l'agnaippe

You know you're in Louisiana when you start seeing green swamps and spanish moss. You also know you're in Louisiana when you start running over Mardi Gras beads on the shoulder of the road (as I got closer to Lafayette).


The Skerretts say hi:


The Crawfish say hi:


My Uncle Shelton hosts Songwriter's Night at Bisbano's:


Grandma says "I'll take it from here."

lafayette, la

I made it to lafayette. This is cajun country. My grandmother says hello. She questions my wisdom, but she's glad to see me.

natchitoches, la

I made it to natchitoches. Say that 3 times fast. Cool little town. This is where my mom and jeannie went to college. I found the cool downtown area with a waterfront, red brick streets, new orleans architecture, pubs and restaurants. I feel like i'm in the french quarter. This is the oldest town in louisiana. And nacogdoches, tx, which i rode through yesterday, is the oldest town in texas. Now there's some trivia for you.

Shreveport, LA

I made it to Shreveport. My Aunt Jeanie was so excited to see me, she prepared a Thanksgiving Feast!

The Fouts say hi:


Welcome to Louisiana:


East Texas looks a lot different than West Texas:






Bill, Dave and me on 6th Street:


Burrito from Freebird's in College Station:

lufkin, tx

Made it to lufkin. Pretty good day today. Felt good. Had good roads and a cross-tailwind most of the day. Not a direct tailwind, but enough to help. Spent a lot of time cruising in the zone. Covered a lot of ground. Got to practice my sprint several times with the occasional wild, chasing dogs.

Today's the day i got a beer can thrown at me. Green suv. Party dude hanging out the window. Budweiser, nearly full. Sailed over my head, landed in the grass, bounced, tumbled, sprayed everywhere. Stupid redneck. What a waste of a beer.

college station, tx

I rolled east out of austin this morning. Ride for the roses country. Thanks so much ali/jaime/ann/dave for letting me stay. Thanks, bill, for cruising down from dallas, and thanks, mike and ahmed, for hanging with us, too. As luck would have it, shawn mullins was playing here last night, so we caught him at the cactus cafe on campus.

I'm in college station now. They have a cool bar/restaurant strip, like all good college towns should. Per john/patricia caraway's recomendation, i am drinking a beer at the dixie chicken. Whoa, i am definitely in texas. I think i just walked into a hoe down. Half an hour ago, I polished off a monster burrito next door at freebird's. Holy smokes, that was the biggest burrito i have ever seen. It was bigger than the homewrecker at moe's. Good thing i rode my bike today.

pics

Saguaro Forest in Arizona:

Arizona hills:

Welcome to New Mexico:

New Mexico ranch land:

Lake Roberts Motel:

Gila Cliff Dwellings:

In Sierra Blanca, I met Paul, from Canturbury, England, doing the same thing I'm doing:

Texas Big Sky Country:


View from McDonald Observatory hilltop:

Check it out - all my sins got washed away:

My new spoke wrench:

Enchanted Rock:

I didn't need that bike rack, anyway:


Willy, Waylon and the Boyz:


The Devil's Backbone Highway:

The Devil's Backbone Tavern:

Ali, Jaime, and Andie say hi:


Jaime, me, Mike, Dave at The Iguana Grill:

Austin, Tx

Today, I arrived in my favorite town, Austin, Texas.  It was a hard day, though, since the bike rack broke yesterday.  I picked up a backpack, threw my disconnected-from-my-bike rack and gear in the backpack, and soldiered on.  Man, cycling with a heavy backpack on your shoulders is not the way to go.  It sucked the life force out of me.  I can not wait to hit REI tomorrow and get a new rack. 

Logged my 2,000th mile today (started counting from Laguna Beach, CA).  That was pretty cool.  I also went through Luckenbach, biked along the Devil's Backbone Highway, and ate lunch in the Devil's Backbone Tavern.  If you've heard Todd Snider's story of the Devil's Backbone Tavern, then you understand why I needed to find Luckenbach, the Devil's Backbone Highway, and the Devil's Backbone Tavern. 

Arrived at Ali/Jaime's house, staying here tonight.  Will go to Dave LaRose's place tomorrow.  He just moved here.  We just got back from dinner.  Jaime, Dave, Mike Jablin, and I went to eat at The Iguana.  After riding the lonely road for so long, it's so good to see some familiar faces again. 

