Uvalde, Texas

Merry Christmas everyone,

The last time I wrote to you. We had stayed only about 10 miles west of Del Rio. The wind won the battle on that day. I hope we don't have to ride in wind like that again it was really something! As we were riding into town another cyclist came toward us on the other side of the road, waved and then turned around to ride with us. Jon rode with us to the Days Inn where we had reservations for a couple of nights. We planned to stay in Del Rio for Christmas. Jon is a F15 pilot at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. When he left us at the Days Inn he invited us over to his house later. His family only lived a mile or so away. We exchanged phone numbers and he left. Our room was really nice. It was a suite with a full kitchen. We decided to get some groceries and cook our Christmas eve dinner. There was an IHOP down the street so we headed down there for lunch. They had pumpkin pancakes that were as good as any we have had at the Pumpkin Show in Circleville. We went back to the hotel, showered and walked back down the road to Walmart for groceries. Walmart was packed! I have been in a packed Walmart before but not one that had mostly Spanish speaking people in it. It seemed like no matter where I stood or tried to walk I was in the way. But it was fun to be able to do something fairly normal like shopping. We have been riding through some pretty barren countryside. So even though it was a pain it was kindof fun. We decided since we had an oven we would bake meat, potatoes, carrots and onion for dinner. Now all we needed was something to cook it in. We found something called cooking bags that seemed like they might work. Then we needed something to put the cooking bag in so we bought a disposable cooking pan. I hope this works! We walked out of the store with about 8 bags of "stuff". We had taken the bags off the bike. So we stuffed the backpack with some of it, and I carried all the other bags. Good thing we didn't have to go too far. When we got back we called Jon and set a time to go their house. By the time we left for their house it was dark so we put on all our flashing lights and headed over. We had a great time talking with Jon, Marianne, Kailie and Kody.

Christmas eve day we spent doing much of nothing. We rode over to the church we had picked out of the phone book to see if we could see what time their service was. But they didn't have any times posted. We went by several churches and none of them had times posted either. Strange?? So we went back to the hotel and spent the evening cooking our dinner and watching The Godfather. I don't know why we had to watch it again for the nth time. We know how it ends. They all die! Christmas morning we went to St. James Episcopal Church. After church Jon and Marianne had invited us to dinner. We had bought Christmas decorations back in Van Horn, so we decorated the bike and rode to their house. Marianne fixed a fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was great. We sure appreciated being able to spend Christmas with friends instead of in a hotel room.

We finally left Del Rio the day after Christmas. Jon came over to ride with us to Bracketville. We had an amazing tailwind. The road was great for cycling on. We are still following Rt 90 east. We have been on Rt 90 since we were in Van Horn. The road became alittle rougher as we got closer to Bracketville. I don't have to tell you what the scenery is. I'll tell you what when the scenery changes I'll let you know. So if I don't mention anything about it you will know it is the same. We had a quick ride to Bracketville and went to the milkshake shop that Jon had recommended. Jon turned around for the ride back to Del Rio. Quite a chore with the 20 mph headwind! At Fort Brackett they had a campground and a hotel. When the lady told me they didn't have hot showers and the cost for the motel was only $35. I picked the motel. Wouldn't you??

This morning we woke up to wind again. But today it is blowing about 20 mph from the SE. And we are headed east! We fought the wind all day and the wind won. When this happens you just gear down, and ride the bike. And with no scenery (oops I said I wasn't going to mention that) it was a long day. We stopped at a Border Patrol check station and ate some lunch that we had with us. The old stand by peanut butter sandwiches! We were very happy to see the town of Uvalde. Hopefully the wind will be more favorable tomorrow. Later..........

Del Rio, Texas

We ate breakfast in Peggy's Diner at Alpine. Breakfast was included in the cost of the room. Peggy's Diner looked like an old railroad car. As it turned out the hotel we stayed in was where all of the railroad employees stay. We have seen alot of trains on this trip. I guess since there aren't many roads that the railroad follows the road. Hap has been having a great time trying to get them to blow the horn by waving at them. So far I think he's 10 for 15 or something like that. The weather today was just beautiful. Sunny 70's or so and a tailwind. We had a short ride into Marathon planned. I wish I could say that there was something spectacular to see but we are in West Texas and the terrain is pretty much desert like, shrubby bushes, cactus, you get the picture! We continue to have the great berm on both sides of the road. And alot of cars will still get into the other lane when they pass. We are seeing quite a lot of semi trucks. We are also seeing alot of cars being towed by other cars. I am not sure what is up with that?? Are they trying to save on gas?? What's the deal? We both were listening to our MP3 player with some great tunes and just flying along. No, we don't usually listen to our MP3 player while riding but with no traffic, the huge berm and both of us watching for traffic through our mirrors we think it was ok. Believe me, we would never do that back in Ohio! We arrived in Marathon and stopped at a or should I say THE mexican restaurant in town for lunch. It was going to get down into the 20 's again. So we stayed at the Marathon Motel. It was an interesting little place. Each room was a little cabin. And when I say little......we couldn't bring the tandem into the room until we were ready for bed and then the door barely closed. But it was a nice clean place. We found out that they run a marathon every year from Marathon to Alpine. That would be an interesting run.
We ate breakfast in the outside diner at the hotel and left in beautiful weather again. The ride to Sanderson was 55 miles with no services. So we made sure we had plenty of water and food before heading out. We carry four water bottles and a spare camelback that holds about 2 liters of water. Today's ride was record setting. We averaged 19.3 mph! But then we had a great tailwind AND lots of downhill. But it was still great flying along. At one point I asked Hap how fast we were going and he said 30 mph! It was great. We stopped at a small roadside rest for a peanut butter sandwich. Don't you think that a rest area should have a bathroom? Well, not in west Texas! And those shrubby bushes and cactus are pretty small....good thing I'm short. When we got to Sanderson we went straight to the post office. Our mail that we were supposed to pick up in El Paso was supposed to be forwarded here AND we were expecting this week's mail. We were very happy that when we got there it had arrived. We road on into Sanderson looking for the motel. It looked like the entire town had closed up. There were a couple of restaurants, a few little stores, a visitor center and a gas station. But they were all closed. Guess Sanderson closes on Thursdays?? But the hotel was open and had a room. (There wasn't anyone else there!) We made our Dinty Moore beef stew in the microwave added some peas and called it dinner!
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and cooler temperatures but still in the 60's. The terrain changed alittle bit today. There were more hills. We would ride down into a canyon and then up the other side. We also had a headwind. We again had a day of 60 miles and no services. There was one little store with a post office. We stopped to mail home a package, fill up water bottles and went on. We stopped for lunch again at another rest area. And no they still don't have bathrooms at rest areas in West Texas! The riding today was much more interesting with the change in terrain. We were heading for Langtry and according to our Adventure Cycling map (which we have now because it came in the mail finally!) had no services. There was a visitor center that our map said you could camp by. Langtry was the town that Judge Roy Bean lived in back in the day. I am not sure which day but it was sometime ago..... The Dept of Transportation had built a really nice center and display area where you could walk through his "courtroom" which was actually his saloon. The town of Langtry was maybe 10 houses that maybe 10 people lived in and a community center. The lady at the visitor center told us we were allowed to camp beside the community center but it was "dry camping". Which means no water, no bathrooms, no showers! So I washed up in the visitor center bathroom and we went over to set up our tent. The lady from the visitor center came walking over with a bag of food. I don't know, maybe we looked hungry? In the bag was eggs for breakfast, 2 cookies and 2 apples. We cooked dinner and went to bed. We watched the movie "Hunt for Red October" that we had been carrying with us. It didn't get as cold tonight and we both slept well.
This morning we woke up to the sound of WIND. We cooked our eggs. We discovered a new way to fix eggs. You break them into a small plastic bag and then boil them. Voila! Instant omelette. OK so you all probably new that already! But we were very pleased with ourselves. It was colder today (50) but still sunny. The big story about today's ride was the wind. I don't think we have ever ridden in wind like this. The wind was from the NW and we were headed SE. You would think that would be perfect wouldn't you. Well it was ok as long as we had a direct tailwind but if the road turned at all and we had any wind from the side it was scary. Hap was really having problems going straight. At one point we had a semi truck go by and we had a side wind. Hap hit the brakes, we stopped, planted our feet, and leaned the bike almost all the way over. Hap yelled do you want to just walk. But we didn't think we could push it either. We stopped at a bridge crossing the Pecos River. A spectacular bridge 300 feet over the river. The wind was incredible. Hap had to push the bike to turn around and he couldn't even hold it once he got it crossways to the wind. Then when we went to get on it, the bike started to take off without us so he had to hit the brakes. We have been riding our tandem since 1985, through all kinds of weather, down mts at 60 mph and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever been afraid! It was a very long day. We made one stop in Comstock for a sandwich. It was amazing when we got off the bike to see how hard it was actually blowing. Everyone we talked to said we can't believe you are riding in this. But that's one on the problems with bike touring. What are you supposed to do if you are out IN IT? We had to get somewhere. When we got about 10 miles from Del Rio we saw a motel so we decided to stop. When we turned on the weather channel it said the winds were a "sustained" 38 mph! With 49 mph wind gusts from the NW. We walked across the street to get some drinks and I couldn't even hardly walk into it. We were glad to be off the bike today. It is supposed to stop tonight. Let's hope so.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Alpine Texas

