SANTA FE, N.M. - I seem to keep repeating this in my journal -- "this place reminds me of Annapolis."
Of course Santa Fe doesn't really remind me of Annapolis, but there are aspects that are similar. Same with Taos, Ouray, Ste. Genevieve.
Santa Fe is steeped in the Hispanic culture, Annapolis isn't. Annapolis sits on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Santa Fe sits at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
The similarities? Neither are the largest cities in their states, but they are the state capitals. Both have campuses of the liberal arts St. John's College. A large part of their economies are based on eating and drinking and partying downtown ... more»
SANTA FE, N.M. - Most of the day, I felt that I was no longer cycling through the US, but had slipped south of the border. The Hispanic culture here, mixed with Native American, is very strong.
For instance, after Penasco, we followed a road that reminded me of cycling in the Alleghenies because he rose and fell like a rollercoaster. We passed through some towns, such as Las Trampas, that had a mission older than most of the Colonial era buildings back home in historic Annapolis. ... more»
TAOS, N.M. - We've covered almost 3,000 miles on our cross-country bike ride so far, and I don't remember any place as unique as this. I almost feel like I'm in a different country. Much of the area sits on a plateau, so its flat like Kansas. But it's arid, so there's only dry brush around.
We were back on the road at 6:30 a.m. No ranger hassled us. We had a free night.
We continued on the same road all the way to Antonito, about 15 miles away. We steadily dropped from the woodsy environment to a scrubby sagebrush plain. The small towns we passed, Mogote and Las Mesitas, had many adobe houses. ...
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ASPEN GLADE, COLO. - This is rough terrain, and we crossed back over the Continental Divide and bicycled in and out of New Mexico today. We're still making progress to the Pacific, though it doesn't seem so.
We said our goodbyes to Gunter and Elsa (they said they didn't want to hold us back, although I doubt this because they set a torrid pace), and pedaled south on Route 84 to Chromo. Nothing much going on here except a second breakfast. After leaving the mountains, we're in some high plains here. A landmark, Chromo Mountain, we watched approach for more than 10 miles. We passed it on our right, and continued over the New Mexico border... more»
PAGOSA SPRINGS, COLO. -We hooked up with a German couple on the road today who taught us about a new health drink, although we have yet to try it while cycling.
We packed up early at the hostel in Durango and took off. Anymore, I always feel better being back on the road, no matter how much I needed a rest day. Today we're following a new map behind the clear window in my handlebar bag. We're long-finished with the traditional Bikecentennial maps -- that route veered north somewhere after Pueblo. We're on the Great Parks South Bicycle Route Extension map.
It's good to know that we're back on a route found suitable for bicyclists, although it's disconcerting to have California as our final destination and not be chasing our shadows in the morning. ... more»
DURANGO, COLO. - Note to self: If you're touring by bicycle, stay on the bicycle.
We've just returned from a strange and troubling adventure involving our reliance on a pickup truck we borrowed for the day. We're all safe and sound, but it could have turned out much worse.
Bruce and I had planned to take today off and take a $25 guided tour to the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, about an hour's drive away. The hosteler said we could do it cheaper if we rented a car, and what's more, a German hostel guest, Christiane, could go with us and make it back by her 4:30 bus ride out of town.
A guy from across the street who hangs around to drink the coffee here did that one better, and offered us the use of a pickup truck he had just purchased from a local mining company. We took him up on the offer...
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DURANGO, COLO. - I can't imagine a better day bicycling, even though it did include several hours on a narrow gauge railroad.
The climb up Red Mountain Pass is a monster. It's a 13-mile ride from Ouray and rises from 7,706-foot elevation to 11,018 feet. It took us 3 and a half hours, partly because of the climb and partly because of the scenery - which we were all too happy to admire as we caught our breath.
We climbed switchbacks out of Ouray, which was surrounded by lofty cliffs, and followed the roaring Uncompagre River, which had cut the hell out of these mountains. We could see old wooden miners' cabins clinging to the mountains, and passed several slides where ice had recently scoured out everything in its path. .... more»
OURAY, COLO. - You never know what fellow travelers you'll find when you break camp in the morning.
