Hello everyone! A quick update from the road. As Nilit told you in the previous post, we're really making our way to San Francisco! I'm getting giddy as we get closer to California.
A few days ago we drove from Telluride, CO to Holbrook, AZ to visit Nilit's parents. We then made our way down to Phoenix, where we'll get to spend some quality time with my family and our friends as well. After that we head over to LA, and then up the state to San Francisco! We're really looking forward to the rest of the drive. Don't forget to follow us on Firepin, here. It updates live if you happen to check it while we're driving!:)
Nilit left off at St. Louis, but our trip through Kansas is certainly noteworthy.. Actually, let me first back up a bit.
When Nilit and I first planned this trip, we kept two of our bikes out of storage purposefully because 1) we didn't know when we would ship our things from storage and if you know me at all, you know I can't live bike-less (especially in California!) and 2) we read an article in Bicycling magazine which outlined the 50 best rides in each of the 50 states. Our rough plan was to do the ride from that article in whichever states we were passing.
I can't say this worked out as we planned. Some routes were out of our way, and others (Pennsylvania) we preferred riding with a friend in Pittsburgh. But we did do the planned ride in Kansas (Gypsum Hills), and it was amazing.
Rolling hills, and beautiful views of the red Gypsum in the soil. After we were done riding, Piccolo enjoyed the landscape as well..
We started driving, and our plan was to spend the night somewhere on the border of Kansas and Colorado (en route to Denver). The town of Colby, Kansas seemed reachable at a reasonable hour after our bike ride. The first we heard of the storms brewing in the midwest that day was during our post-ride meal. We were eating sandwiches at a small convenience store/sub shop (the only real place to eat in this small town), and we met a few guys sitting next to us who happened to be professional meteorologists. They told us baseball-sized hail and tornadoes were likely, which was hard to believe considering the clear (hot!) ride we had just finished. They gave us a lot of information, some of which admittedly went over our non-meteorologist heads. However, they did recommend that we leave for our road trip quickly. They were storm chasers, and they were certainly staying put there for a reason. We were worried about Piccolo and the hail. We were worried about the tornadoes, but our new meteorologist friends weren't freaking out...so we should be okay, right?
We left quickly, and the skies were still blue. The picture of Piccolo taken above was taken in blissful ignorance. It really doesn't look so bad out here...What storm are they talking about?!
UH OH.
We started to wonder if we were actually safe. The good news was the storm chasers were driving in the opposite direction. We hoped this meant the storm was not headed where we were. Still a bit frazzled and nervous, we ended up pulling along side a storm chaser who was parked at an intersection to heed his advice. He was amazingly friendly and checked his radar and other storm-chaser-super-sophisticated-equipment-things when we told him we were headed to Colby, KS. He told us not to stay where we were. Keep driving west, but take the northern route. If you're fast enough, you will split the two major storms. You should be able to drive between them. But GO...NOW.
Go we did. After driving west a little more, I checked a radar app I had downloaded with the advice of the meteorologists at the convenience store, and saw this.
We were at the blue dot, and headed the direction of Dodge City. During the whole drive, we would look left and right and see thick dark black clouds and rain/hail. In the middle was sunshine. It was surreal.
.JPG)
After driving about 5 hours that day, we made it safely to Colby, Kansas that night. We were so grateful for our luck and the help of the meteorologists and storm chasers. We heard about tornadoes touching down different parts of Kansas (including the town we had lunch), and large hail, and of course the tragic news in Oklahoma when the storm hit there the next day. We couldn't help but think that it could have been different for us. We could have ridden our bikes longer and gotten delayed, not even aware of the pending threat. We could have had an ordinary lunch instead of an informative one and not even realized that we were driving into two potential tornados. We could have driven a southern route, into the storm, without the help of the storm chaser. With luck, things worked out for us and we are so very grateful for that. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who sadly, weren't as lucky.
The next day, we drove through Denver and stayed at a lovely downtown Airbnb. We had some dinnertime beer and Vietnamese Pho and called it a night. We were starting to feel the chill from the Colorado mountains, and the hot noodle soup was a perfect end to our day.
We spoke with our (fellow cyclist) Denver hosts, who let us know that the winter cold was stretching into the summer. We had originally planned to do a bike ride up Mt. Evans, a 14k peak in the Rockies. They let us down gently saying that it was likely snowed out. This was sad and relieving at the same time - we were likely not in good enough shape to conquer the mountain right now anyway. Climbing 5,000 feet is one thing, climbing it at altitude is something else. They told us instead about a paved bike route that went up to Vail Pass. It was possible there was some snow on that trail, but it was likely to be clearer than Mt. Evans.
So the next day we geared up (purchasing some cold-weather gear from the amazing flagship Denver REI store), and started our ride up Vail pass. It was chilly, but bearable. The ride was all up, which was difficult at altitude. But we got into a good pace and just kept riding. The ride is on a paved path, separate from the highway - which was fantastic. As if the thin air wasn't enough, the views were also breathtaking.
As we rode along, we started noticing patches of snow on the sidewalks. We decided to ride through the shallow patches, but we came across some deeper ones where snowshoes may have been preferable to our cycling shoes..