We had a good nights rest in the hotel in El Paso. Even if we weren't planning to stay in downtown El Paso. I had no idea that El Paso was such a large city. We walked a couple of blocks to a chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning we called the post office again to see if our mail had made it. As it turns out, all of the General Delivery mail first went to a downtown post office and THEN went to a post office out by the airport. Since the mail still had not shown up at either place, we asked them to forward it on to Sanderson, TX our next mail pick up. We ate breakfast in the hotel. Getting all of our bags, bike, trailer down to the ground floor is quite a feat but we made it. Hap managed to get the tandem in the elevator this time. You should've seen the looks on people's faces in the lobby as he wheeled out the tandem. And then I followed with a cart filled with bags. We took the bike outside and put all the pieces together. It was cold outside and very windy. Temps in the 30's. Brrrr..... We weren't looking forward to riding through the city but we headed south anyway. We followed Rt 20 out of town. As it turned out it wasn't that bad. The traffic didn't seem so bad. There was only one incident. A car came roaring up behind us. Keep in mind that there were two lanes and there was no one in the other lane! It kind of startled me so I sort of raised my hands like what are you doing? He went by very slowly and then put on the brake lights. It was a young guy. Both of us went uh oh. But the guy kept going and I duck taped my hands to the handlebars. Once we got alittle south of town the road turned into a nice two lane road. AND the wind turned into a great tailwind. It did warm up into the 40's and was sunny so it didn't feel so bad. We rode through alot of farm land, mostly cotton farms. We also saw a couple of fishing lakes. The first lakes we have seen for a long time! We had called the Fort Hancock Motel to make sure we had a place to stay. It is still too cold to camp. Temperatures at night have been in the teens and 20's. When we got to Fort Hancock we checked into the only hotel. The town consisted of a Border Patrol station, Angie's restaurant, a church and a small grocery/store. We went to Angie's and had a great meal. We both had roast beef and mashed potatoes. MMmmmmm..... Our hotel room was alittle small, but it was warm and we had a shower!
The next morning we went over to Angie's for breakfast. It was 32 degrees! After breakfast we got on Interstate 10 and headed east to Van Horn. There was alot of traffic on the road today. Mostly big trucks. And big trucks have these big truck tires that have little teeny wires that stick in our tires and cause flats. We didn't have one today but it was surely a worry. We had a little bit of a tailwind today but we also climbed all day! It was sunny again but stayed in the 40's all day. We stopped and had lunch at a mexican restaurant. At some point we realized that there was a side road/frontage road so we got on it. I had to go to the bathroom of course. Do ya think they would have rest areas on the interstate? NOT! So I went down into the ditch and was just walking out of the ditch when the Border Patrol stopped by. Hello there where are you going? We talked to him for quite awhile. It was really interesting. We are maybe five miles or so from the border. He told us that his station had 45 miles of border to patrol. They originally had 30 people and now have 130 border patrol. He also said that in this 45 mile stretch last year 10,000 pounds of marijuana had been found. I asked him if it was safe for us along here. He said yes it was....during the day. Don't worry, I said, we'll be off the road by night! We got to Van Horn and since we had a coupon for a Motel 6 headed there. After we checked in Hap went up to talk to them about something and found out that the usual rate was what we paid anyway! Oh well. We were tired after the long climb we had. It was a long day.
Sunday we decided to stay in Van Horn and go to church. We went to the Baptist church and had a great service. Then we stopped at the Dollar Store. Dollar Stores sure are popular in this part of the country. We have seen them in almost every little town. The terrain we have been riding through looks mostly like desert with little bits of shrubs. We haven't seen any cattle or horses. We spent most of the day resting and getting caught up on paying bills etc. In the evening we went to a Christmas program at the church. It was really great to be with other christians to celebrate the real reason for Christmas. We got a ride home from church with Fred and his wife. They told us some great stories about living in this area. We are in real cowboy country now.
The next morning we overslept and quickly packed up and headed out. It was in the 30's again, but overcast which made it seem much cooler. For some reason I just couldn't get warm. We stopped a couple of times for me to put on another layer. I was finally warm with: two hats under my helmel, a scarf over my face, a tank top, t shirt, long sleeve t shirt, heavyweight shirt, 2 vests and my windbreaker. I was warm but I sure couldn't move. We climbed again all day AND this time we had a headwind. We saw a wild pig and a coyote dead on the side of the road. We stopped for a peanut butter and jelly bagel about half way. It seemed like a long day. We didn't get into Marfa until almost 5:30p. There wasn't much for places to eat so we stopped at Subway for a sandwich to take to the hotel. We had called the Riata Inn for a room this morning to make sure we had a place to stay. Camping in this cold weather just didn't seem like a good idea. In case you don't know where Marfa, Texas is.....it is halfway between somewhere in Texas and where the heck are we!
Today we started the ride in beautiful sunshine and warm 60's temperatures finally. And we had a tailwind. We planned a short day for today. Oh I forgot to tell you that yesterday the lady from the El Paso Post Office called us and said our mail had finally arrived and she was sending it on to Sanderson, TX just like we asked her to. That was really nice of her to call. The ride today was great. Tailwind, sunshine, warm temperatures and scenery?????????.........well at least it was warm! It was alittle hillier today. But the road was great. There is a huge berm on it and not much traffic at all. We got into Alpine and stopped on the side of the road to figure out where we were going. A guy from a bakery ran out the door and said "are you riding the Southern Tier?" Hap went over to talk to him and came back with a loaf of bread, muffins and cinnamon rolls. Maybe we looked hungry? We went down the street and ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then went to check in at the Oak Tree Inn. The brochure we read said it had internet, hot tub and a laundry.....well at least it had a laundry. Hap spent the evening making our plane reservations for our quick trip home for baby holding in January. And me...well....I did laundry, watched movies and talked to you! Tomorrow we are headed to Marathon, TX and the weather is supposed to stay warm and sunny! Later.......

