Yosemite to Ceres.

We woke up in our hot tent cabin and went to eat some free breakfast. It was delicious. We changed our route a little to avoid going back out of the valley the same way we came in (narrow dark tunnels etc.) and caught one of the shuttles back around to where we entered the area. It was beautiful waking up surrounded by giant trees and looking up at half dome. Probably the most beautiful part of the trip. 

It got hot fast. The high was 107. We found some interesting ways to cool off though. 

We were riding alongside orchards for a lot of the ride. Every 5 miles or so we would get out and stand in the sprinklers. It felt amazing. We also picked peaches off the trees and ate them in the shade. 

We were reminded of the little fruit stand we stopped at in Pennsylvania and took pictures of their California peaches. It feels so good to be here. 

We stopped here and ate a whole tub of strawberries and blackberries from her farm. Mmm

Passed a monistary. Would have been cool to stop and meditate a little bit we were late for our host so we kept going. 

Also passed an air museum. 

We got to our host, Jim, around 7. He showed us where to put our bikes and welcomed us inside. His sons Dara(sp?) and Benny were intent on their computer games. We set up our tent in the backyard and took cold showers. It was 110 on the porch and hotter inside. 

There were signs everywhere explaining what has to be done when. We thought it was a great way to coordinate things with roommates. I'm going to try it 

Our host, Jim:

Our tent spot. There was already a tarp down because Jim and his sons like to sleep outside in the summer. 

Jim shared a can of soup with us and we ordered a pizza for us and his roommate.

 It was just what we needed after a long ride. He also made us some delicious tea with stinging nettles from his garden! Jim has a very full garden of some great edible food. 

After dinner we played a game of UNO with the three of them and talked a little more about bike touring. Jim is very knowledgable and has a bunch of experience. He gave up driving a few years ago and uses his bike for everything. 

The neighbors were having a party but luckily the loud Spanish music went of around 1130. It had cooled off to about 90, so we went to sleep. 

Thank you Jim for your hospitality. 

Daily stats 

75 miles

10.2 mph

1220 ft climbed

107 degrees

Also we kept seeing all these goofy RV's before we left Yosemite and earlier in the week but I forgot to post this. Who rents these?

A Nevada rest stop to Benton, CA

Woke up in the Nevada. We are definitely ready to get out of this state and out of the desert. We have been riding long days to make this happen. We can almost taste California. 

We finished the extraterrestrial highway and started on this road:

We rode through a 'national forest' and didn't see a single tree. 

We got to Tonopah, which is by far the largest 'city' we have seen in Nevada. Allie and I both thought we had made a wrong turn and were in a third world country. The houses were mostly fallen down trailers and shacks. America

We ate lunch in a little cafe and filled our bottles and moved on. 

There was very little traffic in the morning but after we passed through Tonopah we came to the worst road of our entire trip so far (hopefully the entire country). The speed limit was 70, tons of eighteen-wheelers and RV's whizzing by and NO SHOULDER. We decided we are going to write to the governor of Nevada and suggest that he build bike paths. 

It was horrible. Tensing up everytime a truck passed too close and trying to not get knocked off by the wind they made as they passed was unpleasant. 

Traffic cleared slightly after we passed an intersection. We wondered where all the cars went until we got to these signs:

There was road work going on for about 12 miles. Despite the dust being blown up and the loose gravel road, it was a welcome change. Did I mention we can't wait to leave Nevada? 

Right after the road work, we came to another pretty big road. The shoulder was fortunately present. However, they put a rumble strip right in the center of the shoulder filling the entire thing and making it useless for us. It was great having cars honk as they flew by. 

I think Allie was getting a little discouraged by all the gravel and hills and traffic and Nevada " as soon as this is over, I'm selling my bike and eating Cheetos for the rest of my life"

Things got much better once we hit California. It was by far the most sudden change in scenery and roads we have encountered crossing state lines. The rumble strip immediately disappeared and the pavement smoothed out. Mountains appeared in the distance and we saw some trees. TREES! 

Here is us on the border. 

It's amazing (and exhausting) to think that we have now cycled completely through 13 states and have only one left. 

