Trail Magic, First 1000 miles, Wyoming state line

We made our way out of Colorado and into Utah. Our destination was Vernal. Did I mention that Kiki was pretty much at the end of her rope with regards to hotels. Not bad, we've made it 26 days without a hotel (well we did stay one night in Durango, but that was free). Not that we're trying to avoid hotels, we do have a "foul-weather fund", we've just been overall lucky with the weather. But at a certain point, one does desire a bed. So I couldn't blame her. Getting to Vernal is not fun on bicycle. NW Colorado had turned into West Texas as far as I could tell with oil and gas stuff everywhere. And NE Utah was no different.

Summing up the experience, we passed this business on the dreaded highway before Vernal, Utah. I came up with a killer slogan for them. "Eight Ball Trucking. We get it there yesterday!"

All this oil and gas work meant the scenery was poor and the truck traffic was high. To boot, they have a double rumble strip in the road. That is, one rumble strip goes right down the center of the road! Guess that keeps all the sober Utahns from drifting into head-on collisions. For bicyclist, this causes the annoying occurrence of every time a car or truck gives you space, they cross the center rumble strip and it sounds like the full-on jake brake of an 18-wheeler. So that was annoying to say the least.

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So we roll into Vernal and ask about a hotel. I ask the foreign hotel employee, "How much for 2 adults with 1 bed?". He says, "You have a 2 dogs!, Sorry, No Dogs". I say, " No, not dogs. Adults. 2 AAA-Dults with Zero Dogs." He says, $60. I say " OK, thanks but we'll look around". He says, "I can give you for $50", I say, "I can pay $40" (did I mention that is wasn't a very swanky looking place?). Alas, we are soon on our bikes heading for Vernal proper. Right as it starts to rain we pass the "Country Grub". And get this, "They have ice cream again!"(read the sign). How could we pass up this very serendipitous omen.

After chowing and reading a newspaper from May 2 (it's June 25th but it's all they had. How could this possibly be? I tried not to think about it too much. Were they as nonchalant about food expiration dates?) and letting the rain peter out, we hit Vernal. Right as you enter town is a bike shop and it looked open, so I decided to inquire about my wobbly crank arms. Turns out my bottom bracket is shot and needs replacement. They are able to do the work right then (a minor miracle in itself), so I jump on it. Kiki in the meantime strikes up conversation with the folks in shop to see if she can find a lodging/sofa option. We stumble on James and Cory (below) who are probably the 2 coolest guys in Vernal. Cory loves Crested Butte and can name most of our best mountain bike trails. He offers us some floor space at his pad. Kiki gets clean, I get clean, (I even trim my Fu-man-chu) and then we get driven (in the rain) to the grocery store. And never, never had carpet seemed so comfortable as the night we slept on Cory's living room floor!

We say goodbye to our new friends and head out to blue skies the next morning. We're not looking forward to the upcoming events because they all point upwards. One sign even warns us off 10 switchbacks in 4 miles at 8% grade. It's scenic but definitely slow going (7.5 mph average). On days like today, we're really lucky to get 50 miles.

We covered our first 1000 miles right outside of Vernal, Utah. And, I am not making this up, there was a professional photographer right there on the side of this desolate road waiting for a triathlon to come down the hill so he could snap their pictures. I asked him if he'd take a quick pic to commemorate the milestone. This leg from Vernal to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir was really tough, so these might have been the last smiles on our faces. The scenery thru NE Utah as stunning and all along the way, they had signs that'd tell us what layer of earth we were looking at and what was special about it ("Dinosaurs roamed here", "Created by ancient sea", etc). We ended the day exhausted and found a spot right near the reservoir at the only point you actually have access to it. That facilitated a nice dip in the not-so-cold waters. We are sleeping great at nights as the temps are staying cool. I don't think I ever sleep as good as when I'm bicycle touring, you just get so dang tired.

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Had this idea today, a bicycle tour sponsored by "Subway". We'd cycle from Subway to Subway. They'd give us free foot-longs and some to-go. Subway'd pick up the cost of the tour and promote it (similar to Jared and his weight loss), we'd donate money to a charity to make it all legit. How cool would that be? Subway's are everywhere, so you could invent a pretty scenic route.

We made it to Wyoming after a day and 1/2 in Utah. The funny thing about this border crossing is that across the street from it was "The Hub" restaurant. Great little place to get an all-american breakfast (which we did). The Hub is 1/2 in Utah and 1/2 in Wyoming. The 1/2 in Wyoming sells real liquor which apparently they can't do in Utah. It was just interesting to have the state line run right thru a store. Never seen that.

Above is an example of today's road booty. Four Swiss Miss Hot Chocolates with marshmallows. How can you pass that up? I love drinking hot chocolate in the evening. Today we also found some SPF 30 sunscreen (1/2 full and we were almost out) and some cool sunglasses. Plus I'm finding lots of half full water bottles that is supplying me with water to douse my legs and head and shirt. So the road is continuing to supply us with good fortune.