And, finale!

A christmas miracle! We squiggled down the mississippi river all day, and then jumped in my folks' car at a gas station, just in time for thanksgiving turkey. We were regaled with hugs and beers and beads, and southern love. My grandma was there at dinner,and my mom, sister and jerry and james, too!

I don't know what to say. the mississippi river is industrial, and smelly. i like bike touring. I want to do it again. My odometer, which was wrong for a while, says I rode 3300 miles.

I have been on the road for two months and 23 days. I have been in 7 states, and over 6 borders. There is more to say, and more to post, but that will have to wait for an epilogue in a few days, and copious pictures.

For now... thanks to everyone who was so sweet and generous and warm and welcoming along the way, and who let me into their lives and hearts this fall. I have learned and gained so much, and people truly amaze me.

The red stick

We have arrived in baton rouge. We are waiting 4 the bad weather to recommence so we can finish the journey to new orleans tomorrow. 80 something miles and counting, to be ridden in driving rain, 15 mph winds, and... clean knickers. For lease navidad, friends!

Kinder to port barre, what?

We tried, made a valiant effort for the red stick tonight. But. We found instead the bar that is like being inyour best friend's kitchen. So james and I have found ourselves at our new friend renee's house in port barre.

Oh, and I got a flat. Fine al fuckin ment. Merci bo cus louisiana.

O louisiana

Your roads are so bad, your coffee is so good, your biscuits so full of butter, your people so tender. O louisiana! I can't even believe how much better your boudin balls are. Holy crap, they're good.

Boudin study part the 1st

Dear bloggerie,
Today bore witness to the very first boudin ball of our boudin b-Monday. A boudin ball is a belectable fried bit of fat, more specifically rice, pork, and fat, deep fried in the shape of a ping pong ball, or bigger. James has it on good authority that there is a line, a demarcation somewhere between here and baton rouge, where boudin becomes barfy. We two intrepid eaters are bhot on the trail for answers as to where, and more seriously, why. Is it the addition of liver? Perhaps simply unspecified offal? Maybe it's the blood of she-goats.

Today was our first boudin sighting. Hence, this marks the westernmost point on the historic boudin trail.

Todays boudin was not good, but no one threw up. It came from a gas station outside cleveland, tx, where we were treated to the sounds of square dancing on the 2nd floor. These balls were big. We shared one, and ate with forks. Drier than a bayou, it was.  But no liver, as far as we know.

Conroe to moss landing. 40.0 long miles.

Dec 18 burton to conroe

James and I rode 95 miles today, quite a few of them after 6. We are back in the world where people smoke in bars. I am shocked by my own surprise, and notice that when you can smoke inside, most people smoke.

At this point, I'm excited to be out of texas. I think this part of texas is excited to be out of texas, too. Things are starting to feel decidedly cajun. We peddlin to dat boudin, cocodrie.

December 16th (we think)

James and I (there is still so much novelty in this 'we' thing) have taken to telling folks that 'we' have been riding since seattle (or spokane, or whatever) and that 'we' are really excited to be so close to new orleans, where 'we' are going to stay for a while.  Which means I get to blame him for all the less proud moments of 'our' trip.  And I sort of get to rewrite history, making me feel somehow better about what it was like for 'us' in west texas. Anyway.

We rode a little further today, and got up a little earlier. But for me, it feels like party time so I'm back to 40 mile days, and the going gets tough, find a cinnamon roll latitude.

When we made it to burton, we knittled our bikes up to the victorian inn, but it was booked. We talked to a lady on the phone who said we could ride 8 miles in the wrong direction to stay in her bunkhouse, but I hated that idea. So we went to the white horse tavern for beers and to find out what next. What next was tommy, who brought us back to his burton family christmas, told us bow hunting stories, fed us, showed us silver jewelry he'd made, insisted we stay tomorrow to dress a hog and light the bbq... that kinda thing. We're staying in a room with a stuffed brown bear, saharan ekg wallpaper, green couch. We graduated from tent campers to cousins in an evening.