El Paso, Texas

We left Deming on a cold sunny morning. The temp almost reached 40 degrees. But it could be worse it could be snowing! We rode out of Deming on a road paralleling Interstate 10. It was nice to be away from the traffic. There wasn't much scenery. But I think we are getting used to that. There are more scrubby bushes instead of cactus. I suppose that counts as a scenery change in this part of the world. We had a slight tailwind for much of the day. Eventually we had to ride on the interstate again. We stopped just outside of Las Cruces at a truck stop for Subway. There was an old bicycle with a sleeping bag perched on the top of it outside of the truck stop. When we went inside, Hap met another one of his old friends. I guess I would describe this one as a homeless guy. He and Hap had quite a conversation about where he had been and we had been. He had several maps with him and showed Hap how we should go through Florida. Florida? That's three months away! How about where are we going to stay tonight! We ate our subs and headed out. I asked one of the workers if the side road we saw coming in went all the way into Las Cruces. Sure he said. That's the best way to go on a bicycle. So off we went down the side road.....and then we saw the sign that said "Pavement ends". Mmmm.....maybe HE rides his bike that way but we couldn't. So we turned around to get back onto the interstate. That's when we heard THE sound. THE sound is THE sound of dragging the trailer because the back wheel was flat. We stopped to fix it. Since it had "slime" in it. That's the tire sealant that is inside of the tire, Hap just put air int the tire and it held. So now we get onto the interstate. There was some road construction and a big downhill into Las Cruces. The mountains sure were pretty in the background. I hope you can see that from one of the pictures above. The excitement started as we got to the Las Cruces exits. Traffic picked up. The real excitement was when there was an exit and we didn't have to exit there. Just picture riding a bicycle with traffic all around, they want to get off the interstate, we don't want to, and others are coming onto the interstate. Talk about being a lookout. We found our exit and stopped at the hotel we had picked out. We had a discount coupon but when we went in she said, oh no we don't take that one anymore. We just went to a gas station and started calling hotels. We found one not too far away and headed toward it. While we were riding, we had two cars cut right into our lane to make a right hand turn. Thank you very much. We got to the Teakwood Inn finally. While we were checking in Hap said "So what's your best rate for two very tired bikers from Ohio?" The manager answered "You rode from Ohio to here?" "Not directly, we went to up to Washington, down to San Diego and then rode to here". She gave us a great rate! Maybe we need to try that more often. They even gave us a huge room. The hotel had an indoor pool so we headed to the pool for some laps. It sure felt good to swim again.

The next morning we planned to ride to El Paso to pick up our mail. But when we called the post office they said it wasn't there. We decided since we had a nice place to stay we would just stay in Las Cruces again and then ride to El Paso tomorrow. I checked to see what we could do and found that there was an "old town called La Mesilla" that had shops, etc. We didn't want to take the bike because we didn't want to leave it outside alone. It gets lonely sometimes! We opted to take a bus. We called the bus station to find out where the bus stop was. There was one just outside of the hotel. Neither of us have ridden on a bus for awhile. As it turns out it is a cheap way to see a city. .50 for me and .25 cents for the old guy! We finally got to La Mesilla and walked around for awhile. There was a neat old church there but other than that it wasn't that great. We ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then decided to just walk back instead of waiting on the bus. It didn't take that long. We stopped at a Hollywood Video store for a movie. I wanted to see the new movie "Bourne Ultimatum". They didn't have it so we rented the new Bruce Willis movie. For dinner we stopped at Whataburger. Then we tried to watch our movie. We had gotten one of the Blueray type movies. It wouldn't work in our computer. Oh well.

This morning we ate breakfast in the hotel. It was sunny and alittle warmer today, in the 50's. We took the movie back and when I told her it wouldn't work. She said do you have the special player for a blueray movie?? Ohhhhh..... It would've been nice if they had mentioned THAT when we got it. She gave us a credit and we headed out. Today's ride to El Paso was really nice. It was great being off of the interstate. We were on Rt 28 most of the day. We rode through alot of pecan farms and some vineyard/wineries. Once we got into El Paso the traffic really picked up. Coming into town we had a huge hill to climb. The hill wasn't so bad, it was the bumper to bumper three lane each direction traffic that made it really special. We stopped and called the post office and our mail still wasn't there. She is going to call us in the morning and tell us if it made it. We had planned to ride close to the airport where the post office was and find a hotel and pick up our mail. What we didn't know was that the airport is about 10-15 miles from where we were. And now that we are not sure if we are even going to have mail to pick up, we weren't sure if we needed to go out of our way. We were in the middle of town by now. We stopped at the first hotel. Traffic was still very heavy and now it was getting pretty late. I'll never understand why someone will drive right up behind us, and not pass us when there are THREE lanes with no one beside them. I just don't understand! We checked in and of course they didn't have a ground floor room. We were on the fifth floor. The picture above is of us carrying the tandem up the stairs. It wouldn't fit in the elevator. We finally got the bike, all the bags and the trailer into the room. Whew! A long day but a good day of riding. Now all we need is our mail to show up tomorrow. Until next time!