WE ARE SO HAPPY TO BE IN CALIFORNIA

Daily stats

Miles 88

Ave speed 10.4

Elevation 3420 ft

Haiku

Desert sun scorches

Allie is losing her mind

Oh California

Best RV Driver: Day 40. Side of the road, NV to Nowhere, NV: Another century(almost).

We woke up in our lovely RV that my fantastic and wonderful dad rented to sag us through the empty desert. We are fully convinced that with the route we chose through the desert, we would have died of dehydration and starved eithout him. As it was, we were comfortable, well-fed and full of water. My father would drive up about 20 miles and wait with sandwiches and avocado crackers ( but he doesn't know how to cut avocados.). 

Russel Bernard also made us safer. Every time we would pull out to ride off, he would stop all traffic on the highway so we can ride off safely. He was the official best RV driver of the whole trip. He was with us for about a week and loved sleeping in his comfy RV and spending all his time in it without cell service. 

The following quote essentially summarizes his feelings: " Ahh I Need to GET OUT OF THIS BOX""

Dad stopping traffic for us. 

Here is how the rest of our day with us. 

Woke up at our usual 530 and were off before 7. Started with a 13 mile climb. 

It didn't seem that long. It's funny to think back to our first days when a MILE was the longest climb ever. I think we are getting stronger. (Bout time). 

Anyway, we are still going over mountains, through empty flat basins and then back over another 15 mile mountain range. We did four mountain summits today. 

We have pictures of the other two on my phone but I'm writing this without service so I can't put them in. We don't have service for the majority of Nevada. We are passed by cars about once every half hour. No people live anywhere near here. 

We were 

still on the extraterrestrial highway, which makes us a little less bored. We pretend there are aliens everywhere (the bulls are disguised). Seriously. It is hard to keep ourselves entertained. We started talking to the cows and wondering what they thought of us. We have been in Nevada for too long..

It's actually a little unnerving. All of these steer have decent size horns. There's no fences anywhere of course and the bulls often get up and run with us as we ride by. 

We stopped to eat in the world famous Rachel, NV. Which is the only 'town' for almost 200 miles. The Al'e'inn was the place to be. 

(Notice the population)

At the Al'e'inn we started talking to some more geocachers. They were impressed with our ride and gave us $20 to donate to Citta. So nice. I still don't understand the appeal of geocaching..

Towards the afternoon, a strong headwind picked up. Which was unpleasant but not anything we aren't used to. However, we aren't used to sandstorms. . You know those little mini tornados that you see off in fields sometimes? 

We got hit by one on the road today. It knocked me off the road and felt like we were being pelted with sand. We covered our faces with bandanas to breathe and turned away. It was actually really cool. There was a clear and calmer center before we were hit with the second edge.  We spent the rest of the day covered in sand and dirt that had stuck to our sunscreen. 

We rode until about an hour before dark today. We wanted to ride just a few miles more, but we passed a rest stop with 8 trees. Eight. It was the only sign of humans we had passed in 85 miles, so we had to stop. 

Good day and with our big miles today we should be close to the California border tomorrow. Can't wait. 

Daily stats:

Miles. 98.78 (gahh)

Ave speed. 10.6 mph

Elevation gain. 4320 ft

Wind like little hands

Talking to cows we are nuts

Almost a hundred 

Caliente, NV to somewhere on the side of the road, NV

We slept in until 7 this morning (I can't believe I'm calling that sleeping in), and started right away with a climb. 

Oh, and for those of you who are worried about Alec's gross, infected looking cut from the last post, don't worry. We cleaned it well. We decided it probably should not be green.... So I scraped off the infected, scabbing, green part (much to his dismay) and it is looking much, much better. 

Anyway, we started with a climb. About 1800 feet and 10 miles, not too bad. It took an hour and a half to get to the top. Basically, Nevada has mountain ranges, or lines of mountains, that run north-south. So it's basically, mountain, basin, mountain, basin, mountain, basin, a bunch of times. It's kind of a more barren Pennsylvania. We climbed three mountains of similar size today. Well actually, the second mountain we didn't even know was there until we saw a summit sign. But really, it was flat or downhill all the way to the "summit". Pretty funny... 