Tommy has at least 15 old schwinn 3 speeds and runs an informal bike club out of his house.  He says he'll let me help dress a deer tomorrow, or wild hog.  He builds his own bows, he's built his house from the ground up, while living in it, he doctors a doctor by teaching him to make jewelry in exchage for classical piano lessons.

With such a supreme host, do we dare move on?

december 15 : austin to smithville more than 30 miles

i know things have changed because tonight i sat in the backseat while we drove with our host from the grocery store in bastrop to their house in smithville. i sat in the backseat! james asked questions, and talked motorcycles, and carried it, man, when all i could ask was, "what are banditos?"

we had awesome hosts, natasha and randall, and are staying in natasha's dad's back house, where we are nuzzling our faces in animal skin rugs, drinking whiskey in rocking chairs, swaggering in this silver fox's cowboy boots, and enjoying the sweetness of companionship.

central texas is getting the rain it's been desperate for, and who am i to wish it would hold off a few weeks?

yes yes, serious and endeavoring, we are.

oh, and james solved the mystery of my generous odometer

4 realz

assurances

I didn't give up, I didn't quit, I am not in New Orleans.

I took a break, hung out with people I love.

I'm still in Austin, and James, against all odds, has arrived to shepherd me home.

The circus, my friends, is back in town!

Dec 5

46 miles. Kerrville to stonerville
Closing in.
Cold cold cold and colder tomorrow

Reasons to not always love central texas

Rode 35 miles today, in rain, wind, 40 degrees.  This is after swimming in a river and taking off my shirt yesterday. The hills won today, and my cold feet were the sore losers. Made it to kerrville, not all by myself. Weather forecast looking wet. Good for droughty texas, but couldn't it have waited till Wednesday? Met a friendly sheriff, and the nicest woman ever, my bag-lunch fairy god texan, ginger.

Reasons to love central texas

BBQ. Christmas. Trees. 60 degree mornings. Limestone. Old folks.
I rode 78 miles in 70 degree weather yesterday, went swimming in a river, got sunburned, slept outside.

Getting on with it

I realized I've been complaining a lot. Sorry about that. It's kind of an emotional roller coaster these days. And by it, I mean me.

Today it was supposed to be rainy and windy but it was wonderful ; overcast, in the 50's, light tailwind, and the road flattened out a lot. So I rode for a while. Made it 100 miles to bracketville, although if you looked at a map of langtry to bracketville, it's more like 92. What is that about? Is my odometer off? Do I really weave that much on the road? At any time, I'm about 3 miles ahead of road mileage. This, people, is one of the reasons I'm going crazy.

In other news, I'm not in the desert! I'm not in the desert! I'm not in the desert! Woot! Big ups to trees!  What I am in is fort springs, a private homeowners assoc. aka central texas disney land, with limestone activities center, theater, museum, and rv park tucked way in back where it doesn't lower property value. I had to pay inflated rates cause I'm not a member... but what hoa member would pay to camp in a tent? Anyway... I'm happy about central texas. It's kinda cool to be back! Even if the $2 hot shower was cold. The park attendant was so gracious, and careful!

67 miles : sanderson to langtry

Boring ride today. I had to listen to a lot of power ballads to remember I was still breathing. One nice thing about riding alone on remote west texas highways is there's no one around to hear how bad you sound singing celine dion at the top of your lungs.
I saw 5 dead deer in the first 20 miles of riding. Some were pretty badly mangled, and definitely picture worthy, but I felt bad doing that. They were lives, after all.
Once upon a time, a transcontinental railroad was built through west texas, and towns sprang up every 30 miles or so to bring needed water for steam powered engines. Most of these towns are more like fossils these days ; langtry, where I'm staying has a population of 19.
At the end of the day, I went to the judge roy bean museum in langtry, named (if u believe bean) for the british actress lilly langtry. You gotta hand it to a guy who can run a bar, and uphold law, even if he made up the laws as he went along.  Seems like it'd be easy to lose customers. Or get shot, trying to pull that off in the west. Judge Bean even called a fight to settle a dispute, then held it in mexico (and had a footbridge built so evryone could go) when the texas government told him it was illegal.
Tonight I'm staying in another miracle of warm showers - a trailer owned by the lovely manns that was open and waiting for me to arrive, what with fresh towels, box wine, and hdtv. I have learned to watch tv again on this trip.
Del rio tomorrow (almost a big city!) And then on, in the rain I think, towards austin.