Deming, New Mexico

While we were in Lordsburg we celebrated our 20 year anniversary. We made a special video for you. Check it out at www.youtube.com/outbikin. It is labeled Lordsburg, NM.

When we left Lordsburg it was in the 40's and now the wind was blowing out of the east! Guess which direction we were heading?? East! It was a very cold, windy start. We got back on Interstate 10 and headed into the wind. In addition we had a very slight climb over the Continental Divide. It wasn't much of an elevation change but with the wind it made for a difficult day. The temperature never did get much higher than 50 degrees. We stopped at a Trading Post rest area for drinks and to get warm. The scenery did change alittle. More scrubby grass and we could see mountains in the distance. We are riding just south of Albuqueque NM. But there just wasn't much to see. Not a fun day of cycling for sure. We stopped again at another exit with a trading post and a DQ. No, we did not have a Blizzard it was way to cold for that! But we were both starved. Fighting the wind all day will do that to you. We were able to get off of the interstate for the last 20 miles or so. There was a frontage road that took us into Deming. We had a coupon for a hotel so once we got into town we called to find out where it was. There was a Walmart just before the hotel so we stopped for salad fixins for dinner. By the time we got to the hotel it was getting dark and COLDER! We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

This morning we woke up to a downpour! And it was about 40 degrees. Nope, not riding today! We decided to see if we could rent a car and drive back to Lordsburg and get the mail that wasn't there the day before. We called the Lordsburg Post Office and sure enough it was in. We called a car rental place in Deming and yes they did have a car we could rent. They came to pick us up and we drove back to Lordsburg and picked up our mail. We learned a lesson though. 2-3 day delivery doesn't guarentee delivery in 2-3 days. In this case it was 6 days. Good to Know! You can see how hard it was raining in one of the pictures above. It is a picture from inside the car as I was looking out at the rain. Don't you just love to look OUT at rain instead of BEING out in the rain!! I know I do. Hopefully tomorrow we can ride. Although this rain is supposed to last another day. We'll see. Our next stop will be Las Cruces NM. And then on to El Paso, Texas. Until next time................

Lordsburg, New Mexico

We left Benson in beautiful sunshine and temperatures about 70 degrees. We headed east on Interstate 10. There didn't seem to be as much traffic today as yesterday. That's a good thing! Once again not too much scenery to speak of. Cactus and desert-like terrain. The berm/shoulder was pretty rough at some times. But mostly was ok. We did have a nice tailwind most of the day. We stopped for blizzards at the Dairy Queen. Since today was our 20 year anniversary we decided to stay at a hotel. The last 10 miles was mostly downhill, tailwind and sunny beautiful weather. What more could you want? The town of Willcox was pretty small. We checked into the hotel and walked over to the grocery store for a bag of salad, chicken, tomatoes and avacodo for a nice salad. There was a Radio Shack by the hotel so we stopped in to see if we could find some type of speaker system for the computer and my MP3 player. We found a fold up one. We also rented the movie Oceans 13 and watched it in the room. Like I said not a real exciting day! Hap put the new saddle on that we have been carrying around. He also had to adjust the front chain. It fell off just as we were getting off the exit to Willcox. We were almost able to coast in but we had to stop and put it back on.

We left Willcox and got back on Interstate 10. We had a bit of a delima today. We could either do a long day or one short day and one long day. One of the problems with this part of the country is that the towns are few and far between. And when you get to a "town" there might not be anything there. We decided to ride a short day to Bowie and ride on to Lordsburg the next day. Just before we got to Bowie we began to see real trees. Then we saw a sign that said Pecans. We later found out that they grow pecans, walnuts and pestachios in this area. When we arrived in Bowie we rode down THE main street of town. There was only one street. We passed a trailer that had a sign on it that said, "THE BEAUTY SHOP IS OPEN". Mmm...that's different. Hap really needed to get his beard trimmed so we stopped to get a beard trim .... in the trailer. As it turns out Dianne hitched up her trailer and moved from town to town cutting hair. After his trim, we went to the RV park that we had seen in our book. We were very surprised to hear that they did not allow tents. So here we are 50 miles from the next town, it was about 2:30p and we don't have a place to stay. Luckly their was a caretaker living on the property, Michael who said we could sleep in his trailer. That was how we ended up spending the night with Michael and Patricia. They even cooked us spagetti. Thanks Michael and Patricia for bailing us out! The next morning we went over to the Subway for omelette sandwiches. Then we headed onto Interstate 10 for our ride to Lordsburg. The day started out as a bright sunny day. But dark clouds were looming. We had a great tailwind to Lordsburg. But we could see that the weather was changing. We crossed into New Mexico about the same time that we reached our 6000 mile mark. The terrain in New Mexico changed somewhat. We saw less cactus and more sand and mountains. There wasn't much traffic on the interstate today. We did get passed by a couple of huge dump trucks that were on trailers. They took up almost two lanes. When we got into Lordsburg we went to the post office to see if our mail had arrived. It was not there. The temperature started dropping and the wind picked up. When we went to the KOA we decided to stay in one of their camping cabins. And it had a heater inside. I did laundry and we got our showers. During the night the wind was really howling but we were warm and dry inside our cabin.

This morning we woke up to more wind, cold temperatures (45 degrees) and 30 mph winds. Brrr........ We went to the post office to see if our mail was there but it still wasn't. B & J had sent our mail last Tuesday two day delivery. Today was Friday so it should've been there. But apparently when they say 2 day delivery it is not guarenteed. Good to know! With the weather looking terrible we decided to spend another night here in Lordsburg and checked into a motel. We spent most of the day watching movies and Hap working on finding my my and dad a Medicap plan. Talk about confusing! So now we have a spreadsheet and hopefully can help them figure something out. We walked across the street for a steak dinner. We are hoping tomorrow will be a better weather day. The temps weren't so bad today it was the wind. Until next time!