I plan to chill out here in Austin for a couple days and resume riding on Saturday.  Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post some new pics tomorrow. 

fredericksburg, tx

Man, what another awesome day. I'm in fredericksburg, eating dinner at friedhelm's german restaurant. This town is known for its german food and it's delicious.

The day started with a trip to hill country bicycle works in kerrville. Man, huge props go out to adam and the gang at hill country bicycle works. Very knowledgable, competent, and friendly. Cool shop, too. The whole time they worked on my bike, i got to watch an old episode of liege-bastone-liege. Better than that, though, they totally hooked me up with a new wheel, parts, and advice. When i rolled out of there, i had a new wheel, spoke wrench, and some spare spokes. I had a renewed sense of invinceability. Coupled with the tools i already possessed (a crescent wrench, electrical tape, duct tape...), i feel like a rolling bike shop, ready to take on the world. What a difference 24 hours makes. He even swapped out my chain for me. I had a spare chain and chain tool on me. But did you know a 9-speed chain tool is not compatible with a 10-speed chain? I'm glad i didn't learn that on the side of the road. As i rolled out of the bike shop's parking lot, I thought, "i'm all set. Well, at least until the next thing breaks." Best of all, adam gave me a map and showed me the best way to bike to fredericksburg and enchanted rock. All backcountry rural roads through the hill country and some ranchers' ranches. Absolutely beautiful. I can honestly say they were some of the most beautiful and scenic roads i've ever ridden. God, i love riding. Definitely some of my favorite roads of this trip. Thanks, adam!

So today, i went to one of my favorite places of all time: enchanted rock. It's a big pink-granite dome in the middle of nowhere texas hill country, just north of fredericksburg. It posesses magical properties and feeds the soul just to gaze upon it. I'm so happy i got to see it again on this trip. As i was riding back down to fredericksburg, i thought, "i can't believe i'm doing this. I feel so alive."

terry: unfortunately, the bike rack you loaned me gave up the ghost. On the way back into town, i hit a pothole and the post sheared right next to where it clamps onto the seatpost. I'm really sorry. When i get to austin tomorrow, i will buy a new one and give that to you when i get back home. At first, it was hanging on by a thread, so i tried to lash it with my bungee cords and static line, but it broke off. So then i just carried it under my arm, like a football. Thank goodness i was almost back to town and only had to do that for a mile. I've had very good luck, timing-wise, with some of these mishaps. If it had happened 50 miles ago, that would have been much worse. Not quite sure how i'm going to make it to austin tomorrow, but i'll figure something out. I may wear it on my back like a backpack.

kerrville, tx

Glad to hear brooks was fun. Congrats to those who did well. Sounds like some carnage, too. I called king and he's still alive, so it's allgood. Guess i'm glad i'm out here in texas, pedalling squares. I am definitely pedalling squares these days. It's not pretty.

I made it to kerrville. Rode through the famous texas hill country today. It was awesome. Gorgeous scenery. Gorgeous weather. Roller coaster climbs and descents. I also got quite a scare. One thing that i was really hoping would not happen on this trip was a broken spoke. Today, i broke a spoke. I wasn't even riding when it happened. The bike was leaning against a post, then fell. When i picked it up, a spoke was broken (rear wheel), and it was out of true so bad it wouldn't even turn. It was rubbing against the frame. Uh-oh. Too bad i don't have a spoke wrench on me. But good thing i was in a town. I got a crescent wrench from the local hardware store and used that. Oh, and too bad i don't have much truing experience. Guess it's time to learn - on the fly. It went well, i successfully trued it by loosening select spokes. At least i can roll again. But the nearest bike shop (kerrville) is 80 miles away. And i'm extremely nervous i will blow another spoke. One spoke missing, half of them loose, a lot of extra weight on the back end. Not good. Once one goes, they all start to go. And these aren't exactly the smoothest roads out here. I was sure another one would pop and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Or worse yet, crash, should one pop, cause the rear wheel to go out of true, and lock up against the frame while riding. Pull a beloki. Thank goodness it held in there. Those were 80 very nervous miles. Kerrville's a little further than my original destination goal for today, but given the situation, i was on a mission - get to kerrville and a bike shop asap. So that's my 1st stop tomorrow morning. I hope they can fix my wheel.

brackettville, tx

Chillin' in brackettville tonight. Short ride today. It was either 50 or another hundred, so i decided my body could use a break and opted for the former. The weather's nice here, feels like florida. I think i'm officially out of the desert now. As soon as i turned east from del rio, everything got green. Lots of grass, bushes, and some trees. First grass i've seen in forever.

misc

For terry:
2 days ago was 100 miles with 1 right turn.
Yesterday was 100 miles with 1 left turn.
Today was 100 miles with no turns.