more pictures

This is the view from Emory Pass : 8295 ft or something like that. What you can't see is the wind and the 30 degree temperatures. I did not stay long to enjoy this.
Welcome to Chili Land. Imagine them out drying on rooftops and taking up whole parking lots. And the smell!
This is the open pit copper mine at Santa Rita, on the way up to Emory Pass. I think they extract ore with something like 6 % copper, and then refine, refine, refine.
And this is the first dirt road I was on between Duncan, AZ and Silver City, NM, when I just thought everything was so pretty! Little did I know...

Cheating the odyssey

It's true -- I took a greyhound bus last night from El Paso to Fort Stockton, Texas. Cut out 250 miles of this state. Feel good about it. Also, feel a bit burnt out on riding. And making cuts inspires me to make more cuts. Like all day, riding on a really boring road with major headwinds, I thought two things. 1.) I wish my ipod had batteries. and 2.) I don't want to be doing this.

So I barely rode at all . 35 miles. Now I'm in Sanderson, TX.

Austin bound, one way or another.

The lone yew meets the lone star

Not even 1000 miles to the home land! Seems almost close.

How cara got her groove back

Quiz question : which of these most saved me from the self-pitying rabbit hole of touring cyclist's blues?

A.) Climbing to 8295 ft Emory Pass at sunset
B.) Riding more than 50 miles before noon
C.) Topping 40 mph on a downhill
D.) Riding 97 miles in one day
E.) New Mexican red chili mania

Guess first, answers later.

It's been cold, so cold.  Last night, coming down the pass was scary because my ever freezing fingers went numb when I still needed them to hit the brakes.  I only had five miles till my sleep spot, but it was a memorably terrifying 5 miles.  I stopped to shake em out, I wore all 3 pairs of gloves I have. . . No help.  I was supposed to camp outside the black range lodge, but when I got in, it was warm and there was dinner, and the innkeeper asked knowingly, 'so, do u still want to camp?' I am a sucker. Then emily, who's living there and building things out of straw bale, and I, we sat in a wood fired hot tub under the stars. And when we got too hot, we went into her straw bale sleeping hut and made a fire, drank beers, and talked.  And it felt just like home. 
Today, all I did was ride. And look at red chilis drying. And have lunch with a bearded, overalled man named wild bill, in hatch, the chili capital of the WORLD. 3 miles short of a century ; I considered closing the circle with some loops around the starbucks parking lot. But I drank a frappacino instead.
Oh, and guess what?! Texas tomorrow!

Rolling resistance matters, or it's not a shortcut when it takes 3 times as long

Today was my worst riding day so far. By far. Okay, so I know better, I really do know better than to use google maps for bikers. But the devil drew me in, promising 10 fewer miles for the day. Before taking off, I called ellen in silver city to check in about the roads. She verified what google seemed to be saying ; there were short cuts on county roads. Earlier directions for different roads had specified 'portions unpaved,' leading me to believe that all portions of the road I was going to use were paved.  Does that make sense to anyone else?
I guess I've gotten used to northwest dirt roads, all hard pack and eroded to rock. I was in no way prepared for the sand box called red rock road that runs west from silver city through gila wilderness. And to boot, it rained last night. So it wasn't like moving through wet sand. Because it turns out you don't move through wet sand.
My shoes were so full of desert concrete that they quit clipping in, and when I cleaned them out,  it seemed like seconds later, i'd have to get off the bike and walk, in turn refilling my cleats with sand.
This 20 miles of plodding happened after 10 miles of riding back and forth on nm 454, trying to figure out what google meant by 'turn left' after they told me to turn right on nm 454. Because there were no left turns on nm 454. Not in either direction.
But back to the wet sand, caught in the space between my tires and fenders. Sending me ricocheting off the bike and into truck tracks. Bringing me to frustrated, curse the heavens, melting point (over and over and over again).
There was no cell service, no cars, no escape. On the sand for 15 miles, or about 3 hours.
Then I rode blocked a truck and hitched the rest of the way to silver city. That was my day.
I called forth so many people I love and miss and had them ride (well, walk) phantom bikes beside me. You help, friends. And it made me cry for all the people who have to walk through the desert to survive. Mine was the most minute glimpse into this hardship, and it was damn humbling.

