The Lonliest Highway

Onto Nevada where we rode "America's Loneliest Highway" through the entire state. "How lonely can it be?" you might ask. Well most days we would leave our host site and bike 80 to 110 miles without seeing a single house the entire day-it was so beautiful though.

Crossing from Utah into Nevada also marked the start of an event called the Nevada Regatta. This was a series of competitions crafted by Paige and Ryan Farr to help us pass time on "The Loneliest Highway." It was an overwhelming success, and not only passed the time on highway 50, but also provided some of the most memorable bike and build moments. Our group of 32 was divided into 4 teams: Santa Maria (mine), The Black Pearl, The Enterprise and Titanic. Events included the PBandJ eating competition. How fast can one rider eat 5 PBandJ sandwiches? The answer... Sonya in under 3 minutes.

Another event was the Road Morph Relay. We had to ride 40 miles and all riders on your team had to touch the Road Morph (our bike pump) for at least one mile. The winner of this event was Santa Maria by a slim margin. We averaged about 21.5mph for the duration of the 40 miles! The winner of the Regatta has yet to be announced, but I'll follow up with a posting of the leader board.

So it turns out the loneliest highway wasn't so lonely. We had our longest day of riding at 110 miles, but we all had a blast doing it, and I've never felt so proud of our group. We faced some serious headwinds, and climb after climb to get to the foothills of the Sierras. Yesterday we crossed into California! I can't explain the feeling that came with crossing this state border. We descended into the area surrounding Lake Tahoe and It's all felt pretty surreal since then. We've made it. We're in California, and I couldn't wish to be doing this with a better group of people. We've got just a handful of riding days before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. I'll give you an update when we've reached the other side.

much love,

rob

Arches and Mesas

Utah was the state I was perhaps most looking forward to. After reading lots of Edward Abbey, I was so pumped to finally explore some of the red and rocky terrain of the west. One of our first stops was in Moab home to Arches National Park. Our night in Arches was one of my favorite times of the entire trip. We spent from 7pm until well after dark, just sitting under one of the arches. It's completely surreal out there, but that's kind of how I felt our whole ride through Utah went... in such a good way.

Our build day in Moab was unlike any other. We worked with Community Rebuilds, an organization just getting started. We worked with Donnie, the master of all things natural building to help restore an old adobe wall. We learned how to mix adobe. One group did the mixing, while the other slapped some of the fresh adobe on the existing wall.

In Green River, Utah we stayed at a great little community center. Once major highways started rerouting traffic to bypass this town, it lost its luster. The Americorps members in this town are revitalizing community. I had a great time hearing all of their plans and walking around the town a bit. My $500 rider grant will go to this community.

Our riding and building in Utah was some of the most enriching of the entire trip. I loved learning about natural building, and just the sights of the Utahan landscape were so amazing. It's hard to believe these scenes exist anywhere... and we were biking through the middle of it all.