Each time we came across a deep patch of snow, we could see clear path on the other side so we just kept hiking it out - wanting to ride as much as possible. We were having a blast, anyway. Eventually, unfortunately, we looked ahead and only saw snow for miles ahead. So our plan of making it to Vail Pass didn't quite pan out, but we had no complaints. We were on our bikes after all, and the views each direction were just gorgeous.
We were slightly cold at this point, but our new REI gear was doing a good job of keeping us pretty warm. At least that was the case until the clear skies disappeared, dark clouds formed, and rain and hail took its place. The ride out to Vail Pass also happens to be straight uphill, so the return trip was all downhill. The bitter cold eventually got to us, and slowly we went from jovial and chatty to focused and quiet. Later on, we concurred that both of us at that point were internally debating on which would keep us warmer - riding fast (thereby exerting more energy), or riding slow (thereby creating less head-wind). I ended up cranking it out and flying back to the parking lot. I was cold enough to imagine that my fingers were going to fall off (likely an exaggeration), but kept going anyway. Nilit joined me in going fast soon after he saw what I had decided. We got back fast, set the bikes down on the grass, and immediately hopped into the car for some warmth. I took my socks off since I could no longer feel my toes. They were blue and swollen. Fingers were much of the same, but a little better. Still shivering and without saying a word, we both just smiled at each other and busted up laughing. An adventure, for sure..and we honestly wouldn't have had it any other way.
We eventually packed up our things and made it to our Airbnb host's house which was perfectly toasty and cozy. After a hot shower, we were ready for dinner and sleep. A local brewery was the perfect cap to our long day.
We spent the next couple of days first driving to Telluride (where we also went on a ride! This time at higher altitude) and then through the Four Corners (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet) down into Arizona. Check out the pictures below of our ride and our beautiful welcome to the southwest.
Another thing that we noticed while driving was that Piccolo (the mini) attracts lots of friendly attention. He is also quite photogenic, so people who are digging the car usually wave and snap a few pictures. Nilit came up with the idea of creating a Twitter account, and posting a sign on the car asking folks to post pictures to share if they'd like. So, we posted a sign (admittedly a cute one), and some people have liked it! So check us out on Twitter @cxcountrymini and also check out #CrossCountryMini. A couple of people have tweeted pictures, which is way cool.
Today we leave from Arizona to head to LA, where we will get to catch up with friends. We're then planning to begin our drive up to Northern California, with one night stop somewhere in between. Stay tuned for more photos and stories. Thanks for reading!:)
A few days ago we drove from Telluride, CO to Holbrook, AZ to visit Nilit's parents. We then made our way down to Phoenix, where we'll get to spend some quality time with my family and our friends as well. After that we head over to LA, and then up the state to San Francisco! We're really looking forward to the rest of the drive. Don't forget to follow us on Firepin, here. It updates live if you happen to check it while we're driving!:)
Nilit left off at St. Louis, but our trip through Kansas is certainly noteworthy.. Actually, let me first back up a bit.
When Nilit and I first planned this trip, we kept two of our bikes out of storage purposefully because 1) we didn't know when we would ship our things from storage and if you know me at all, you know I can't live bike-less (especially in California!) and 2) we read an article in Bicycling magazine which outlined the 50 best rides in each of the 50 states. Our rough plan was to do the ride from that article in whichever states we were passing.
I can't say this worked out as we planned. Some routes were out of our way, and others (Pennsylvania) we preferred riding with a friend in Pittsburgh. But we did do the planned ride in Kansas (Gypsum Hills), and it was amazing.
Rolling hills, and beautiful views of the red Gypsum in the soil. After we were done riding, Piccolo enjoyed the landscape as well..
We started driving, and our plan was to spend the night somewhere on the border of Kansas and Colorado (en route to Denver). The town of Colby, Kansas seemed reachable at a reasonable hour after our bike ride. The first we heard of the storms brewing in the midwest that day was during our post-ride meal. We were eating sandwiches at a small convenience store/sub shop (the only real place to eat in this small town), and we met a few guys sitting next to us who happened to be professional meteorologists. They told us baseball-sized hail and tornadoes were likely, which was hard to believe considering the clear (hot!) ride we had just finished. They gave us a lot of information, some of which admittedly went over our non-meteorologist heads. However, they did recommend that we leave for our road trip quickly. They were storm chasers, and they were certainly staying put there for a reason. We were worried about Piccolo and the hail. We were worried about the tornadoes, but our new meteorologist friends weren't freaking out...so we should be okay, right?
We left quickly, and the skies were still blue. The picture of Piccolo taken above was taken in blissful ignorance. It really doesn't look so bad out here...What storm are they talking about?!
Still, we heeded their advice and kept driving. Slowly, we started noticing clouds in the distance and, more alarmingly, storm chaser cars everywhere. We passed a fully-armored car that looked something like this:
 |
| (Source here) |
We started to wonder if we were actually safe. The good news was the storm chasers were driving in the opposite direction. We hoped this meant the storm was not headed where we were. Still a bit frazzled and nervous, we ended up pulling along side a storm chaser who was parked at an intersection to heed his advice. He was amazingly friendly and checked his radar and other storm-chaser-super-sophisticated-equipment-things when we told him we were headed to Colby, KS. He told us not to stay where we were. Keep driving west, but take the northern route. If you're fast enough, you will split the two major storms. You should be able to drive between them. But GO...NOW.
