steamboat springs

praise the good universe! we're in steamboat springs staying at a condo. near the theater we're playing saturday night. this curtosey of scott and kelly who have housed us, fed us, and entertained us with waterfall hikes, juggling lessons, bar B Qs, croquette, and complimentary passes to the hot springs to soak our tired legs.
all this and we didn't even have to use our get out of hell free card. true, there are five of us sharing a one bedroom condo. but we don't mind really. we've been relaxing in our little home away from home for three full days. this came at just the right time as we'll be hitting the Rocky mountains on Sunday and heading towards fort colllins for the 4th of july.
waterfall and abby

our host and juggler scott and daughter delaney on the hike

abby's feet after a hike in flip flops.

we found two great little health food stores and a produce stand on the Yampa river where we've been shopping for dinners that abby has made for the past couple days. brown rice, kale with garlic and onions; summer squash and corn saute; avocado, cucumber, and toasted sunflower seed salad. Bamboo market has also made us nice lunches with their home baked whole grain seed bread, and fresh squeezed veggie and fruit juices. thanks guys and gals. we will not leave town hungry that is for sure. abby is banking on a vegan strawberry muffin for breakfast on departure day.

thanks for fixing up our bikes guys! we wore out both our chains and our 2nd set of brake pads.


amanda's been editing like crazy to finish some of the videos we've made on the trip. thanks to stephanie at Geek's Garage
for setting us up with an external drive to make life more sane for editing. the videos should be up on past posts so check them out if you haven't already.

Rest Day Details: we've been listening to Belle and Sebastions "if you're feeling sinister", and abby practicing bach's cello suit (poorly, sorry guys i'm out of practice).

abby and amanda have been devouring the book,"Queen of the Oddballs" by Hillary Carlip. what an inspiring and entertaing life she has led. highly recommended reading. www.queenoftheoddballs.com

Boo is making rapid juggling progress and will surpass ian, abby, and amanda with her stunning skills in no time.

Desert Video

we put on a show for the sand and the sky in the desert on the border of Colorado and Utah. here is a clip with louder audio than previously posted.

Juggling in Steamboat Springs

abby, amanda, ian and boo juggling at the steamboat theater with scott from "we're not clowns" juggling group

oh, craig!

today was the most difficult day since our ride to Guadalupe in California.
There was a headwind as we rode hill after endless hill for 87 miles.

at a stop, abby took a nap while she waited for amanda. then we met some really nice bikers.


abby's favorite part of the ride was watching the antelopes.

during the ride we debated about whether abby should be Wonder Woman or Kermit the Frog for Halloween.

we almost fell asleep on our bikes numerous times today. abby rode for the longest she's ever ridden - 7 hours of actual peddling time. amanda rode for a minute under 8 hours.

when we finally arrived to our destination of Craig, Colorado - amanda cried with relief and exhaustion.

then we went and had mediocre mexican food for dinner.

Rumble Strips 10-13

click on rumble strips to enlarge

dinosaur

today we rode to dinosaur. AND we rode into our 3rd state, COLORADO! the ride was mostly high desert with shrubs and rocks. really cool looking. it's getting hotter, but so far we have lucked out in a big way, not one day hotter than 90 degrees.

we met a dutch traveler named pepijn from holland travelling alone for 4 months by bicycle. what an adventurer!

abby was really tired as she rolled into dinosaur.

we didn't think there would be anything there except a rundown hotel and an RV park that looked like a cemetery. to our surprise there was a wonderful little roadside cafe that baked their own bread, grew their own sprouts, and made their own ice cream. we had veggie sandwiches and ice cream for a fantastic lunch. abby's lemon ice cream was the best she has had in forever.

afterwards we headed out into the desert for our post ride show. the prarie dogs and jack rabbits were oh too kind. thanks for listening.

the power of 3's

we said our goodbyes to salt lake city and our peanut butter shakes and headed east to the 40 yesterday. along the 40 amanda saw 3 broken down cars and abby was yelled at 3 times by angry teenage boys driving their dad's boats to the lake. we got to our campsite and our food and camping gear had not yet arrived.

