted for breakfast. I decided on french toast and sausage! It was SO good- nothing beats french toast in the morning, well at least in my book anyway! For the morning hours we relaxed and figured out what we wanted to go see on the strip. Joey watched a little TV and I looked up where things were. Right around noon, Shirley gave us a ride down to the strip. We are so lucky to have gotten a ride down there- it would have been a pain with our bikes because they would have limited what we could go see; Shirley is just too nice! She dropped us off at the Mall on Fremont street. There was so much going on! Right away we saw the "Heartattack Diner" that the firemen in 29Palms told us about. We walked up and down the whole "mall" area. There were all sorts of street performers, from a magician to guys making spray paint art. There were even people riding a zip line through the air above the street. Throughout the whole area were old neon signs from the hotels and attractions that were saved from quite a long time ago. After exploring that area a little, we walked down to the main part of the strip. What a LONG walk it was! On the way, we passed a couple wedding chapels- fitting for Vegas, along with the Pawn Shop that is featured on the show Pawn Stars. The first thing we came to was the Stratosphere tower. I was expecting to see the roller coaster on top, but they must have done away with that. Now they have this spiny ride that goes out and over the edge way up at the top where the roller coaster used to be. We thought about going up in the tower, but figured like everything else, that it would be too expensive. Either way, we still had so much to explore. We kept walking and walking, passing all of these elaborate hotels. We came to Circus Circus that has the little theme park inside. Joey remembers coming here with his family as a kid and was pretty excited about getting to see it again. He even remembers going to the buffet inside there, too. A buffet is definitely on the list for today, but a little bit later. We walked through so many incredible hotels. It's a bit overwhelming to see really. At one of the older hotels, the Flamingo, we stopped in and saw the flamingos in the habitat they had inside. Eventually we made it almost to the end of the strip and went to the MGM building. They had this thing in "TV city" where you could rate a new tv show in terms of if you think it would last on the air or not. We decided to do it. What a horrible show it was! Although it was only supposed to take an hour, it ended up being longer. When we got back out on the strip it was dark and all of the glimmering lights of Vegas were shining. It sure was pretty. We walked half way back on the strip to where the fountain show at the Mirage was. We hit it with perfect timing. It was so neat to watch the water synced to the music of Elton John. So beatiful! All day we were hoping to go to the buffet at Caesar's Palace because we were told that was one of the best ones. When we got there, we found the worlds longest line- it was just like the lines at Disney World! As soon as we saw that our hearts sunk. We would be waiting in line for an hour to two hours and it was already almost 8pm. Feeling extremely disappointed, we headed over to Treasure Island to see if they had the same problem at their buffet. Again, it was a pretty long long-- although not anywhere near the one at Caesar's was. Either way, it was too long for us to wait. From there, we went outside and caught our seats for the TI pirate show, since we figured that we had missed the buffet and might as well not miss the free pirate show too. We waited for a little over a half hour before it started. It was worth the weight though! There was singing and dancing and pirate ships being blown up and sunk. The special effects were great! That made us feel a little better, but by then it was almost 9pm and we were starving. We had seen everything we had time to see and knew Shirley was going to come get us soon (we didn't want to take too long since she was doing us such a huge favor). We somehow made it back to Circus Circus and figured we would give the buffet a chance just on a whim that there would be a short line. What do you know-- we walked right in with absolutely no wait! Part of that probably had to do with the fact that they were going to stop letting people in at 10 (which was only about a half hour from then), but either way, we were so excited! They had so much great food! Although we only had a half hour-45 minutes, that's all we needed to eat our hearts out after all that walking. Shirley picked us up right there at Circus Circus. On the way back, Shirley dropped us off at one end of Fremont Street and picked us up at the other end just so we could see the mall lit up at night. Unfortunately they didn't have any light shows up and only had advertisements, but either way, it was still really neat. We are so spoiled to have gotten a ride down there AND a chance to see Fremont St. at night. I don't know what the total distance is for sure, but we must have walked close to 7-8 miles today, or at least it seemed like it. By the end of walk down the strip, I had the worst blisters on the balls of my feet- I didn't even know you could get blisters there! Anyway- they hurt so bad that I was walking pretty funny and was going really slow as a result of it. Joey even gave me a piggy back ride for a little while to give them a break. Tomorrow will be a nice day to relax and help my blisters to heal. Another great day!!