Go we did. After driving west a little more, I checked a radar app I had downloaded with the advice of the meteorologists at the convenience store, and saw this.
We were at the blue dot, and headed the direction of Dodge City. During the whole drive, we would look left and right and see thick dark black clouds and rain/hail. In the middle was sunshine. It was surreal.
.JPG)
After driving about 5 hours that day, we made it safely to Colby, Kansas that night. We were so grateful for our luck and the help of the meteorologists and storm chasers. We heard about tornadoes touching down different parts of Kansas (including the town we had lunch), and large hail, and of course the tragic news in Oklahoma when the storm hit there the next day. We couldn't help but think that it could have been different for us. We could have ridden our bikes longer and gotten delayed, not even aware of the pending threat. We could have had an ordinary lunch instead of an informative one and not even realized that we were driving into two potential tornados. We could have driven a southern route, into the storm, without the help of the storm chaser. With luck, things worked out for us and we are so very grateful for that. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who sadly, weren't as lucky.
The next day, we drove through Denver and stayed at a lovely downtown Airbnb. We had some dinnertime beer and Vietnamese Pho and called it a night. We were starting to feel the chill from the Colorado mountains, and the hot noodle soup was a perfect end to our day.
We spoke with our (fellow cyclist) Denver hosts, who let us know that the winter cold was stretching into the summer. We had originally planned to do a bike ride up Mt. Evans, a 14k peak in the Rockies. They let us down gently saying that it was likely snowed out. This was sad and relieving at the same time - we were likely not in good enough shape to conquer the mountain right now anyway. Climbing 5,000 feet is one thing, climbing it at altitude is something else. They told us instead about a paved bike route that went up to Vail Pass. It was possible there was some snow on that trail, but it was likely to be clearer than Mt. Evans.
So the next day we geared up (purchasing some cold-weather gear from the amazing flagship Denver REI store), and started our ride up Vail pass. It was chilly, but bearable. The ride was all up, which was difficult at altitude. But we got into a good pace and just kept riding. The ride is on a paved path, separate from the highway - which was fantastic. As if the thin air wasn't enough, the views were also breathtaking.
 |
| Snow flurries in the air. |
 |
| Nilit enjoying the beautiful, cool air. |
As we rode along, we started noticing patches of snow on the sidewalks. We decided to ride through the shallow patches, but we came across some deeper ones where snowshoes may have been preferable to our cycling shoes..
Each time we came across a deep patch of snow, we could see clear path on the other side so we just kept hiking it out - wanting to ride as much as possible. We were having a blast, anyway. Eventually, unfortunately, we looked ahead and only saw snow for miles ahead. So our plan of making it to Vail Pass didn't quite pan out, but we had no complaints. We were on our bikes after all, and the views each direction were just gorgeous.
We were slightly cold at this point, but our new REI gear was doing a good job of keeping us pretty warm. At least that was the case until the clear skies disappeared, dark clouds formed, and rain and hail took its place. The ride out to Vail Pass also happens to be straight uphill, so the return trip was all downhill. The bitter cold eventually got to us, and slowly we went from jovial and chatty to focused and quiet. Later on, we concurred that both of us at that point were internally debating on which would keep us warmer - riding fast (thereby exerting more energy), or riding slow (thereby creating less head-wind). I ended up cranking it out and flying back to the parking lot. I was cold enough to imagine that my fingers were going to fall off (likely an exaggeration), but kept going anyway. Nilit joined me in going fast soon after he saw what I had decided. We got back fast, set the bikes down on the grass, and immediately hopped into the car for some warmth. I took my socks off since I could no longer feel my toes. They were blue and swollen. Fingers were much of the same, but a little better. Still shivering and without saying a word, we both just smiled at each other and busted up laughing. An adventure, for sure..and we honestly wouldn't have had it any other way.
We eventually packed up our things and made it to our Airbnb host's house which was perfectly toasty and cozy. After a hot shower, we were ready for dinner and sleep. A local brewery was the perfect cap to our long day.
We spent the next couple of days first driving to Telluride (where we also went on a ride! This time at higher altitude) and then through the Four Corners (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet) down into Arizona. Check out the pictures below of our ride and our beautiful welcome to the southwest.
Another thing that we noticed while driving was that Piccolo (the mini) attracts lots of friendly attention. He is also quite photogenic, so people who are digging the car usually wave and snap a few pictures. Nilit came up with the idea of creating a Twitter account, and posting a sign on the car asking folks to post pictures to share if they'd like. So, we posted a sign (admittedly a cute one), and some people have liked it! So check us out on Twitter @cxcountrymini and also check out #CrossCountryMini. A couple of people have tweeted pictures, which is way cool.
Today we leave from Arizona to head to LA, where we will get to catch up with friends. We're then planning to begin our drive up to Northern California, with one night stop somewhere in between. Stay tuned for more photos and stories. Thanks for reading!:)
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