we met a handsome weathered couple down at the boat dock of soldier creek campground and we splurged on wheat thins, mozzarella string cheese, and treetop apple juice. we felt like kids with our sack lunches back in the 2nd grade. we finally saw some stars last night through the roof of our tent. we rode 86 miles yesterday.

today was a glorious change in terrain. amanda thought it looked like thunder mountain railroad at disneyland and abby thought it looked like the pecos bill cartoon she saw when she was a kid. what we learned is that the world looks alot like disneyland.

while refilling our water at the gas station, we were approached by a gentleman who kindly offered us 2 "get out of hell free" cards, which amanda declined. abby took it as a sign of good luck. she pocketed the two cards and said, "i'm gonna hold onto these. you never know when you're gonna have to get out of hell. and now i can get out two times...for free."



the colors of the water, sky and rocks were incredible on this ride. then we took off our polarized sunglasses and realized they were not quite as emerald city as we thought they were. oh, well. we rode 69 miles today and made giant salads after a trip to the jubilee supermarket.

additional notes:

on this lonely road of trail mix, peanut butter sandwiches and m&m's - we'd like to recall the days spent with our dear friends Mio, Satchi, and Naoko and the "cooks in the kitchen." Girls, we miss you.

And for all of you concerned people out there who have been worrying about about our friend John from San Francisco who his injured chin, here is a progress report -



may it continue to heal well, john. keep it up!

junkfood oasis

so yesterday and today, we've been little piggies. so what's new?
we ate at a yummy restaurant 4 times called Sages Cafe.
they have the best peanut butter chocolate soycream smoothie! we've had 3 so far.

ate lots of ice cream, soy cream, yummy salads and pastas.

this town, salt lake city, gets the best weather reward for our trip so far.
we also loved riding around town here. it's easy to get around by bike.

tomorrow we head out toward Colorado. We're about to play a show now.

more rumble strips to come soon...

rumble strips 7-9

Click on rumble strips to enlarge

What a beautiful Day

this morning amanda had 2 flat tires. abby got so pissed that she threw the pump and exclaimed, "this is bullshit!"

we gave up on fixing amanda's bike since it was getting hot and the day was escaping from us, so amanda rode her old mountain bike - the GT Aggressor - for 50 miles. Then the mountain bike got a flat tire, too.

when we got to our destination for the day, we all decided to keep riding another 45 or so miles to the next town since we'd had a tail wind for much of the day.

at the gas station in Eureka, Utah we fixed amanda's tire on the road bike thanks to Ian's pump, Euro Van's rejuvinating OJ and ice, and Abby's determination.

Amanda counted a record number of dead animals today.

270 Roadkill Animals

141 of those were rabbits
6 of them were hawks
4 of them were snakes
1 was an unidentifiable large large animal
the rest were other animals at different stages of decay

amanda also found 2 pirate flags on the side of the road. the first she picked up was a larger version of our stage skeleton's little pirate flag. the skeleton image on this flag was flapping around in the wind like a mischievious pirate. he was good company. then 5 miles later, she found another one just like it, but with a red pole.
this one was for abby. he was fine company on the ride too.

we rode along a most beautiful lake for miles and miles. it was called Utah Lake.
after a while along the lake, we hit a construction zone where trucks were bringing in all sorts of materials for tract mansions. there was a golf course, too. one street was called "Wildlife Blvd." thought it was a bit weird and typical that the making of "Wildlife Blvd" and its surrounding homes was killing much of the area's natural wildlife.

later, amanda was joined by an older man for 5 miles who was lost and late for his granddaughter's wedding rehearsal dinner. he'd gone out for a short exercise ride wearing his slippers and ended up riding for longer than planned.

we rode 100 miles today. shit, yeah.

Rumble Strips #6

yes, we skipped #5, because it wasn't really nice. in fact, it was way too rude.
so here's #6. don't forget to click to enlarge.