After leaving the Elk Creek campground we rode along the Blue Mesa reservoir shore and crossed a bridge to Sapinero, which is more of a cafe and filling station than a town. We stopped for another breakfast there. When we were getting ready to spin off, we met a group of college-aged folks who were walking from West to East to protest nuclear weapons. They asked us to "join their circle" as they held hands and looked for inspiration for the day ahead. I was inspired by being on my bike, instead of on foot.
Just as we left Sapinero, we picked up another bicycle tourist -- Frank -- who told us about all the problems he'd encountered. Just like the guy in Golden City, Mo., this guy was starved for conversation and talked nonstop. ... more»
ELK CREEK, COLO. - This is one of those days that I'd been looking forward to ever since we started planning the trip. We crossed the Continental Divide under our own power at the 11,312-foot Monarch Pass. I knew all along we could do it; I just didn't know how hard it would be.
Now, sitting at the hot and dry Elk Creek National Park Service Campground, I realize that we must have been in better shape than I realized. Bruce says it was easier than the hills in Virginia and Kentucky
We hit the road at 7, leaving the Ponderosa campground at about 8,500 feet. We made 7 miles to Garfield, at 11,000 feet, in about an hour. It took us 90 minutes to cover the last 6 miles to the pass. ... more»
MAYSVILLE, COLO. - The climbing begins in earnest today, but we start with a long, cold, downhill after crossing the Silver Bridge, touted as the world's highest suspension bridge. The winding road takes us back down to the elevation of the Arkansas River.
Along US 50, huge red outcroppings of rock towered over the road. The river rushed alongside. We could hear it as we pedaled upstream on the gentle grade. Down here we could look up the valleys sometimes and see snow-capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
We stopped for snacks in Texas Creek and Cotopaxi. Several groups of rafters passed us, shouting and throwing bucketsful of ice cold water at each other. We talked to a woman who was drinking a cup of coffee to prepare for guiding her first group of rafters today. She was a little nervous. ... more»
ROYAL GORGE, COLO. - So there I am posing at the side of US 50 with a horned antelope skull balanced on my helmet. Is it wacky altitude weirdness of just giddiness about being on the road again?
Probably the latter. We left Pueblo early and steadily headed toward a line of blue mountains ahead of us. As the morning wore on the mountains grew and finally enveloped us as we progressed into the Rockies.
We stopped at Penrose at 21 miles, then lunched in Canon City 15 miles later. About a mile outside this town, we both geared down to our grannies and just started climbing. To paraphrase Dorothy, we weren't in Kansas anymore ... more»
PUEBLO, COLO. - We decided to lay around and do nothing for the day. We had covered so many miles the past couple of weeks, we were feeling just plain tired.
The news that a controversial liberal radio talk show DJ -- Alan Berg -- had been gunned down had upset our hosts. Anyway, we just didn't feel right overstaying ... more»
PUEBLO, COLO. - It's after midnight, and Bruce and I have just finished making basic overhauls and installing new parts on our bicycles. We used the "bicycle workshop" in the shed behind the home of our newfound friend -- a 14-year-old in a house full of biking enthusiasts.
We got a late start this morning from Ordway after our epic 124-mile ride the day before. Fortunately the air had cleared this morning and we continued on good, old Route 96. In all, we'd ride this road for 241 miles, all the way from Dighton, Kansas.
We first saw the Rockies -- just a blue strip along the horizon -- at Olney Springs and continued effortlessly into Pueblo, the biggest town on our trip and about our halfway point.
We made our way into downtown and found the YWCA (yes, women's) where our guidebook listed another hostel. Wrong again ... more»
ORDWAY, COLO. - Most of western Kansas and eastern Colorado was closed this Sunday, so we did the only thing we knew -- we kept pedaling.
