Bicycle Touring in Alaska, Canada, and the USA with DownTheRoad.org and more

new letter

DownTheRoad.org's RoadNews Newsletter: NPR Mp3 radio interview, Newspaper coverage, and one dead computer
May 31, 2009 (Sent From Delores, Colorado, USA)

First, because I know video and audio files are popular, when we have them, I want to provide the link to our latest radio interview with KNAU/NPR Flagstaff, Arizona - Morning Edition. 

MP3 Audio:
http://www.prescottyellowpages.com/Video/MP3/KNAU_Flagstaff_Arizona.MP3

Also we recently appeared in our home town newspaper.  The Daily Courier, Prescott Arizona, USA http://downtheroad.org/Publishing/Media/Prescott_Arizona_Bicycling_Couple_Recounts_Adventures.htm by Ken Hedler

I had a detailed newsletter written about the emotional experience with visiting our (rented) house and longtime friends in our hometown in Prescott, Arizona, USA but Cindie's 6 months old computer crashed and it was lost.  Other than my letter we lost all of our email contacts, Cindie's Utah journal and ongoing correspondence.  If you were waiting for an email from us we probably lost it and we ask you to please write again.  This is especially true for the film studio prospects and several future public appearances in the works including Colgate University in New York.  We still have all comments left on the Latest News Blog and our web content. We backed up our tax and bookkeeping files so those weren't lost. Cindie is happy about that. So this is something we can recover from but it is the lost email that is the most frustrating. 

We will keep working on Cindie's computer and try to retrieve her  Utah journal.

Tim Travis
www.DownTheRoad.org

Cindie's Daily Journal.  Phoenix to Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

April 9, 2009 Paradise Valley to Lake Pleasant 34.7 miles

We finally got out the door about 1 pm after riding to the house a couple of times because we forgot something. The ride out of town was easy thanks to directions from Rich. We picked up water at the gas station on Cave Creek rd. because we weren't sure if there would be water farther down the road. It was a good call because there wasn't another place with water. We camped in the desert near lake pleasant. Our last night in the desert, I will miss it because I love the cactus and the wildlife. However, summer comes to the desert early so it is better to move on before the high temps get here. In the middle of the night I could hear coyotes barking off in the distance, a sound that will always remind me of Arizona.

April 10 Lake Pleasant to Congress 50.5 miles

A tailwind is a beautiful thing and we had one all day long. We also managed to set up an interview with the Daily Courier in Prescott, cell phones can be handy at times. I really wanted to make it to Yarnell where we camped almost 7 years ago but it wasn't in the cards. My legs were spent so we picked up some water in Congress. I went into the restaurant and filled our 10 liter bag of water. Tim was suppose to stay with the bikes and wait. As I walked past the bar I heard Tim talking to someone inside. Ut oh, Tim in biking shorts in the Congress bar is like being in biking shorts in the outback of Australia. Yes we are 45 miles from home yet a lifestyle away. We are in cowboy country where the folks here stay their whole life and they don't always take kindly to cyclists in their way on the road. In the bar I walked and there was Tim having a friendly conversation with a local cowboy. The conversation stayed friendly, I am happy to say and I dragged Tim out of the bar. We peddled back to Manzanita Creek and put up our tent near an mine adit. Little did we know that we would spend the afternoon in the opening of the mine. We knew a big storm was coming from the south and decided it was better to hunker down in Congress where it is low and warm rather than climb up to Yarnell where it could get below freezing.

Just before sunset the storm raged in and as I lay my head on my pillow a huge flash of light blinded me and bam a crash of thunder levitated me off the ground. ok I am awake now.

April 11

It rained and rained today. We were stuck in our tent all day long, I didn't mind I had a book to read. The rain let up a little and we walked over to the mine adit to sit out the rain there rather than our tent where we could only lay down in or sit. As we were sitting there it began to hail and hail hard. It must be snowing up top.

April 12 Congress to Prescott 45.7 miles

The weather cleared and we packed our wet tent up knowing that we could dry it later and Jim and Karen's house in Prescott. I felt bad because I know the extra weight it adds to Tim's bike. It was an emotional ride up to Yarnell, yes I know this place and it hasn't changed much. The climb wasn't as bad as I made it out to be, 2000 feet down and another 2000 feet to go. As we were riding to Wilhoit our friends Marcie and Tom stopped to say hello. Oh it was good to see a familiar face. She assured me that dinner would be ready for us when we got to Prescott. We took a break in Wilhoit and met some other cyclists from Prescott. Now all we had was one last push. It was amazing, my legs knew exactly where I was, I knew every turn and hill. The hills weren't as bad as I remember. The saddest part came when we reached the top of the pass, we use to stop at the top of the pass on our club rides. Only we were in dense pine forest, now it was bare of trees, the indian fire that occurred in 2002 wiped out the ponderosa pine stand here. I had tears in my eyes as I reached back in my memory to what it use to look like. The forest is something I didn't think would change much but a fire changes everything. With a mixture of a heavy and happy heart we rode down White Spar into Prescott. As we approached the Campground Jim was standing on the side of the road with Karen, they were going to lead us through town to there house. A good thing too I think I would have gotten lost. As we rode past Copper Basin Road I wanted to turn to where I use to live but we couldn't there were renters in our house and we couldn't just pop in. I recognized downtown but that is about it. To my pleasant surprise there were bike lanes on Iron Springs. Prescott had made progress with bike lanes I was worried that we would be disappointed but I wasn't, we even saw more bike commuters then when we left. Or was it I now noticed them? hmm.