For gregg: no fires yet, fortunately. I think they're all north of here. I think your mileage calculations are correct.

For eric bell: my ipod does not have "el paso", unfortunately. How did that oversight happen?

Actually, "out here in the middle of nowhere" is my theme song these days. That, and "on the road again", "gotta move on", "passing through", "a good country mile", and, as eric pointed out, "melissa" by the allman bros:
"crossroads seem to come and go,
gypsy rides from coast to coast..."

thanks, everyone, for the comments and birthday wishes. Thanks for reading.

What's going on back home in atl? How did everyone do at brooks?

del rio, tx

I'm just north of del rio. Yet another brutal hard day of nothing but headwinds. They're sucking my will to live. 3rd day in a row. Terry, i wish i were going your direction. From here on out, no more headwinds, please. Tailwinds only, please. All overcast, gray, and gloomy today. Even started this morning in fog. After so many days of nice, sunny weather, i guess i can't complain. At least i dodged the rain. So today's stretch of road, i'm glad to get behind me. It was the longest stretch without a convience store or anything (89 miles). Knowing this, i stocked up last night. I was a rolling grocery store when i rolled out of sanderson. From here on out, the map east of here looks like a spider's web, so i don't think i'll have trouble finding provisions. Anyway, after a long, hard day, imagine rolling into your target destination (comstock), thoroughly exhausted, ready to get off the bike, only to find the only hotel in town is shut down, and the next one is 18 miles down the road. So imagine time trialing those 18 miles on cooked legs in an effort to beat darkness, only to find out that hotel's sold out. She told me it's 12 more miles into town, but all hotels are booked. Now it's dark, i'm thorougly wiped out, and i fear i'm sleeping outside. Luckily, i found a room just one mile further down. That was close.

sanderson, tx

Made it to sanderson.

ft davis, tx

Made it to ft davis. Hard day today. Headwind the whole way. What the hell? Payback for yesterday? It took me 4 hrs to cover the first 40 miles. Yes, 10 mph avg. Brutal. When i finally got away from the interstate, the headwind didn't let up, but at least the scenery got nicer. Montana is called big sky country, but they could call this big sky country, too. One really cool thing about today - i got to check out the mcdonald observatory. This was a special treat for me, as i grew up on "earth and sky". In selecting a location for the observatory, to minimize light pollution, they wanted to find someplace high on a hill in the middle of nowhere. Boy, they met that goal.

van horn, tx

I made it to van horn. Today was a great day. I felt good and had a slight tailwind most of the day. It was one of those days where the miles just magically melt away under your wheels. I logged 149, the longest stage of the tour thus far. Now i'm eating a burrito in a chuy's and i feel awesome. Earlier today, i went to the cattleman's steakhouse for lunch, per alpa/stacy/jeff/victoria's suggestion. About 10 miles out of the way, way out in the desert, in the middle of nowhere. It was closed! Just like wally world. They're only open for dinner. Bummer. Looked like a cool place. So i found a subway and ate lunch there instead.

el paso, tx

I made it to el paso. 3 states down. Now it's #4. Something tells me i'm going to be in this one for a while.

Deming, NM

there's a town in New Mexico called "Truth or Consequences".  is that cool or what?

 

for AP:

 

Many miles traveled

Alas, I still haven't found...

Where is Fellini's?

 

I'm in Deming, NM.  I spent the weekend doggedly determined to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings, north of Silver City.  What I did not realize, the Dwellings are snuggled way back in the mountains.  Lots of climbing to get there.  Like going to the Gaps.  I did see a lot of the Tour de Gila markings on those roads - holy moly, that must be a hard race. 