After patching up two flat tires just after sunrise, we rode out of town and back to the flat terrain. Everything was closed in the first town in Colorado -- Towner. Same at Sheriden Lake ...
So when we finally got to Haswell, thirsty and parched, there was nothing but bad water and what little water we had in our bottles. No bathroom. No shower. The only store in town was closed. Nothing to do but jump on our bikes and press on.... more»
TRIBUNE, KAN. - We're walking back from dinner at the Cactus Patch restaurant, and realize we're riding through history. We're in the town of Tribune in the county of Greeley. The next town down the road tomorrow will be Horace. Follow the bouncing ball. What did Horace Greeley write in the New York Tribune? "Go west young man!"
We started heading West early in the morning after a torrential downpour struck at 4:30. We ate and washed up at the church (still open, as promised) and hit the road at 6:45. After a few miles the terrain opened up more than before, if that's possible.
Not a lot between Utica and Tribune. We'd spot a grain elevator on the horizon, pedal for awhile, then see small clumps of trees to the south and north of it as we got closer. These were the towns with the parks. We'd pedal for another hour or more before reaching the town. ... more»
UTICA, KAN. - How many times have I heard people complain about driving across Kansas because it's soooooo boring?
Chalk up another reason why bicycle touring is the best way to see the country. Kansas, by bike, is anything but boring. For one thing, you get to stop at all the small-town cafes.
I have a notion that many of these towns where we've stopped lately -- Bison, McCracken, Ransom, Utica -- are all frontier towns. Each is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of wheat farms and pasture. The highway we're on runs past the southern edge of town. The grain elevators are one or two blocks north on Main Street, sitting on the railroad tracks. Main Street has the post office, cafe, bar, and grocery store. These towns boast the only trees on the landscapes ... more»
LA CROSSE, KAN. -- We're sitting here writing at our journals at a picnic table that's about 30 miles south of the geographical center of the US.
We clicked off a lot of miles today, and I am tired and a little sore, but I feel like I could charge across more than 100 miles of Great Plains tomorrow morning.
We left Hutchinson early in the morning and made it to Nickerson early enough to run into a couple, ages 58 and 52, who spent the night in the home of a stranger who was worried about them camping in the park with tornado warnings broadcast. They too were amazed by how many people help the bicycle tourists... more»
We stopped at a cafe this morning for a long breakfast and fiddled around so we got a late start. Bruce later admitted he just didn't want to get going, given the accident yesterday on the busy highway.
We strapped his bent wheel rim to his panniers and left, finally reaching County Road 88 and the TransAmerica Route. It was like being delivered back to a slower way of life. Traffic virtually disappeared and I could hear birds singing from the perches on fenceposts. The tension left my body. Our road was flat and straight. We could see trees, towns, and grain elevators on the horizon and pedal for an hour before we reached them.
Our first stop was Newton, a railroad center, about 25 miles into the trip. We found a bicycle shop and stopped so the guy there could possibly fix Bruce's wheel. The owner had every tool imaginable, except a bike stand. To work on a bike, he'd suspend it from chains hanging from the rafters. ... more»
EL DORADO, KAN. - We're staying at a motel across the tracks in a town with the unlikely name of El Dorado after Bruce had a close call with an oil tanker truck on a busy highway today.
Bryan, who put us up the night before, suggested we take that road to avoid gravel stretches on the Bikecentennial Route. In retrospect, not good advice.
We had tailwinds in the morning (but we stayed together) and could see for miles all around when we picked up US 54 heading west. Mostly I kept my eyes glued to the pavement, though. The winds from the south caused a dangerous riding situation as I leaned to my left to counteract them. When a passing car or truck blocked the wind, I'd veer slightly left momentarily... more»
Tonight finds us at Bryan and Janette's apartment in Chanute. They're a wonderful couple that Bruce met at a restaurant in town where he was eating. Bryan found me a few hours later as I was riding into town.
That's because Bruce and I got separated today.