All the signs for cattle in Nevada are pictures of bulls instead of cows, like the signs we've seen everywhere else. Apparently the cattle here have more brawn and toughness than cattle in other states. They have to eat rough, shrubby bushes instead of grass, so I believe it. 

Also, notice that the sky is overcast. What. We are in the desert. Where is the sun?! It even sprinkled on us for a little bit. Crazy! It was dark, overcast, and cool. So much so that Alec thought it was 4 pm at noon. He lit up when I told him the actual time -- before I told him he was ready to call it a day and average 45 miles for the next three days. I vetoed that idea. Later he said he had had a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder! At 2 pm it was 75 (that's really not normal for the desert of Nevada). It was great. About an hour before we stopped riding the sun came out and the temperature went up 13 degrees to 89. Which is still pretty cool for the desert sun. 

And we got on the Extraterrestrial Highway! There were also these trees that were probably 50 times taller than the rest of the cactus-trees that were all around. Confusing. 

On our way up the third climb we saw a car pulled over up ahead and a guy on the side of the road. We thought for sure he was looking for aliens, but he was a geo-cacher. Apparently there are over 1500 caches on the Extraterrestrial Highway. So he would get out about every 20 feet, find one, get back in the car, drive 20 feet, get out, find one, and repeat 1498 more times..! He was a really nice guy and talked to us for a minute. 

And we're headed into nowhere...

There was also a sign that said free range cattle next 110 miles. Where are we?!

And after another 1800 foot 10 mile climb we were at another summit. 

This sign, and every single road sign we've passed lately, has had a ton of bullet holes in them. It must be a game to drive by and see if you can shoot the road sign. I don't blame them, there's not much else to do out here besides shoot guns at road signs, see how fast your car can go on the straight flat roads in the basins, and search for aliens. 

And I took this panorama while moving, so it's a little odd. 

And we called it a day and slept on the side of the road. We could have slept in the middle of the road though because there are almost no cars at all. 

Daily stats:

Mileage: 72 mi

Average speed: 9.8 mph

Elevation gain: 4,377 ft

Bullet holes in signs,

Mountain, basin, and repeat,

Come out aliens!

Caliente. Time zones and Nevada.

We woke up super early and started the day with an almost freezing 25 mile downhill into cedar city. We lost almost all of the elevation we had gained yesterday. It's interesting how roads here seem to go up and down the tallest mountains and not in between them like everywhere else. It was 39 degrees when we left our campsite at 10,000 ft. We found all our warm weather gear that we haven't used since Pennsylvania. 

We definitely could have been pulled over for speeding on most of the descent. We didn't see a single car but at the very bottom of the windy mountain we saw two sad looking cyclists with all their bags starting their day with the climb. We gave them a thumbs up as we whizzed by. We've been passing more and more cross country tourists since we started on the adventure cycling map system. They all seem to be heading east though(like we were told to do). We left their maps today though and are back to finding our own way to California. .. 

With mixed results. 

We ended up on this 20 mile dirt road in the middle of nowhere. 

There was a random podium on the ride of the road. Allie insisted she was number one. 

But then,

We entered Nevada! It is starting to feel like we are on our last leg. I've never really been excited to see Nevada.. And still am not super excited.  It is much more mountainous than I expected, but just as empty. We are rarely passed by cars and even more rarely pass places where people live. It is hot and empty. Can't wait to enter California. We sort-of miss cities. And by cities, I mean small towns with more than a single gas station. 

I had another flat today (my 5th of the trip) and tried patching it with the tools I had available in my handlebar bag.  In case anyone is curious, electrical tape does NOT make a good patch. It held for about half an hour and then went flat again. Not the most pleasant place to change a flat either. There is no shade anywhere, but at least we had a strong headwind all day.

We also crossed into pacific time, which I feel like should be some sort of a milestone.. 

I have a question for the audience. 

This is what the road rash on my shoulder turned into.  

Does this require any specific action? I'm going to go ahead and assume this is his part of the normal healing process.

Daily stats:

Miles 76

Ave speed: 10.4

Elevation gain: 2300ft

Max speed: 48.56mph

Haiku:

Our last leg

Riding Nevada

Pedal through

-AB

Our favorite irony: