FROM THE SEA TO THE DESERT

SAN  FRANCISCO  CALIFORNIA

We loved San Francisco, the boat show, Fisherman's Wharf, bicycling across the Golden Gate Bridge,

                                and meeting up with other traveling bicyclists !

 David & Chiva the canine cyclist      www.bikingdog.blogspot.com

John, the cycling IT guy on his last day of a 1200 mile, 3 week trip

Dedriana, 5 days from leaving on her 1st single cycle  trip to Norway & Sweden

Dear Family and Friends,
   We are still on the road headed south racking up the miles, walking sitting down, peddling our butts off. (literally)

We stayed with old traveling friends and attended a documentary 'War Made Easy' then the Q & A session with the producer Norman Soloman.
 Got us right into all the political uproar now happening in the USA with the upcoming elections. 

 Norman Solomon  www.fair.org                                                                                          Mark & Julie

         Our friends arranged a night for us with other friends so we became their 'Mystery Guests' as we headed East and on to Davis.

Davis is the only PLATINUM biking town in America with amazing wide trails and roundabouts...for bikes only!

SACRAMENTO    
      

We ended up at Folsom State Prison! 

   Back in the 1880's there were many spectacular escape attempts including one with a runaway rail engine and another involving a homemade diving suit.  Today they work from the outside in, as we witnessed a DROP, where a visitor leaves money or cigarettes stashed on the outside (in this case on the porch of the museum) to later be picked up by one of the level 2 medium security prisoners to be sold on the inside.  

Aaron, Katie & Nathan
 

My nephew and family live near Folsom California and arranged a tour of the famous maximum security prison museum, known best for Johnny Cash singing Walk the Line and Charles Manson the mass murderer.


www.mymonavie.com/aaronthompson

Still....heading East, those 7,000 foot high Sierra Nevada Mountains loomed ahead with 5 inches of new snow.............................................

The Sierra Nevada Range

....................................................so we CHEATED!


We took the Amtrak train across to Salt Lake City and were told it is the most spectacular of all Amtrak routes.

We had to agree.  The snow was solid and deep, deep canyons and gorges.   Next time we will take snow tires or chains! 

Now... the DESERT!

UTAH

We have had lots of long, hard and distance days in Utah with a magnificent time in Zion.
 

We weren't allowed to bike through the parks one mile long tunnel so had to hitch a ride.

 
You'd think we could get a lift! 

Huge 65 foot long motor homes including trailers filled with who knows what, whizzed by us.  A brand new shinny red pick up truck full insistent American Indians did stop but we passed on that one, afraid they might have an eye on my shinny red bike.  

Then we heard 40 illegal aliens got away after an accident on I-10...they caught 20 of them...but  all SIXTY were riding in ONE PICK UP TRUCK!! 

We finally did, after three hours, crammed into a tiny Hyundi hatchback.  Thank goodness for our little bike mice Bike Fridays.

Paul the currier does the Zion-Kanab run daily

but fortunately they were following winds.  One night it blew close to 60mph and later turned into a tornado in Oklahoma.  

Can't complain about the wind however, it has been good to us with some great pushes up the hills and fantastic rides down.

Steve says his odometer hit 64 kilometers an hour on one down hill....guess I better start loading his trailer with rocks!!

It is desolate country these last few hundred miles,  but those long stretches with nothing in between are breathtaking with amazing colors and rock formations.

We have slept between dusty one horse towns out with the coyotes and been circled by hungry birds of prey waiting for the next road kill.

So what do we think about while biking for hours on empty endless straight roads reaching off into nothingness???

For me I am sailing across a vast sea of sage. 
I am in the moment. 

For Steve, his mind is busy contemplating buying that AIS (Collision Avoidance System) but out here our only danger is being run over by a massive rolling TUMBLEWEED!

Now we must get across the Navajo Indian reservation 88 miles to our next camp.  We have not worked up to that mileage....YET!

We have crossed the Arizona state line, at the massive
Glen Canyon Dam

Tomorrow we go to Antelope Canyon then on to the Grand Canyon. 

 From there....a big surprise ending.   More on that later.     Hope you are all well and we love hearing from you.....but take note.....we are getting your emails but if we are slow to reply it is because there is no cell or Internet coverage out here in the desert. 

You can all imagine how fast Steve is peddling now.....maybe WE WILL make that 88 mile day! 
 

Love Gayla and Steve the Biking Boaties

PS:  At this moment Steve is visiting with the folks in the next camp site with one of those 65 foot motor homes with a trailer. 

What do they carry in those trailers? 

This one has an AIRPLANE....a model radio controlled JET airplane he built himself, 6 feet long and 8 feet wide.  
 

These two medical students, we met in Kanab Utah, were pedaling  80 miles a day across the deserts from Phoenix Arizona to Moab Utah on a two week bicycle trip before graduating in just one week.

Congratulations to our further doctors holding up their end of
        health and wellness.                                        

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