We cycled the 35 miles from Golden City to Pittsburg in about 3 hours. Riding our first flat roads in four weeks meant we had a lot of power to cover lots of ground -- fast.
At Girard we turned north and the tailwinds pushed us even faster. I took off with the pure joy of cycling fast. I made a left turn after 7 miles, stopped, fished around in my handlebar pack for a plum and waited for Bruce. He never showed. .... more»
GOLDEN CITY, MO. - Was this a mirage after too many hours in the saddle? We slipped into a couple of valleys after Pennsboro and were climbing out of the second one when I saw something standing up ahead of me in the road. At first I thought it was Bruce, but he was behind me. Then it looked like a tree had sprouted from the pavement. As I got closer, I saw it was a woman sitting astride a horse watching our slow approach.
She called us over just as we were about to pass. There was a birthday party at a farmhouse. Someone offered us a beer, and we could see no reason to refuse... more»
The Ozarks are starting to level out, and we were on pace for a 90-mile day when we saw the homemade sign on Route 38 between Hartville and Marshfield: "Lazy Louie Bicycle Camp." It was only early afternoon, but we knew we had to stop; we had told the Cookie Lady back in Virginia that we'd check in on him.
Lazy Louie opened the bicycle camp in 1976, the first year that cyclists started passing through on the Bikecentennial route. A eastbound couple who we met in the morning called the camp "kind of rustic." The camp is an overgrown woodlot across the road from his house and barn. There's a shelter, picnic table, and shady grassy areas for tents. You can tell he has put a lot of work into it over the years. .... more»
HOUSTON, MO. - The hills in the Ozarks are bigger, steeper, and harder to climb than I expected. At Carl's Cafe in Eminence, Carl said we'd have to walk our loaded touring bicycles up these hills. No way. We pedaled -- very slowly.
Bruce isn't feeling well this morning, but I don't think that's holding us back. Gravity's doing that. .
This whole area of the Ozarks draws lots of whitewater adventure seekers. Current River is popular with tourists, so is Jack's Ford. Lots of canoe, kayak, and raft businesses in Eminence. Up a steep hill and down the other side is Alley Spring, the picture-postcard site of an 1895 mill (above). The caretaker operated it for us, to show how wheat and corn was ground in the old days... more»
OWL'S BEND, MO. - If you could pick a time to be sick, it probably wouldn't be the day you're pedaling the rollercoaster hills of the Ozarks.
We left Johnson's Shut-ins in a light drizzle and immediately started climbing. A little while later, a carload of Boy Scouts who we camped with the night before pulled up alongside me, and they said my friend was way down the road. I waited for him, and when he caught up, Bruce said he wasn't feeling well. After that, we took it real slow.
We stopped at Wisdom's Cafe in Centreville for a second breakfast. Afterwards I went to mail some postcards and pick up some grub, and when I returned Bruce was sitting lotus-style with his back against a building, fast asleep. ... more»
JOHNSON'S SHUT-INS STATE PARK, MO -- We're tenting in the group camp area near some Boy Scouts tonight. They're pretty comical, and a couple came over for awhile to talk bicycles, like: "Can you ride no-hands?"
I know Missouri is the "Show Me" state, but I don't know why it's called that. I would like to have people around here show us some common courtesy.
The folks in Ste. Genevieve were very helpful. One lady said to us out of the blue, "You look lost." (As a matter of fact, we were.) In Farmington this morning, we talked to a guy while I filled the fuel bottles and were offered unlimited iced tea in a cafe at the square.
But as soon as we entered the Ozarks, things changed. People stare, more like glare. ... more»
STE. GENEVIEVE, MO. -- We rode up along the Mississippi River to Ste. Genevieve to waves and some applause. If we had festooned our bikes with flags, the people lining the streets might have thrown money.
After crossing bridge across the Mississippi at Chester, we ran into the Olympic torch caravan again at St. Mary's. Everything is very low-key, compared to the scene in Berea.
Essentially two Winnebagos were parked in a roadside lot, some runners were milling around waiting to pick up the relay. AT&T sponsors the torch run, and the guys who do all the heavy lifting between cities are AT&T employees.