Across the border

amanda is back in action. she rode yesterday and kicked ass eating only 1/2 a mango for the entire ride! abby led the way for the days 60 mile ride. but she led the wrong way. 10 miles down the wrong way. then 10 miles back to where we started from. then we had 60 more miles to go and we had already done a nice little 20 mile warm up. after we rode 60 more miles, there was a sign that said "Baker...5 miles". shit. but then we only ended up riding 3 and a half more miles to complete the short ride day with a total of 83.5 miles. so much for our day of rest.

we camped in the back yard of a great little cafe in Baker called Lectrolux at the Silver Jack Inn. we got salads and veggies, and lots of cold orange juice while they played Billie Holiday to the afternoon crowd. later that evening before the movie screening we played a couple of tunes on the front porch to some kindly travelers. then we ate some pizza, did our laundry, and took a $2 dollar shower that was well worth the price. oscar and ryan rode with ian that day so they camped in the backyard too. that was our last day riding with them as they are headed toward moab. so long guys.

during the night a bird shit on abby's bag and her sleeping pad.

today we woke up crazy early for us, 5:15am. birds were singin' and ian was out the door (to avoid the heat). amanda and abby ate breakfast at the cafe. terry and tabatha made flapjacks and oatmeal for pre ride energy blast. thanks for the great food and for letting us turn the front porch into a bicycle repair shop.


crossing the utah border made amanda realize that we live on a planet, not just in a city or in our minds. there were amazing rocks and beautiful desert landscapes.
we were feeling good for the first 65 miles, then we started to fade thinking about the next 30 miles. the total mileage for the ride was 98.5 and we felt every mile of it by the end. we saw a lot of corpses of cows and large animals. amanda saw a dead baby fox that made her cry. abbby saw an unknown species of animal (alive not dead) that looked like a large badger but she didn't think badgers live in the desert so we don't know what it was.

food notes: we gotta thank jubilee because there are slim pickins for food in these parts on a sunday afternoon. we got salad greens and veggies and made killer salads back at the hotel. we'll probably eat some more grub later while abby watches the basketball game.

Road Kill's Got Me Thinkin'

day 23

rode a ton of hills. almost 4,000 feet of climbing today. 78 miles and 4 summits. what a glorious day except for the shitty wind in the valleys. Boo rode 43 miles with us today! which is 43 miles more than amanda rode; she had recovery from illness day. being the virgo that she is she organized the entire back seat of the van and it is much more pleasant to get the gear and food out of it now. thanks amanda.

here is Boo on her Bike


not a single mormon bug did we see on the road today. however, we did cross paths with ryan and oscar again who are traveling to Ohio by bicycle this summer (and camping almost entirely). abby had her fastest speed ever at 40mph today, ian beat her out with a top speed of 43mph. abby got too scared to go any faster and immediately decided to go only 30 from here on out. Boo nearly ran into a bull that was crossing the highway, and amanda caught it on video tape from the van.



tomorrow is our last day in Nevada. we've seen a lot of shady dudes and a lot of eccentric characters. mostly we want to say thanks to the truckers for scooting over when they pass us, and thanks to the motorcyclists who almost always give us a salute.

the song stuck iin abby's head while riding was: chillin' up the hill, a really disgusting pop style song she made up while riding up a big fat hill.
after the ride she couldn't stop singing: god is watching us, god is watching us, god is watching us from a distance.

food notes: amanda ate food today, a sure sign she is feeling better: half a mango, beans, guacamole, and corn tortillas, cabbage salad.

abby ate: rice cereal with crans, bananas, rice milk, sunflower seeds, go macro bar, ha's apple roll up, tangerine, cashews, corn tortillas, guacamole, cabbage salad, pinto beans, small cup of cherry garcia ice cream, cookie dough ice cream bar (not recommended), one of ians choc. chip cookies, 2 reese's extra pb cups that amanda got for Cosmo.

don't forget to check out Rumblestrips.


ian found some road kill


amanda couldn't have named it better


boo and greg get fried ice cream

tunnel

junkyard dogs

Rumble Strips!