November 25 56 miles : duncan, az to silver city, new mexico

Giving thanks

Every day on the bike is different. Today was long, slow, frustrating and boring, then it was swift, stunning, and exhilirating. Mostly, that change has to do with incline. Today featured the addition of headwinds.
Short list of things I'm thankful for: staying safe on the road for the last 2000 (!) miles. Drinkable tap water. Hot showers. Coffee refills. Sunshine. The surprisingly beautiful southwest. Wildlife. Schwalbe marathon tires. The kindness of strangers. The support and love of family and friends. My st. Christopher medal. Mexican food. Thank you, thank you for helping me on my way. It makes all the difference in the world.
Apache res to duncan, az 83 or 84 miles

I promise I'll be more thankful tomorrow

November 23. Superior, az - apache rez. I don't know, like 57 miles.
I woke up and heard the wind banging trees around outside. The weather channel said the wind was coming from the south east at 19 mph (or is wind in knots?)  Guess what direction I was headed?
I realized a little while later, when I had to quit climbing and go back down to superior, that sometimes courage means knowing when not to be hardcore. It was really windy.
I ended up getting a ride over the pass from mo, a real sweet guy, who is a pro poker player, and loaded my bike into a really new bmw. Then I rode 56 or 57 bullshit miles into headwinds on shitty roads with no shoulders, or shoulders that were all rumble strip. And the lady at the globe visitor center assured me i'd make it to fort thomas, which I didn't, so I got caught riding in the dark.
Good news is there's lots of stars and I can eat all the ginger cookies I want. Oh, and the wind died!

november 22

still in superior. house was too good to vacate. town is wild west. and small enough that everyone i talk to asks if i'm biking through town. makes me feel funny, one of those quirky weirdos, which we all know is nothing like me.

really leaving tomorrow.

Here's the website for ogling superior photos:

http://superior-arizona.com/

i think i'll be spending thanksgiving with a farm goat in duncan, az. yay! (call me if you're bored )

November 21

Picture this : me. Bathrobe. Anthony bourdain on hd. Grilled cheese and apples. Box chardonnay. Fire.
Hotel? B & b? Home for the holidays? No, warm showers, hospitality for tourng cyclists. My hosts gave me my own house. They live across town. This is just for me, and I can stay tomorrow if I want. So what did I do? I cried, that's what I did. I asked them why. Why be so kind?!? And then I took a bath.
85 miles. Phoenix to superior, az. Big climbs a comin'. If you know anyone in silver city, nm, lemme know. I need a family for thanksgiving.
Oh, 1900 miles in I got a bike fitting. Made me a solid mile per hour faster. Oops!

the perfect lunch... No subsitutions

For true perfection, diner is dead tired, and should have eaten 2 hours prior.
Note: The perfect lunch MUST be eaten in this order:

one coconut popsicle


ONE machaca taco (or two) .

one 32 oz jamaica (i'd be weary if your jamaica is this color)

The week in a few pictures

Oh, Quartzsite. Pioneer town gone to the snow birds. Get your gas here!

Saguaro. Upright. Old. Arizona.

Okay, so this was last week. !!!!

And yours truly. Desert Mouse-manik

november 19, 20 : hooked on phoenix !