Benson, Arizona

It has been awhile since I have posted because we have spent the last six days at Carol (Hap's sister) house in Tucson. We had planned to leave yesterday but developed a problem with our Verizon Card. We decided to stay so we could make sure we had it working properly. This was the first time in our whole trip that we have had any problem with it. We spent most of our time at Carol's just resting and spending time with Carol. We don't get to see her very often. We have been out to bicycle in the Tucson area a couple of times. We did El Tour de Tuscon in 1989. This is a 100+ mile around the perimeter of Tucson that is held around Thanksgiving every year. The year we went out was the same year that I had my ACL Knee Reconstruction. We did not realize that El Tour is actually a timed event with a mass start. That was a first for us. We had a great time.

Friday we had a person from the Arizona Star Newspaper come over to interview us and take a picture. It took them along time to get the picture set up, but I think it came out great. Don't you?

On Saturday I went Christmas shopping at the Tucson mall. You have to understand that I usually buy my christmas gifts on December 23-24. So this is a major event for me! Do you realize the advantage of buying the day before Christmas? First of all, you have to make a quick decision. Second, everything is on sale. And third, there is nobody in the store! I managed to get most of my shopping done, wrapped and mailed home. Hold your applause please. Going to the mall was an adventure. First of all, be sure to brush up on your spanish before you go. I am sure I will get used to this at some point on this trip. Hap, offered to go shopping with me.................. Actually I think that he begged to go with me...............of course you can go with me, I said................but don't you want to help Carol ?????????............... So, I went shopping, all by myself. It was hard being all alone.

Sunday, we went to church with Carol and had a wonderful service. After church we met a friend of ours who had recently moved from Circleville to Tucson to become a pilot. Scott and his wife Julie. Scott invited us to go flying. It didn't take us long to make that decision. Carol, Hap and I met Scott at the Tuscon airport and went up for a flight over the city. It was great to see Scott first of all. We have spent alot of time bicycling with Scott in Circleville, so it was great to see him. Now I am not a big fan of flying but the ratio of fun to fear was much higher. It had been raining the last two days but today was a beautiful sunny day. It was great as you can see from the pictures. When we were getting ready to land Scott assured us that he had reread the chapter on landing just the night before. We had a smooth landing. Scott dropped Carol and I off at the airport and he and Hap flew on to another airport to return the plane. Then we all met back at Scott and Julie's new house for dinner. They fixed us an amazing meal of rice, beans and "fixins". He also made some great guacamole dip. It was such a great time. We loved seeing them again.

Monday morning we got up at 6am because the TV station Channel 4 was coming over to videotape us and do an interview. It was about 38 degrees while we were riding around the block and they were videotaping. This should air this week. I will try to put it on the blog asap. After the interview we realized our verizon card wasn't working so we decided to stay another day. With nothing to do I suggested that I should go to the mall to see if Bicycle Santa forgot anything. Also, Marsha called to tell us that Heather's water had broken and she was beginning labor. So we were expecting the call all day. Hap and Carol dropped me off at the mall and went to run errands. I got my haircut while I was there. And yes, I did find a few little things that I had to have. What can you do? It was on sale...............

We finally got the call about 9:30pm. Heather and Scott had a petite baby boy weighing in at 10.1 pounds and 21 inches long. Korbin Scott Landrum. Baby, Mom and Daddy Scott are doing great. I am not so sure about Grandaddy Mike! He said that when the nurses started moving equipment in and put on their rubber gloves it was time for him to leave!

We left Tucson this morning, stopped to mail Biker Santa's gifts home and headed east on Interstate 10. There was lots of traffic on the interstate. More truck traffic than we expected. But we may as well get used to it. We have about 270 miles to El Paso, Texas and we will be on interstate until then. Tomorrow we are headed for Willcox, AZ. Later........

Tucson, Arizona

How many have heard of the famous Dateland Shakes?? Well, neither had we. We didn't have one but Hap did have to sample all of the different types of dates. Who knew that dates grew in Arizona? We had breakfast at the famous Dateland Shake place, no not shakes, but omelettes and fixins. Dateland is just an exit on Interstate 8. Not much of a town. We road most of the day paralleling I-8 on old Highway 80. Once again we road through.....yes you guessed it----desert. I think once you've seen one cactus you have seen them all. The difference today was the weather it was overcast, alittle cooler in the 60's and we had a headwind. The last 20 miles or so we had to ride on the interstate but it wasn't bad. We are getting used to it. The biggest problem is the noise of the traffic. We know we can't hear each other in the first place, but when you add the noise of the traffic, well let's just say it's not pretty. A conversation is something like this "What kind of bird is that?" "No, I didn't see anything wierd over there" "No, I said WHAT KIND OF BIRD IS THAT?" "I told you I don't see anything over there". "Oh never mind". See what I mean? We rode into the town of Gila Bend (Pronounced Hila Bend) about 4pm. It gets dark at 4:45pm. And with the clouds and overcast it was really starting to get chilly. We stopped at a truck stop for something to drink and to discuss our options (when both of us could hear each other). We decided if we could find a cheaper hotel that we would stay inside. I called triprewards and found a travelodge at a good price so we rode down the street to the hotel. There isn't much to Hila Bend either. Just one main street with several hotels, gas stations and a few businesses. After checking in we walked next door to the Subway and got subs for dinner and a can of green beans to heat in the microwave. Hey, we had to have something green. It was a nice quiet night in the hotel watching Dancing with the Stars.

The next morning we went back over to the truck stop for breakfast. Subway had a breakfast burrito. And we had some yogart to go along with it. Today was alittle sunnier but still cool. We road all day on Interstate 8. We did see something different today though. Cotton. Did you all know that they grow cotton in Arizona. When we cycled from Ohio to New Orleans we saw alot of Cotton in Mississippi but had no idea it was grown in the desert also. That was pretty much the excitement for today. I decided to listen to my new MP3 player (since I'm not driving), so I was listening to the Ohio State Marching Band CD. We stopped at an exit for a peanut butter and apple break. We also made another stop at an exit to see where we were on the map. Just then Jill called on the phone so Hap was on the phone when the State Patrol pulled up. He just stopped to check and make sure we were ok. That was nice of him. He told us about a frontage road that ran along Interstate 10 all the way from Casa Grande (where we were headed to) to Tucson. We had been debating on how to get into Tucson. Once we left that stop we had about 20 miles into Casa Grande. We were heading for a RV park called Buena Tierra Campground. When we got close to the intersection of I-8 and I-10 there was a sign that said bicycles must exit. So we got off the interstate and headed north into Casa Grande. We found the RV park and of course they directed us to the very back of the RV park where the riff raff are allowed. We pitched our tent and went to the showers.. We found that we had to pay for showers also. There's just something about paying $24 to pitch a tent and then have to pay for showers. Oh well. Since it was getting dark we walked across the street to Wendy's for salads for dinner.