Two hundred were chosen, 16 on this week-long stretch, to run four miles twice a day with the torch. The torch, which they get to keep, weighs 2 pounds, 4 ounces, is about 2 feet long, and is filled with butane. ... more»
CARBONDALE, ILL. -- After three weeks on the TransAmerica Route, we decided that we needed a break here in the hometown of Southern Illinois University.
A bike rider out for an afternoon spin hooked up with us outside of town and guided us along a shortcut to his favorite bike shop. We found a room at the Uptown Motel, took our first showers in about three days, and began to celebrate like cowboys coming off a dusty cattle drive.
We stopped at a tavern called Booby's (it might have been Bobby's, but I wrote double o's in my journal... it's a college town; probably was Booby's) for a pitcher of beer, ate some greaseburgers at Wendy's, watched the just-released, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and then stopped at a bar for another pitcher. We had landed in dry counties every night since Whytheville, Va., so we had some catching up to do.... more»
CAVE-IN-ROCK, ILL. -- We crossed the brown-with-mud Ohio River on the Ida L ferry this afternoon on our ride through the former haunt of pirates and bandits and the present-day domain of mosquitoes.
We were happy to leave the Sebree park, what with freight trains passing by all night. Our route immediately detoured because of the flooding (the paper said 30,000 acres was underwater due to the Green River backing up), but we still made good time into Dixon, where folks told us a small group of bicycle tourists had passed through yesterday.
At Marietta's Cafe in Marion, we signed the guestbook and saw the names of three cyclists from Connecticut (the same guys we've been leapfrogging ever since Virginia) just above ours. ... more»
SEBREE, KY. -- We're at the Sebree City Park tonight, camping downwind from preparations for the St. Michaels annual cook-out. They're preparing 1,500 pounds of mutton and pork for tomorrow, and this evening they're stirring a huge cast iron pot of homemade barbecue sauce. While Bruce and I were talking with them, a couple of the old hands asked one of the younger guys to sample the hot sauce. He lifted up the wooden ladle, sipped it, squinted his eyes and choked out the words, "Hmmm. Just about right!" Then he gasped for breath.
"Just about right" describes our ride today. .... more»
SANTA FE, N.M. - I seem to keep repeating this in my journal -- "this place reminds me of Annapolis."
SANTA FE, N.M. - Most of the day, I felt that I was no longer cycling through the US, but had slipped south of the border. The Hispanic culture here, mixed with Native American, is very strong.
TAOS, N.M. - We've covered almost 3,000 miles on our cross-country bike ride so far, and I don't remember any place as unique as this. I almost feel like I'm in a different country. Much of the area sits on a plateau, so its flat like Kansas. But it's arid, so there's only dry brush around. 
ASPEN GLADE, COLO. - This is rough terrain, and we crossed back over the Continental Divide and bicycled in and out of New Mexico today. We're still making progress to the Pacific, though it doesn't seem so.
We packed up early at the hostel in Durango and took off. Anymore, I always feel better being back on the road, no matter how much I needed a rest day. Today we're following a new map behind the clear window in my handlebar bag. We're long-finished with the traditional Bikecentennial maps -- that route veered north somewhere after Pueblo. We're on the Great Parks South Bicycle Route Extension map. 
DURANGO, COLO. - Note to self: If you're touring by bicycle, stay on the bicycle. 
DURANGO, COLO. - I can't imagine a better day bicycling, even though it did include several hours on a narrow gauge railroad.
OURAY, COLO. - You never know what fellow travelers you'll find when you break camp in the morning. 
ELK CREEK, COLO. - This is one of those days that I'd been looking forward to ever since we started planning the trip. We crossed the Continental Divide under our own power at the 11,312-foot Monarch Pass. I knew all along we could do it; I just didn't know how hard it would be.
