We got up around eight and had everything packed and were on the bike by 9. We aren't that efficient even when at home. We stopped at a local gas station for another one of Mrs. Hostess' famous breakfasts. We were tempted into a donut and breakfast burrito instead and, according to Devin, the best coffee of his life. We went up the road and into Arches National Park, saving another $10 with our card. We stopped first at the balanced rock.
There are over 2000 arches in this park. The minimum space must be 3 feet to qualify as an arch. Thats the smallest there and the biggest is 75 feet or something. Another cool fact is that the soil is living...there is a bio crust made up of cyanobacteria, fungi, lichens, etc that provide nutrients and water retention to plants. So it's really important to stay on the trails there. We saw delicate arch from afar. We drove down to Devils Garden where there were several arches, but it was quite a hike (several miles). It was getting really hot and close to lunchtime so we just left. We caught one more arch on the way out.
We drove into Colorado and stopped at Wendy's for lunch. We rested for a little while and got back at it, stopping again for gas about 100 miles later. By this time it was raining pretty good so we took our time and sat for a while at the gas station. We looked at the radar and saw we were heading right into the rain. Luckily we were in a town with a wal mart (which is surprisingly rare out this way). We went there and bought cheap rain suits. It want too much longer after that out started to sprinkle. The sky ahead was really dark so we pulled over roadside and put em on.
We hit rain just as we were entering the mountains. The farther we went the colder it got and the harder the rain fell. It stung the open parts of skin and I felt bad for Devin not having gloves. We crossed over Monarch Mt. and the temp gauge on the bike read 40. All you can do in that situation is hunker down and just go. Dev had the hazard lights on and we crept along until we made it to Salida, CO, an actual town. We stopped there and got a hotel room at the Days Inn.
The kid working the desk, whose parents owned the hotel, was from Chicago (and it showed...). We got settled in and went to Wallbangers bar & grill which was within walking distance and got good reviews on yelp. We shared fried pickles and I got an amazing roasted poblano chowder and Dev had excellent chicken fingers with wing sauce he said was some of the best he's had.
We went back to the room and enjoyed a really hot shower before hitting the hay fairly early.
Today we traveled 372.7 miles for a total of 9023.6 miles across America.
There are over 2000 arches in this park. The minimum space must be 3 feet to qualify as an arch. Thats the smallest there and the biggest is 75 feet or something. Another cool fact is that the soil is living...there is a bio crust made up of cyanobacteria, fungi, lichens, etc that provide nutrients and water retention to plants. So it's really important to stay on the trails there. We saw delicate arch from afar. We drove down to Devils Garden where there were several arches, but it was quite a hike (several miles). It was getting really hot and close to lunchtime so we just left. We caught one more arch on the way out.
We drove into Colorado and stopped at Wendy's for lunch. We rested for a little while and got back at it, stopping again for gas about 100 miles later. By this time it was raining pretty good so we took our time and sat for a while at the gas station. We looked at the radar and saw we were heading right into the rain. Luckily we were in a town with a wal mart (which is surprisingly rare out this way). We went there and bought cheap rain suits. It want too much longer after that out started to sprinkle. The sky ahead was really dark so we pulled over roadside and put em on.
(those are Doritos in my pocket)
We hit rain just as we were entering the mountains. The farther we went the colder it got and the harder the rain fell. It stung the open parts of skin and I felt bad for Devin not having gloves. We crossed over Monarch Mt. and the temp gauge on the bike read 40. All you can do in that situation is hunker down and just go. Dev had the hazard lights on and we crept along until we made it to Salida, CO, an actual town. We stopped there and got a hotel room at the Days Inn.
The kid working the desk, whose parents owned the hotel, was from Chicago (and it showed...). We got settled in and went to Wallbangers bar & grill which was within walking distance and got good reviews on yelp. We shared fried pickles and I got an amazing roasted poblano chowder and Dev had excellent chicken fingers with wing sauce he said was some of the best he's had.
We went back to the room and enjoyed a really hot shower before hitting the hay fairly early.
Today we traveled 372.7 miles for a total of 9023.6 miles across America.
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