The next morning we got up to a beautiful sunny day. We found the frontage road that the state trooper had told us about and headed south to Tucson. Not much excitement about today's ride either except that we got a call from someone from the newspaper that wanted to do a story about us and Alpha. And then a TV cameraman called and wanted to get some video of us riding into Tucson. We finally were able to hook up with him and he got several shots of us coming into town and then onto Carol's (Hap's sisters) house. He interviewed us for the 9:00 news. So now we have made it to our break point for a few days. We plan to stay with Carol through the weekend and then head east on Interstate 10. Until then.....

Dateland, AZ

When we left Yuma we were expecting smooth sailing but what happened wasn't quite what we expected. We ate breakfast in the hotel room and left fairly early for us. First of all we saw a Barnes and Noble bookstore and stopped to buy an Arizona county map book. After that we got maybe two miles or so down the road and saw a bike trail running beside the road. So Hap swung over to the trail. In a couple of minutes I noticed Hap kept picking things off of the front tire as we road along. I said what are you doing? He said rocks keep getting stuck on the tire and I am pulling them off. Then I noticed that the rear tire was losing air. So we stopped to check it out. The first thing we noticed was that the "little rocks" were "little burrs"! Just like the ones that we had found to be a real problem while cycling in the Salt Lake City area. While mountain biking we had FOUR flat tires at one time. A new world record I am sure. So here we are now with both tires losing air. Yesterday we had stopped at a bike shop and bought some slime (tire sealant) that you put inside the tube to seal up small leaks. Hap put some in both tires to see if that would stop the leaks. I found lots of burrs sticking out of the tires. Last night he had spent putting a tire, tire liner and slime on the trailer tire. We headed on down the road. There was alot of traffic leaving Yuma and I think ALL of them passed us at some point. The rear tire started losing air again and so we stopped to pump it up again. Hap's theory was that if we spun the tire long enough eventually the "slime" would fill the holes. We stopped for lunch before leaving town. Leaving town we were on the frontage road alongside of our favorite Interstate 8 and we knew at some point the road would dead end. Just at the point where we were debating whether or not we should get on the interstate, I saw a bike shop. So we stopped. Hap bought brand new "slimed pre-slimed" tubes for the bike. But he didn't want to take the time to put them on so we got on the freeway (the bike shop guy said that is where all the cyclists ride around here). We must have stopped 7 or 8 times to pump up the tire. Can I just say how much fun we were having. Don't you wish you were there to watch HAP pump up all the tires again and again and again. I especially loved all of the traffic whizzing by. That made it really special. We had to go through a border patrol check point as we were climbing out of the Yuma area. They just waved us through, laughing...... We had a good 6 percent grade to come down on the freeway. Don't worry I made sure that Hap stopped to pump up the tires ONE MORE TIME! All in all we only road about 35 miles or so to Wellton. We thought we were going to stay at a RV park but when we called them they said NO TENTS. We don't want any riff raff in our area. We called the police to see if we could camp in the park, but they didn't seem to know either. So we ended up in a hotel again. I spent most of the evening trying to find a place for us to stay tomorrow night. We finally called and found one in Dateland. Which is where we are tonight.
Today's ride was on a road parallel to I 8 for much of the time. It was old highway 80. There was hardly any traffic on it. It was a nice road. We did have a headwind. The temps are again in the 70's. The last 13 miles we were on the interstate. There was alot of trafffic due to the holiday weekend so we were happy to get off the road. It looks like tomorrow we will be able to ride most of it on highway 80 again. Not much scenery again today. Just desert and desert. Oh and a few mountains here and there. Until next time.....

Yuma, Arizona

We left Jackson's RV ADULT Park. I wondered what they meant by ADULT. I was afraid that they wouldn't let Hap in, but Jackson said it was because he didn't want little kids there. So I checked to see if it was ok that Hap stayed. He said yes. We left in beautiful sunny weather. Temps about 70 degrees. We were riding on roads parallel to I - 8. The road service was alittle rough but there was hardly any traffic. We had alittle bit of a headwind also. The terrain is still mostly desert. We stopped in Seeley for a snack of chocolate milk and a cake. I should have brushed up on my spanish before coming on this trip. If you don't speak spanish in this part of the country your in trouble. Have you checked gas prices lately?? 3.34 per gallon. We'll get another 25 miles out of our chocolate milk!

We arrived in El Centro and decided to stop early today since it was turkey day. First we stopped at a grocery for supplies. Hap went into the store. We don't want to leave the bike alone. So I was the lookout. Hap was in the store forever. When he finally came out, I said what took you so long? He said he met his friend Roseanne. She had stopped him because she had seen the bike outside. She asked him if we were a team or something? He said yes, we are a team of two. But we happen to be riding to raise awareness about Alpha One. So he talked about Alpha One, gave her a card. Then he was asking her if she knew of any restaurants in town that were serving a thanksgiving dinner? Since she was just in town visiting her mother, she called her mother. While waiting for her mother to answer the phone, an old friend of her's that she grew up with, walked by. So they hailed Mike or Richard (Hap couldn't remember), and he came over. They asked him about where to find a dinner. He said he didn't know of any restaurants but there was the Police Athletic League serving a dinner and gave him directions. An hour later Hap came out and told me this story. We left the grocery store and headed to the PAL dinner. We road all over El Centro looking for it and finally found it. So we had a our turkey dinner. After eating we headed off to a RV park on the east side of town. When we got there, there was a sign on the office door that said CLOSED for Thanksgiving. Mmmm..... so we walked to the first trailer and a lady came out. Of course she didn't speakidy english very well but said something like. Yes you can put a tent over there. We will get you key. Mmm....what do we need a key for?? We put up our tent where she told us to and then discovered what we needed the key for. The showers and the bathroom. We went back over to her trailer and asked for a key. She said again, that the man (??) would bring us a key. So we waited and played cards and waited. Finally she came over with a key but said as soorn as we were done with it, to bring it back to her. That there was a party in the party house and they needed the key. Apparently there was only ONE key! There must be something that we are missing?? We took our showers, and took the key back to her. Finally Hap went back over and got us the key to the bathroom. We were allowed to keep the key all night. It got dark by 5:30pm so we went to bed at 6p. The next morning when we got up a guy in a golf cart came by and said he needed the key we had and he gave us another key. Don't ask me.....I'm just glad I was able to use the bathroom!