 

I spent a lot of time Saturday morning fixing my pump situation, so by the time I got on the bike and made it to Lake Roberts, it was too late to make it all the way to the Dwellings.  They are another 20 miles further, with a big H'ors Categorie climb in the way.  So I just checked in to the Lake Roberts Motel and scoped out the scene.  Not good.  The hotel was a dive.  Here's a visual for you:  on one wall, where a picture would normally hang, hung a flyswatter (and only a flyswatter) in the middle of the wall.  I tried to upload a picture, but this computer won't let me.  The small grocery store next door, which was the only other thing around, had minimal provisions and nothing but junk food.  No cell service.  I thought, "Uh oh, I screwed up".  Knowing bad weather was forecast and I may get stranded a day, this was not the place to be; I much would have preferred Silver City. 

 

I expected rain, but got something a little different.  I awoke Sunday morning to about half a foot of snow.  Looked awesome, but too bad I'm biking, not skiing.  Only two channels on the tv:  CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel.  CNN starts to repeat after only half an hour, and you can only watch so many episodes of Tornado Storm Stories on the Weather Channel before going insane.  So I got a book at the store about outlaws of the old west. 

 

Fortunately, the snow plows came and when the sun popped out, the roads actually cleared.  So I decided to ride on up to the cliff dwellings and knock that out.  So picture this:  Snow covered mountainous terrain, clear roads, blue skies, and freezing temps.  Beautiful, yet brutal.  It was like going to The Gaps in the dead of winter with not quite enough clothes. 

 

Eventually, I made it, and after thawing out in the visitor center, I checked out the Dwellings.  They are very cool.  I'm convinced the cliff dwellers must have been rock climbers.  Lots of great rock climbing potential there. 

 

Today, my suggested route called for Emory Pass, but given all the snow, ice, and general desire to quit freezing my butt off, I just didn't have the heart.  I decided to bypass Emory Pass and head south.  (That means the climb I went over yesterday to get to the dwellings would be the highest altitude I will see on this journey:  7400'.)

 

One cool thing about the detour:  it just happened to take me right by a state park called the City of Rocks.  A big pile of rocks out in the middle of nowhere.  Looked really neat.  Where's my belayer?

Silver City, NM

I made it to Silver City!  Man, I can honestly say this was one of the best days I have ever experienced on a bike.  I rolled out of Safford this morning, and rolled through the high desert for a while before turning toward the mountains.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  "Remote" is an understatement.  Imagine miles and miles of nothing but nature.  No towns, no buildings, not even a billboard or telephone pole for miles.  It was like that all day long.  And it's gorgeous out here.  So I climbed a hill and hit 52.9 mph on the decent.  I'm amazed how easy it is to go fast down these hills.  It wasn't even that steep of a descent.  I guess it's all the extra weight I'm carrying.  After hours upon hours travelling sub-20-mph, it was quite refreshing to go 50 for a while.  So I rolled into the town of Three Way and found the one small store that Terry mentioned.  No, it's not what you're thinking.  They call it "Three Way" because it's at the intersection of three roads.  Met the lady in the store, but she didn't seem too interested in my spandex.  So, knowing that was the last store I would see all day, I stocked up.  Then continued east.  And then I found it - The Climb!  up Black Jack Canyon.  A super-long hairpin switchback climb that belongs in the Tour de France.  It was awesome.  I love climbs like that.  I don't know why.  And then, half hour later, as soon as I crested the top, bam!  I'm in the middle of a pine tree forest!  Incredible.  Five miles after that, I crossed the state line into New Mexico.  Man, did that feel good.  As I paused to take a picture of the sign, I was greeted with snow flurries!  So I came down off that mountain and now it's nothing but rolling prairie-grassland.  Rancher country.  When I turned onto Hwy 180 to head toward Silver City, I had the most awesome tailwind in the world.  I was easily crusing along in my 53-12 at 33 mph for miles and miles, and I wasn't even in the drops.  I felt like David Zabriske.  It was magic.  Eventually, the road turned upward again and I began the long, gradual climb up to the Continental Divide.  I was within about 15 miles of Silver City, and then my rear tire exploded!  Didn't take long to figure out the cause of this one - it was worn out.  Exposed threads.  I learned the life expectancy of my tire is right at 1000 miles.  Oops!  Guess I should have been paying attention to that.  So I changed the tire and tube, and when I grabbed my pump, that's when panic nearly arrived.  I horrifically discovered the screw-on end piece of the nozzle was mysteriously missing.  Uh-oh.  Not good.  Fortunately, I was able to wrestle about 80 psi with the wounded pump.  Hoped that would be good enough to make it the rest of the way.  Nope.  Only got about 100 more feet up the road before it went flat again.  Either a pinch-flat, or the tube wasn't seated well.  So I fixed it again, very nervous at this point that I will become stranded, as I'm down to only one more spare and a wounded pump.  But I tried a little harder and got 100 psi in it this time, and that did the trick.  Eventually crested the Divide and coasted the last 4 miles down into Silver City under the cover of darkness.  Elevation 6000 feet.  This is a cool town.  It has the Old West look and feel.  I found a room at an old hotel on the downtown square and I'm in an internet cafe downstairs, directly below my room.  I already scoped out two bike shops in town that will be my first stops tomorrow morning.  I plan to stock up on more tires, tubes, a new pump, and co2 backup.  The good news was that the rain and sleet held off until I made it to town.  Just to make things interesting, dark clouds hovered all around while I went through my flat tire near-crisis.  But fortunately, they held off.  Otherwise, it might have turned epic. 