Click to enlarge Rumble Strips

day 21 and 22

yesterday was the longest ride of our lives, 113 miles from Fallon to Austin! we rode together for the first 1/4 of the ride, past the salt flats, the sand mountain, and the shoe tree that we somehow missed. ian left a bit before us and rode like the wind. he took 100 pictures so be sure to check out the link to his blog site. later in the day we rode past a military top gun scenario; jets were dropping bombs not too far off the highway. at first amanda thought she was watching clouds being born, like some mysterious children's book - until we saw one of the jets swoop down and a huge blast came up from the earth.

at cold springs we stopped for snacks and met these guys who worked on the military base in Fallon. they were driving around in huge trucks with a Silkworm chinese missle on top so the jets could practice spotting them. they said later that day it would be their job to go out and look for bombs that had not been detonated. we said that sounded like a dangerous job and they said they'd rather be doing that than going to Iraq.

the second half of the ride was full of two climbs which weren't that difficult. the only problem was there were these bugs called Mormon Crickets that were infesting the highways. they were about 3-4 inches long and the color of rust. they jumped and crackled as we tried to ride around them but this proved to be impossible at times. the highway was stained for miles with their dead bodies and shells.

everytime a semi would blow past, shells from the Mormon crickets would scatter everywhere. it was like a horror movie, attack of the killer Mormon Crickets, only they were the ones getting attacked by our wheels. Amanda felt like she was on an episode of Fear Factor and was quite disturbed and disgusted. Amanda's saddest roadkill-viewing was a mush pile attached to 2 cute bunny ears. there were also the salt flats with rock graffiti saying sweet love messages along the road.


With all this strange stuff, highway 50 was more like a visit to area 51. Amanda felt empathy for the animals and bugs going at too slow a pace for the cars. we're all just trying to do our thing and not get killed on the highway.
here is a video of some of the ride

after a mediocre meal last night, we came back to our place and threw a surprise party for greg and boo who were celebrating 12 years as a couple. we decorated the room with streamers and served Fat Tire beers with umbrellas. Boo made up the term "pressert" - dessert before dinner - a good term to know about.

here is a video of the party and the eyebrow toothpick-umbrella contest


Food Log for yesterday:

Abby - bowl of rice cereal with cranberries and toasted sunflower seeds, some mango, handful of cashews, 2 Go Macro Bars, 1 Clif Nectar Bar, 1 Tangerine, 1 Haas Apple Fruit Rollup, 6 milkduds from Euro Van Snack Truck, raided Boo's Pirate Booty, Large Handful of Wasabi Peas, 1 Baked Potato with olive oil, salt and pepper, 1/2 can of black bean soup (unheated), cheese and brown rice crackers, and apples and cheese for dessert.

Amanda - Some mango, a PB and J, 2 Go Macro Bars, 2 Nectar Bars, 2 Haas Apple Fruit Rollups, another half PB and J, a bag of wasabi peaas and a ton of cashews, 2 baked potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, sour cream, and butter, a dinner salad, 2 cheese sandwiches, brown rice crackers, apples and cheese, a half can of black bean soup, and a taste of Fat Tire Beer.

today amanda woke up ill so she had to "take it easy". she spent the waking hours alternating between sleeping and throwing up. ian and abby got up early to try and beat the rain but it was already sprinkling. we climbed two fairly steep passes, and rode in some beautiful stormy weather through the vistas. the rain would at times make the sage and roadside plants smell refreshing, and at other times it would kick up the smell of the decomposing mormon crickets which was nauseating. abby told amanda she picked a good day to get sick because it was cold, wet, and full of rotting bugs.

we think it's flag day


taxidermy

when amanda snaps this flash photo, an older woman glued to her video gambling screen asks her husband, "Did you see that lightning?"