MAYSVILLE, COLO. - The climbing begins in earnest today, but we start with a long, cold, downhill after crossing the Silver Bridge, touted as the world's highest suspension bridge. The winding road takes us back down to the elevation of the Arkansas River.
ROYAL GORGE, COLO. - So there I am posing at the side of US 50 with a horned antelope skull balanced on my helmet. Is it wacky altitude weirdness of just giddiness about being on the road again?
PUEBLO, COLO. - It's after midnight, and Bruce and I have just finished making basic overhauls and installing new parts on our bicycles. We used the "bicycle workshop" in the shed behind the home of our newfound friend -- a 14-year-old in a house full of biking enthusiasts.
ORDWAY, COLO. - Most of western Kansas and eastern Colorado was closed this Sunday, so we did the only thing we knew -- we kept pedaling.
TRIBUNE, KAN. - We're walking back from dinner at the Cactus Patch restaurant, and realize we're riding through history. We're in the town of Tribune in the county of Greeley. The next town down the road tomorrow will be Horace. Follow the bouncing ball. What did Horace Greeley write in the New York Tribune? "Go west young man!" 
UTICA, KAN. - How many times have I heard people complain about driving across Kansas because it's soooooo boring?
LA CROSSE, KAN. -- We're sitting here writing at our journals at a picnic table that's about 30 miles south of the geographical center of the US.
We stopped at a cafe this morning for a long breakfast and fiddled around so we got a late start. Bruce later admitted he just didn't want to get going, given the accident yesterday on the busy highway.
EL DORADO, KAN. - We're staying at a motel across the tracks in a town with the unlikely name of El Dorado after Bruce had a close call with an oil tanker truck on a busy highway today. 
GOLDEN CITY, MO. - Was this a mirage after too many hours in the saddle? We slipped into a couple of valleys after Pennsboro and were climbing out of the second one when I saw something standing up ahead of me in the road. At first I thought it was Bruce, but he was behind me. Then it looked like a tree had sprouted from the pavement. As I got closer, I saw it was a woman sitting astride a horse watching our slow approach. 
The Ozarks are starting to level out, and we were on pace for a 90-mile day when we saw the homemade sign on Route 38 between Hartville and Marshfield: "Lazy Louie Bicycle Camp." It was only early afternoon, but we knew we had to stop; we had told the Cookie Lady back in Virginia that we'd check in on him.
HOUSTON, MO. - The hills in the Ozarks are bigger, steeper, and harder to climb than I expected. At Carl's Cafe in Eminence, Carl said we'd have to walk our loaded touring bicycles up these hills. No way. We pedaled -- very slowly.
OWL'S BEND, MO. - If you could pick a time to be sick, it probably wouldn't be the day you're pedaling the rollercoaster hills of the Ozarks.
JOHNSON'S SHUT-INS STATE PARK, MO -- We're tenting in the group camp area near some Boy Scouts tonight. They're pretty comical, and a couple came over for awhile to talk bicycles, like: "Can you ride no-hands?"
STE. GENEVIEVE, MO. -- We rode up along the Mississippi River to Ste. Genevieve to waves and some applause. If we had festooned our bikes with flags, the people lining the streets might have thrown money.
CARBONDALE, ILL. -- After three weeks on the TransAmerica Route, we decided that we needed a break here in the hometown of Southern Illinois University.
CAVE-IN-ROCK, ILL. -- We crossed the brown-with-mud Ohio River on the Ida L ferry this afternoon on our ride through the former haunt of pirates and bandits and the present-day domain of mosquitoes. 
SEBREE, KY. -- We're at the Sebree City Park tonight, camping downwind from preparations for the St. Michaels annual cook-out. They're preparing 1,500 pounds of mutton and pork for tomorrow, and this evening they're stirring a huge cast iron pot of homemade barbecue sauce. While Bruce and I were talking with them, a couple of the old hands asked one of the younger guys to sample the hot sauce. He lifted up the wooden ladle, sipped it, squinted his eyes and choked out the words, "Hmmm. Just about right!" Then he gasped for breath.