safford, az

I made it to safford. Relatively easy day today, mostly flat and tailwinds, down the san simon river valley. I'm in the high desert now, no more cacti, just scrub brush, tumbleweeds, mountains all around, blue skies, and high thin clouds. tomorrow resumes the hard stuff with more climbing and long miles, if i want to sleep in a bed at the end of the day. Correction to yesterday's post: The river was the san pedro, not the gila. Hey, terry, when you rode from safford to globe, did you take the hwy 3 option around san carlos lake? If you bypassed it with the straight shot on hwy 70, then you were wise. That 40-mile stretch of pavement is absolutely horrible!

Globe, AZ

I made it to Globe.  Barely.  I'm at a Super 8 motel, this computer in the lobby is a 486.  Dinosaur.  I type a letter and 5 seconds later it shows up on the screen. Awesome. Not the quickest machine, but it works.  Today was another long, brutal day.  Mother Nature was not kind.  Massive freakin' headwinds all damn day long.  Unbelievable.  Just shoot me.  Got cold, too.  I tried to keep my mind off the sufferfest by checking out the scenery.  Very remote out here.  Only went through two tiny towns and that was it.  No Subway for lunch today.  I'm back in the mountains now.  Entire hillsides covered by only rocks and sagurro cacti.  A sagurro forest.  Looked neat.  Also rode alongside the Gilar River a bit.  First river I've seen in a while that actually has water in it.  Cool.  To top it all off, just when I thought I was almost to Globe, someone put a huge freakin' mountain in the way and I was greeted by one of the longest climbs I've ever seen.  It probably wasn't actually the longest climb I've ever seen, but the massive headwinds sure made it feel that way.  We're talking wind gusts that slow your pace to a crawl and grab your front wheel and try to put the bike in the gutter.  So it took forever, but finally I was treated to a great view of the valley floor and more mountains in the distance.  We will save those for tomorrow.  The setting sun gave the scene a cool sunset glow.  The descent was killer.  Hit 49 mph without even trying. 

Tucson, AZ

today was a hard day. the headwinds were strong and the roads weren't too good. lots of broken glass, and lots of cracks and bumps sufficient to tenderize cyclists. i think it gets so hot here the asphalt actually buckles in 10-foot increments. it didn't help matters that i took a wrong turn and added an extra 20 miles to the already-long trek from tempe down to tucson. also, today was my first day solo. matthew flies home tomorrow morning, so he rented a car and took his bike to the shop to have them pack it up and ship it home. from here on out, i'm on my own. and as i found out today, it's a long, lonely road out there.

finally made it to jenny and john's place. the ottos (john, emily, jenny, and andrew) say hi!:

jenny took us to dinner at a great mexican restaurant. back at her house, we were treated to an awesome view of the city lights and desert sky from her patio. we got to learn about all the different poisonous critters that come out to play during the summer around here: snakes, scorpions, spiders, bees, centipedes... sometimes they come in the house.

thanks, jenny and john, for letting us stay!

thanks, matthew, for riding with me the past couple weeks!

here are several random pics from the past few days:




here's a picture of me in front of Sun Devil Stadium, where u2 shot some live footage during their Joshua Tree Tour for Rattle and Hum:

here's my friend on the road:

thanks for reading and thanks for the comments!