I rode from Wickenburg to Phoenix Friday. It was 67 miles, but I didn't get going until 11:15 or so, and it felt like a long day. Suburbia kind of goes on and on and on, ya know? In the morning, I had breakfast with Kamal, who runs a motel in Wickenburg. He is pictured here, saluting the First Officer of Mumbai, like a good young lad. He told me if I ever stay in an Indian-run motel again, to have the owner call him, and he'll get a good price. A true gem. When I got to Phoenix, I took care of some bike shop-ing, then I went to meet Richard, Andy's grad school bestie, and Renae, Richard's sweetie. They live in Phoenix, and their condo overlooks a heated pool. They are both teachers, amazing hosts, and... engaged! they are also pictured below, showing AZ t-bird pride for corner Taco Shops. How cute are they?! I was gonna leave today, but then it felt like I'd have to rush the swimming, newspaper reading, and general layabouting that was a 70 degree Sunday in Phoenix. So I stayed! We can always work tomorrow.
Did you know Phoenix has a big mountain right in the center of town? Did you know the square mileage of Phoenix (or "the valley," I'm not sure which) is larger than that of Rhode Island? Did you know you can win $800 if you place first in Fantasy Football? I, for one, did not.

november 18 2011

Nov 18. Brenda, az to wickenburg. 81.1 miles. Today I rode on hwy 60. I met a cyclist who's been living on his bike for 7 years. The sunset was beautiful, and a coyote crossed my path.

november 17 palo verde, ca to brenda, AZ!

72.4 miles today. Only 2 things I want to talk about. 1.) I think riding on i-10 showed me what i'd be like in one of those 10 day silent meditation retreats. I'd fight and resist for the first 8 days, and then finally realize I was still at the meditation, no getting away until it's over, and then i'd spend the next two days making up stories about all the other people there, and I would be so happy. Even though it was flat, the cross currents of truck after truck made it impossible to pick up speed. I counted all 22 of those miles.
2.) I realized today that I haven't paid to sleep anywhere, not even a campground, since october! I had heard about this sort of hospitality, but there is honestly no way to be ready for it. I don't know how to give thanks! This morning, I ordered one egg and toast at a diner, and when my food came, there were 2 eggs, which I thought was sweet,until I found out there were two more hiding underneath! 4 eggs! Maybe they just needed to unload some eggs? Tonight, I intentionally tried to pay for lodging, and was still put up (albeit in a strange tin diner) for the night. America, where does this kindness come from? Most people totally disapprove of what I'm doing, but it's as if they can't help themselves. I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining. Just overwhelmed.

nov 15 and 16

>Nov 15 87.6 miles. Rode from pine valley (very freezing) to brawley, ca (very agricultural). I descended into the desert at 6% grade for 7 miles. The last 50 miles were easy, and I think I discovered the perfect lunch.
Nov 16. Today was hard. I didn't sleep much, and the hills were rollery for 30 miles. Kinda fun, kinda exhausting. I finished at nancy dean mercury's place on the colorado river and learned about yoga and spirituality, ag towns, and california burros. Arizona manana!

Nov 14 2011 san diego to pine valley

>4035 ft climb today was. . . actually not that bad. It did go on and on and on, and there were a couple times I felt like barf, but overall, way better than the little bumps that weren't even listed as elevation gains in northern california. Some stats : 67.9 miles, 30 of climbing, 6 miles off route (lost), ending point just past pine valley, ca

Photos from the great state

I've been sitting on these photos for a few weeks now. This is Larry, a 49ers fan. in Crescent City.

Larry, Lorna, and Rebecca. Future Family. Crescent City.
My leg. San Francisco
Romantic Bike. Tomales.
Arrows are your friends. Someone sprayed yellow arrows on the route from the border to San Francisco. That someone is wonderful.
Bike. Art. Fence. Outside San Diego.
Bear Bagging. Big Sur.
Landscape Design. Valley Ford.
Brussel Sea. Between Santa Cruz and Monterey.
Peter Pan. Big Sur.
Road Warrior. San Simeon.
Harvest. Central Coast.
Dog Walk. Venice Beach.
Parking Garage Bike Path. Redondo Beach.
Tom's. Orange County.
Riding through Camp Pendleton. San Diego County.
Bruce, with the Airstream. Encinitas.
San Diego.