We left this morning to another beautiful sunny day. Temps in the 70's again. We rode into Holtsville and found a mexican (that's funny cause they are ALL mexican) diner for breakfast. We planned to ride into Yuma today. We talked to several people who told us not to ride on the side road that looked like it went along I-8 because it just was a deadend. When we got to the entrance to I-8 there was a sign on the ramp that said No bicycles. Generally in places like this if there isn't a side road you are allowed to ride on the interstate. Our only option was to go back to El Centro and get on a completely different road. We didn't think that was a very good option. So onto the interstate we went. But the whole time we were thinking that helicopters were going to swoop down, lights were going to flash and loudspeakers saying "YOU ON THE BIKE!" We road about 15 miles down the interstate and got off at the first exit. We hoped that at this point it was ok for bikes to ride on it. But no, there was still THAT sign. Maybe that's just a guideline Hap? We could still see the side road that we were told was a dead end so we thought ok let's see what happens over there. It ran along side of I 8. It was really rough and bumpy. My back just loved it! We stayed on it to the next entrance ramp and then tried again. Guess what? Yes, THAT sign was still there. But we just had no choice. We couldn't go forward and we didn't want to go back. We had about 20 miles to Yuma. At every exit we got off and hoped for a sign that said Bicycles ok. FINALLY we saw one. Now where exactly one was supposed to start riding on the interstate I am not sure. Because where we finally saw a sign was miles from anywhere. We road through alot of sand dune area today and saw thousands of RV's, dune buggies, motorcycles, four wheelers and other toys. The wind picked up through this area so much so that sand was in our teeth and eyes. Then Hap ran over some oil or something that splashed up on us and that was also very special! We finally arrived in Yuma and stopped at a visitor's center to find a campground. She said that only a couple of RV parks allowed tents and none of them were in town. We opted to stay in a hotel. We also stopped at a bike shop and Hap bought a new tire and tire liners for the trailer. Hopefully this will stop our flat tire problem. We found the hotel, ordered take out from Pizza Hut, did the laundry, and watched football on TV. How about our Buckeyes! GO BUCKS! It had been a long day. The next few days we will be riding on I 8 east on our way to Tucson. Don't worry though we checked it is legal to ride on the interstate in Arizona.

Ocotillo, CA

We are moving forward again! We have been in Pine Valley for the last two days. Monday we spent just cooling our jets. There wasn't much to the town we were in. A city park, a restaurant, a diner, library, fire station and grocery store. We picked up some steaks at the grocery and used the hotels grill to cook it for dinner. The next morning we went down for breakfast at the diner and another cyclist pulled into town. We talked to him and discovered that he was riding to Columbus, OH. He went on his way and we waited and waited and waited.....
The part finally arrived yesterday. Hap had to replace the inside of the rear hub. That meant that first he had to get the broken piece out. So we needed a vice. We had walked down to the auto repair store the day before and the guy said we could use his but he wasn't going to be there past 5p or so. When the part got there we walked down and when Hap started to try to use it, it didn't seem too sturdy. The man told us there was a vice at the Fire Station so we walked over to use their vice. When we tried to use it we discovered it was broken. I hope they don't need a vice to put out a fire! We walked back to the auto repair place and Hap found a big piece of pipe that he could use to help brace the vice. With alot of tugging--me on one end---Hap on the other. The hub broke loose and he was able to remove it. We went back to the room and he fixed after a couple of calls to the company. Now you all know why I bring an engineer with me. Hap takes care of the bike and I take care of us!
This morning we got an early start. It was alittle chilly maybe 60 degrees or so. We had a good climb to start out with. We are still on Old Highway 80 that parallels Interstate 8 east out of San Diego. We had several long climbs today. The terrain today was alot of rock, shrubs, sand and nuthin! I think we are getting to the desert part of this ride. We went through a couple of small towns -- well I think they were towns. They had a cafe and a gas station. Does that count? We were right on the border in a few places. We saw lots of border patrol either patrolling or at road checks. We didn't get stopped. I guess we don't look shady enough. We stopped in one little town for some cheese and crackers for lunch. It was cloudy most of the day. As we got closer to Ocotillo we knew that we had to get on Interstate 8. We also knew that we were going to lose altitude. We started the day at 4000 ft. And ended the day at about 500 ft. The last 13 miles was down a huge hill! It was awesome. We were on I 8. The speed limit for trucks was 35 mph. Does that tell you how steep it was? The worse part was the wind whipping as we were coming down.
We got down the hill without any problem. We had to get off the interstate at that point. Mostly because there was a big sign that said BICYCLISTS MUST EXIT. That was a good clue don't you think? We stopped to ask for directions to a grocery store and was told that there wasn't any grocery store but there was a gas station. It was then that we noticed the flat tire on the trailer AGAIN! Mmm wonder when that happened? Surely we didn't drag the trailer down that hill with a FLAT tire. Nah! That couldn't happen. We changed (we meaning Hap) the tire, picked up some supplies and then headed to Jackson's RV park. It turned out to be a really neat place. Jackson is retired and runs this park with his son. He said why don't you just sleep in the recreation room. Ok, we said. How much? He said no charge. So tonight we are in a room with a satellite tv, library with DVD's and books, full kitchen, lounge chairs, and hot shower. How is that for a Thanksgiving present. Until next time..................

Pine Valley CA

We left Jon and Joy's house in Imperial Beach (south of San Diego) and headed north on the Silver Strand. This is the way that we had arrived at their house a short six weeks ago. It didn't seem that long ago. When we left it was bright and sunny. We rode up the bike trail towards the ferry in Coronado. On the bike trail we saw a street sweeper. That was unusual. We arrived to the ferry dock just as the ferry was leaving. Our plan for that day was to ride to a hotel near the San Diego Zoo, leave the bike at the hotel and take a shuttle over to the zoo. I have always loved going to the zoo. In fact, I think my perfect job would have been to be a nurse at a zoo. Don't worry I am not changing again! When we got off the ferry there was a man there on a bicycle. When we told him where we were going he said I'll just take you there. So off we went. The only problem was that he didn't seem to think it was a problem to ride the wrong way on one way streets. We were in downtown San Diego, thankfully there wasn't much traffic. Our friend then decided maybe we should just ride up the sidewalk. If you look at the picture above you'll see that we cannot just flit around on our little train! After awhile he decided we were close enough and said keep going that way. So we did and THEN we got lost. Eventually we found our way to the Days Inn. I went in to check in and to find out how to catch the shuttle that they had told me they had. They said it leaves in five minutes and its the only one. So we hurried to get the bike into the room, changed and jumped on the shuttle. Our favorite part zoo was the monkeys, hippos, the pandas, and the reptiles. The shuttle picked us up and took us back. For dinner we had pizza and watched a movie. Or is that slept while watching a movie.... I don't think that either of us has transferred to west coast time yet.