I guess sleeping on the rocks last night didn't work out so good for both of us. Joey had a back ache when he woke up this morning, although I was fine. Last night, we were woken up by the sound of footsteps in the rocks. Joe got out to look, but heard a car pulling away out near the road. We think someone saw the rest area and was hoping that the bathrooms would be open, which of course they weren't. It was nice to be able to use a brand new picnic table this morning for breakfast. For some reason, Joey had a little trouble getting our stove to work- hopefully it's not pooping out on us- although it has gotten a TON of use since March! We had a nice downhill for a few miles and then we started the gradual climb again. The climb got steeper as we approached the little town of Searchlight. It was neat last night because we could see the town way off in the distance and the actual "searchlight" on the hill. As we were climbing the hill, we saw something we didn't expect to see- a McDonald's sign! Once we got to the little town, which pretty much consisted of a few little restaurants and shops, a church, and the gas station/McDonald's, we stopped for a break. Since nothing sounded better than a chocolate milkshake, that is what we got. We used the internet for a little bit, let Joey's phone charge a little since it was dead, and enjoyed our little treat. From there, we still had a few miles to go that were up hill. It was a little bit of a struggle for me because I hadn't been feeling all that great today, and for Joey it wasn't as easy because he had a sore back. Amazingly enough though, about 23 miles into the ride, we hit a downhill. The miles were just flying by; the downhill lasted forever! It was a perfect one too because it kept us coasting at 25-30 miles an hour for about 6-10 miles!!!! It was incredible! We could just sit back and enjoy the ride- especially since we knew we were covering a lot of ground quickly. After the "steeper" part of the hill, it leveled out a little, but we were still going on a slight downhill. There, we were still able to move right along at 18-23 mph while peddling. Before we knew it- we were at 50 miles! I was feeling better after the long downhill rest and hardly felt like I had ridden 30 miles let alone 50. At that point, it was only about 2 in the afternoon, too. From there we only had about 20-25 miles to get into Las Vegas. Our original plan for today was to ride 50 miles or so and then have a short day tomorrow. But now that we had all of this energy and daylight, we decided to just go all the way today. We were both pretty excited because we didn't expect to have almost a 30 mile downhill or to get to be in Vegas tonight!! Although we had been riding in one of the never ending valleys since we left the hill, this one we could at least see the hill that we knew separated this valley from the Vegas and the town of Boulder City off in the distance. As we were riding we passed a HUGE solar farm that was pretty neat. Towards the end of the valley, our beautiful downhill was gone and we were climbing again- very gradual at first and then it got a little steeper. At that point though, it didn't matter because we were both so excited. When we made the turn onto the road that would take us to the city, we knew we were close. Only a few miles separated us from Vegas now! As we rode up the hill and around the corner, I was getting very anxious. Then all of a sudden, there it was- the city in the middle of no where! We could see the buildings of the hotels on the strip, the pyramid, and the stratosphere tower all off in the distance! I think a tear or two even came to my eye because of how excited I was. Right away, Joey gave his Dad a call to tell him we were there- apparently Joey was just as excited as I was. From where we stood on top of the hill overlooking the city, we had nothing but downhill for almost the whole way in. The first guy that we saw (outside of all the people in their cars) had on a sparkly shirt- just like I pictured everyone in Vegas to be wearing. Since we had gone so fast this afternoon, we had not stopped to eat lunch yet. We thought about it when we were closer to the road we needed to turn on, but despite being hungry, we decided it would be worth the wait to make it to Vegas to get to a grocery store. So, the first grocery store we saw, we made our stop. When we pulled up, there was one of the Salvation Army guys standing outside ringing the bell for the holidays- it still doesn't seem possible that it is so close to Thanksgiving and Christmas! The only thing that we bought at the store was bread (we still had some cucumber, tomato, and cheese left). It was SO worth the wait! We had nice fresh, soft bread instead of having to eat our last half of loaf of bread that was rock hard from it being so dry out here. We also each had a full half of the loaf, sub since we were so hungry. Although we don't always need to have a full half a sub, it always works so much better because for some reason the toppings stay inside much better than when we have quarter sized sandwiches. From there, our next stop was to find a McDonald's so we could look up the information for where we were staying in Vegas. We gave Papa Mike's sister, Shirley a call (we had just gotten done emailing her this morning telling her we would be there TOMORROW!). We explained how we didn't expect to have such a long downhill or to be here already, but we were here. She didn't seem to mind one bit that we were a day early and said to come right over. From that McDonald's that we were at, we had about 15 miles to ride because she lived in North Las Vegas near the Air Force Base. The wind was at our backs for almost the whole way, not to mention a good few miles of it were downhill again. It didn't take us too long to get there, which was really nice. When we found the road that she lived off of, we came across a gate that had us locked out. Luckily a car came and had the button to push to open it, so we got through anyway. Shirley was standing outside waiting for us when we arrived, which was really nice. It is just so neat that we get to stay with someone that is a relative/friend of someone we rode with for such a long time. We had our own bedroom complete with beds, and a nice hot shower awaited us. I was tired, like anyone would be after a long day of riding, but I wasn't nearly as tired as I normally am after riding that many miles. After we were settled in a little, Shirley offered to get us something for dinner (she didn't want to cook). She listed off some possibilities and we decided on Mexican. We figured we might as well eat as much of this as we can while we are in the area where there are a lot of authentic Mexican Restaurants. The three of us hopped in her car to got pick up the food. We stopped and got a bottle of soda and then went to a restaurant that Shirley's son swears by. Joe and I are very basic, so we each just ordered a beef burrito. When we got back home, we enjoyed our yummy dinner and even a couple Oreo cookie Klondike bars!! Those are my new favorite! For the rest of the night, we relaxed on the sofa and watched some TV. One show that was especially interesting for us since we are on this trip is the show "How the States Got Their Shapes." It was very interesting- it was perfect to watch as we ride all around the US. The show mentioned a lot of places and there were so many of them that we either had been to or at least now know where they are on the map. We had an amazing day and were just so excited already be in Vegas!- a day earlier than we expected to be. We rode 76.51 miles today.
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