we made it!

Dear Blog Readers,
We are here! Here we are! In Southern California! We've been bowling, eating citrus fruit and today we went on a relaxing, lightweight, uphill road ride to a casino for a free lunch buffet.
Before getting here we rode through dry saguaro cactus stands, deserted desert ranches, dried out rivers and washes, rolling mounds of sand dunes, and a city built completely of RVs. Riding bikes through 600 miles of the desert has been an entirely unique experience.
All in all, this was a cool trip.

wow oh wow

well after a few days in tucson we reluctantly left the day after the dia de los muertos parade which is huge. thousands of people, fire-eaters on stilts and crane dancers were highlights. on the road out of tucson we noticed a sign for biosphere 2 and wow it was biosphere 2 lots of wackyness and weirdness in the middle of nowwhere.
more later

tucson

we rode 1600 miles to Dallas and then time warped across the west Texas desolation to Tucson on the amtrak
now here we are, there are cruisers, mountain bikes, the lycra clad road warriors, and... we have seen at least three extra-cycles! Biking is very popular here. It is warm and sunny, and flat with giant mountains protruding from the horizon. We sampled some desert delicacies, eating fresh dates (which are actually a grain) at the farmers market and got tamales to go and the usual serving(s) of coffee and next for today is further exploration of this neat town. Bye! Judy

judy cooking








building our bikes up at 330am in the tucson train station
















HALOWEEEEEEEEEN HALOWEEN






bike traffic in tucson

pictures

us with good ol' jack daniels












glasswork at the bathhouse in hotsprings arkansas










the mississippi river (200 yards from the casino)











me cooking behind a house in hazen arkansas











the closed for winter waterpark campsite of ours

texxxass

yup, thats right, we are in texas. home of the headwind and lonestar beer. the headwind i am familiar with the lonestar, unforchantly not. two days in tx, two days in dry counties. just my luck. anyways i havent written in a while because judy calls my blogs boring. oh well. last night we stayed and a waterpark/campground that was closed for the season. it had a wicked snake run that would have been wonderful to have my bmx. anyways next stop dallas. i will keep you updated on the lonestar situation. pictures also will come soon. it seems every computer we come to is on lockdown. blame them not us.
-john

our roads

We have seen all kinds of roads: divided highways with wide shoulders, commercial thoroughfares lined with fast food chains, barely paved county routes... and our usual and favorite: a two lane road dotted with gas stations or groceries that travel straight through the center of small towns.

halfway?

We crossed the Mississippi at dusk last week to enter a sad scene in Helena-West Helena. Schools, churches and groceries were boarded up, a factory was shut down, gas stations were selling booze and night was quickly approaching. We pedaled 13 miles into the dark to find a campground, then got picked up by a disabled vet and his girlfriend who warned us about Arkansas wolverines.
We ended up staying in a casino, which was another totally weird scene, waiting out the rain and pedaling over the bridge again.
Then to the Arkansas state fair: the gravitron and Adam Miller were highlights!

I rode in my big ring through all of Alabama, but I found out that Mississippi does have some hills. When I crossed the state line I saw an armadillo. We had already seen at least a dozen flattened on the pavement, but this was a silly creature with a mouselike face, turtle shell back and smooth snakeskin underbelly. He wobbled through the grass to one of the archeological mounds, which are another mystery.
We have been finding ok campsites. Nothing like the abandoned house or deconstructed bulldozer I found when I biked across NC. Last night we stayed at mountain biking trails on the campus of Ole Miss. I'd say my diet has changed more than my usual sleeping accomodations. Everything I eat now comes wrapped in shiny paper; high fructose corn syrup is usually the second or third ingredient.
Bye, Judy

six states

Hello Blog Readers,

We have pedaled into our sixth state after zig zagging around the southeast.

We left Chattanooga on a quiet road. Stench of fish rotting on riverbank pushed at us through uphill headwind, green canopy shading still summer sun...then ....that night became winter. We wore almost every article of clothing the next day and after our visit to the distillery in a dry county we turned south to alabama, where the rain has hit. We covered about 60 soaking miles yesterday then got picked up by a truck for the last 20 into Tupelo where we dried off in a hotel room!

John is having an enjoyable time and I am learning a lot. Bye! Judy