We got up the next morning, ate breakfast in the room and headed east. Finally! We have planned to ride to short days to get used to the bike, time change etc. We had to stop at a post office to mail back the tool to Bill that we brought with us. No sense in adding any weight. Hap "googled" post office's in San Diego and found one not too far away. Or so it seemed! We found the right street but turned the wrong way. We ended up riding onto the freeway ramp! Oops. And there was a divider so we couldn't get into the other lane. We made a U turn and rode the wrong way for a short distance! Thank goodness there wasn't any oncoming traffic. We quickly turned into a parking lot and THEN stopped to ask someone if they know where the post office is? Now isn't that easier Hap? We finally found it and lost a few pounds! Riding out of San Diego was surprisingly easy. We had a bike lane most of the way with light traffic. We stopped in Lakeside and stayed at the Rancho Las Coches RV Park. It was a really nice and clean place. We met a couple of Canadian motorcyclists who were on a year ride. They are also planning to be in Daytona Beach the first wk of March for Bike Week. That is also our goal. Hopefully we will see them there!

This morning we got up to a chilly day at least in the morning. The sun finally came out. And so did the heat. It ended up being 86 degrees and sunny! We should have suspected how the day was going to go when we came out of breakfast to find the tire to the trailer flat. Now THAT's the way to start a day! Today's ride was mostly uphill. We climbed 20 miles. It was a long day. The trailer adds an additional 18 lbs to our load. The terrain was dry and shadeless. We saw several bikers today so this must be the right way! Once again we had light traffic and a nice bike lane to ride on. We had a short 3 mile ride on Interstate 8. Basically we were parallel to I-8 all day. Just before we got to the end of the day. About 5 miles from Pine Valley where we are tonight, Hap started to cramp. I told you it was hot. He has this problem often so we are usually pretty careful about drinking enough fluids. As soon as he started cramping we stopped and ate power bars, drank all of the gatorade we had and then every 15 minutes he ate a power gel. We stopped at a store for more gatorade and bananas. The problem with cramping is that once you start to cramp it is usually too late to fix it. The best thing to do is stop exercising, rest and replace the fluids. Of course we were out in the middle of nowhere so we didn't have that option. We just kept pushing fluids, and put some calories in, slowed our speed down to about 5 mph (we were still climbing!) and stopped frequently to stretch. It worked the cramps slowed down. Then we had a new problem. We finally crested the hill (we climbed from sea level to 4000 feet) and had about a 3 mile downhill to Pine Valley. When we started to coast something happened to the back wheel. Hap couldn't figure it out on the road so we kept going just coasting downhill. We had called a hotel in Pine Valley so we knew we had a place to stay. We made it to the hotel. Hap took the back wheel apart and found the rachet mechanism in the freehub was broken. We had just had the back wheel rebuilt. Hap called the guy who built it for us and he said he had only seen that one other time. He suggested we call the company and they could send us a part to replace it with. We are not sure at this point what we will do. Hap will call them in the morning and see if they can overnight it to us here in Pine Valley and then he can fix it. Welcome to life on the road again. You never know what will happen. The good news about all of this. We are in a safe place. We'll let you know what happens!!!!!!!!!

San Diego---We're back...............!

We arrived in San Diego last night. The last many weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Both of us had alot of trouble keeping our eyes open during the flight. It was uneventful as flights go. Flying is such a headache these days that I think we'll just ride our bicyle back to Ohio! And as I filled up our gas tank in the van for the last time in many months, I had a good chuckle as I realized we didn't have to worry about the prices of oil for awhile! All we have to do is worry about how many miles we can get out of that chocolate milkshake!
Our boys were born Monday, November 12 at 8:09 and 8:10am. Reed weighed in at 6.4 lbs and Rowdy at 6 lbs. They both were 19 inches long! And all I gotta say about that is "how did they all fit??" Tiff was pretty uncomfortable the last few weeks. But she was a real trouper and had a picture perfect pregnancy and birth. I am sure that it was just because Aunt Diane was there overseeing all of it......
I want to give a great big shout out to the Maternity Unit at Berger Health System, Dr. Shield's office staff and of course Dr. Shields. All of them were just incredible to Tiff and the rest of us. They are the best. Way to go TEAM BERGER!
Hap was pretty funny the day Tiff had her last doctor appt he came with us. I told Tiff to hold up her shirt so Uncle Hap could see her pregnant belly. I don't think that Hap has ever seen one before. You should have seen the look on his face! Priceless!
Tiff, Dustin and the boys went home from the hospital to start their new adventure together. And it will be an adventure! Granddaddy Dugan is already looking for twin ponies for them. And he is also working on his "pond" which is in their backyard. We went to look at it and I think by definition it is NOT a pond it is officially a LAKE!
So, now we begin again. What will we do? Where will we go?? Today we are in Imperial Beach with Hap's cousin Jon and Joy. They were kind enough to keep our bike and gear safe for what we thought was going to be a short time. I guess babies will come when God says it's time, NOT when Aunt Diane and Uncle Hap want to go ride their bike. Today Hap is busy working on the bike. He is repairing the headset that has been coming loose. I am not sure what he is doing. All I know is that he had a big tool (thanks Bill-we'll mail it back it is too heavy to carry...) and has grease all over him. He also bought a new front rack. We have had a chronic problem with one of the front bolts breaking. He is replacing the rear tire again. I think this is our sixth tire. And a new addition is our Bobb Trailer that we brought back with us. We are going to try pulling it with our camping gear and see how that works. We have pulled it before and didn't really like it other than for pulling our dog. But we are about 20 pounds heavier than on other trips. And alittle top heavy. So we'll see!
Tomorrow we are planning a short ride to a hotel in San Diego and then hitch a ride to the San Diego Zoo. It is a place I have always wanted to visit. I am spending today figuring out a route and organizing our gear again. Since we are changing our system it takes alittle bit of time.
As I look over the pictures of the first half of our ride, it is amazing to think how far we have actually come. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would we change anything? If I could just change the 100 + degree weather we had in Montana in July/August. Other than that no. This journey has been more than we ever expected. The best part of our trip has been the people that we have met along the way. The hardest part? Leaving our families and friends. The easiest part---pedaling! Are we tired of pedaling? No! Do you think it is possible that there is something wrong with us????..........
Until tomorrow........THE JOURNEY CONTINUES!