Tempe, AZ

So we made it to Tempe.  One really nice thing about Phoenix (and all the towns we saw in California, too) - tons of bike lanes and bike paths everywhere. I wish Atlanta had that. Anyway, today was supposed to be an easy, recovery day, which would come in handy, sandwiched between the long efforts of yesterday and tomorrow.  We only went from Peoria (northwest side of Phoenix) to Tempe (southeast side of Phonenix), but by the time we doubled back to search for things that fell off my bike, and then rode all over Tempe several times, we still wound up logging 53 miles.  So the lesson learned for today is don't trust bungee cords.  They stretch and get loose over time.  I lost several things off the back of my bike as we cruised across Phoenix.  Like my Cycleworks jersey that I wasn't wearing because it's so darn sunny and warm here.  And a Teva sandal that had my arm warmers and leg warmers stowed within.  Fortunately, I didn't put a lot of miles between the fallen items and myself before I noticed.  We doubled back and found them.  Whew.  Those were a few tense moments.  When we got to Tempe, we went straight to REI, where I bought one of those mesh bungee nets to help hold my stuff on my bike, and also a whole stash of new spare tubes.  I've gotten 3 flats since entering Arizona.  You would think they would be due to thorns from cacti, but 2 were small staples, and one was a mystery.  Our biggest challenge of the day was finding a hotel room.  Would you believe most hotels in Tempe are totally booked?  They said it's due to "spring training".  Guess this is the place to be this time of year.  So we finally found a room at Quality Inn.  It's a little off the beaten path, but coincidentally right around the corner from the Four Peaks Brewery Restaurant.  So that's where we spent the evening.  Cool.  

 

phoenix

Made it to phoenix.

salome

Made it to salome, az. Shake it, shake it, shake it, salome. There is no stoplight in salome, az.

Blythe

Today we rode through some big, tan sand dunes. They looked really cool. A lot of dirt bikes and 4-wheelers were ripping it up. Looked like fun.

Weather's perfect. Now we're in Blythe, CA, on the Arizona border. Lots of farmer's fields and lots of irrigation. Surprising they can grow stuff in the desert. Damn soft water, feels like i can't get the soap off.

Tecate Divide

Oh, i almost forgot to mention, yesterday we went over the Tecate Divide. That's when you take a Tecate beer and pour half of it in your glass and half of it in mine.

"happens all the time"

We arrived in Brawley, CA this afternoon.  Our ride out of Jacumba started with a nice, long 6% descent, which just happened to be on the shoulder of the interstate.  Half an hour of coasting 40 mph, it was awesome.  Now we're on the valley floor and it's a full-on desert.  Very flat.  It was the Yuha desert we crossed today. 

 

Yesterday, we arrived in Jacumba, CA, right on the Mexico border.  We saw lots of border patrol and went through a couple checkpoints.  The road even came within a couple hundred feet of the border, and we saw a fence.  It was a lot smaller fence than I expected.  I think I can jump it.  So we crested the mountain range east of San Diego, and we're now in the desert.  Not a flat desert, it's hilly.  I love riding in the desert.  It's so beautiful and peaceful.  Earlier in the day, while resting at a convenience store, I got to watch a truck drive off without taking the nozzle out of its gastank.  It yanked the hose right off the pump.  I thought it would spew gasoline all over the place, but I guess they designed it to pop right off.  And I said to Matthew, "this is the kind of stuff we only get to see on a trip like this."  But the attendant lady said, "happens all the time."

 

brawley

Made it to brawley, ca.

jacumba, ca

Made it to jacumba, ca.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

The rain went away and we had another gorgeous day for our jaunt down the coast further into San Diego. We rode through La Jolla, where this pic was taken. Man, that was awesome.

Arrived at Mary Sue and Mark's in La Mesa, Ca (eastern side of San Diego), and they took us to dinner at Chateau Orleans cajun restaurant since today is Fat Tuesday. It was great. Good food, good blues band playing in the corner. Thanks, Mary Sue and Mark!! And we found out today is Matt's birthday! Happy Birthday, Matthew!!