April 13 to 28 Prescott.

Jim and Karen who we stayed with because our house is rented were excellent hosts, we had our own room, enjoyed great evening meals, played with their dogs Bear and Kali and even had a party with all our friends. While in Prescott we had a book signing at Prescott Alternative Transportation's house and Tim gave a presentation at the First Assembly of God's auditorium, in my opinion it was one of Tim's best presentation's yet. Prescott has changed a lot since we left seven years ago, I felt disorientated for the first week, some intersections had changed so much I didn't know where i was. I was worried that Prescott had not improved much in the way of cycling around town. I was pleasantly surprised to see bike lanes on many roads (I don't recall any when we left) and more cyclists using them. The one thing that disappointed me was the lack of bike racks at every grocery store I stopped at, ah well that can be easily remedied. Another wonderful surprise was the new mountain bike trails that have gone in, nice very nice. It seems more and more people are realizing that Prescott is a great place to ride a mountain bike. During our stay we painted our house, sounds like a simple task but it wasn't, our tenant wasn't the easiest person to work with but we finally did get the job done.

April 29 Prescott to Cottonwood 48.7 miles

Leaving Prescott was hard to do, it seemed like we kept adding a day here and day there. I was really in my comfort zone while in Prescott and that was hard to give up. In the morning we rode out with Jim, Karen, Keith, and Max. So we had an escort out of town again only this time we were heading northeast towards Mingus mountain. Karen turned around in Prescott Valley, Jim and Keith rode with us to the base of Mingus and Max rode to the top with us, well he rode the last couple of miles alone and waited for us at the top. He handed us off to Dennis, Debbie's brother at the top of Mingus. Dennis rode his very cool recumbent to the top to meet us. He certainly had the tougher climb then we did. We stopped in Jerome on the way down and had a snack before riding to my friend/former coworker's house in Cottonwood. By the time we got to Chris's house I was pretty beat, 48 miles and 2500+ feet of climbing later my legs were jelly. Chris and Tammy have two kids, Angelo is 6 and bella is 4. Cute kids but oh so busy, Chris cooked a great dinner and Tammy baked us some cookies for the road. In the morning we were able to sit on the back porch and watch the birds and wildlife along the Verde River. A nice place to hang out for sure. It was good to see Chris again.

The ride - From Prescott we rode Willow Creek rd. to the Pioneer Parkway through Prescott Valley to 89A, the road had a good shoulder most of the way with just a few tight spots. It was 24.5 miles and over 2,500+ feet to the top of Mingus mountain at an elevation of 7032 feet. From there is was a nice downhill ride to Cottonwood. We took Mingus rd over to 89A and it has a good shoulder as well. Cornville road had lots of traffic and not much of a shoulder.

April 30 Cottonwood to Manzanita campground (oak creek canyon) 28.3 miles

We woke up to the sounds of birds out our window, the sun was up and day seemed to start early. I felt a bit groggy from the overindulgence in exercise yesterday. It always takes some time for my body to adjust to being on the road again. Tammy, Chris and family had to get out the door early but we stayed and enjoyed the view from the back patio. They have a great view of the Verde river and all it's wildlife. Awesome. It was late when we finally left Chris's house and started towards Sedona, 89A has been upgraded to a four lane highway. It was a stunning ride into Sedona, at least the rocks haven't changed since we left, although Sedona has grown immensely. We climbed for what seemed like forever but it was only 20 miles into town. With lots of room on the road I didn't mind the noise of the traffic, it was easy to ignore. Sedona and the surrounding red rocks laid before us and it was a stunning sight. It also brought back lots of memories, I studied the geology and hydrogeology in this area and did some projects in the area while I worked for the Department of Environmental Quality, oh so many years ago. Somehow we all knew then that this place was going to grow. As I pedaled along I wondered if they have addressed all the wastewater issues in this town. There was a time when septic system failures were common here, the red rocks are great for scenery and bad for percolation of wastewater.

I stopped in the chamber of commerce to get a map of oak creek canyon and locate the campgrounds. The women behind the desk was mortified that we would ride up oak creek canyon. Grant it it was a windy road but I didn't think it was death wish, matter of fact the drivers were courteous and went around us. It is more about the drivers then the road. That said if you are nervous in traffic, don't like narrow roads with drop offs then you really shouldn't be on the road. If you have cycled on New Zealand's narrow roads then this road is similar.
I knew I didn't have the legs to get to Cave Springs campground so we settled on Manzanita campground just 6 miles up the canyon. It was a great place to camp although expensive at $18 a night and there wasn't a shower. We met a nice couple from Prescott, Ken and Holly and they were great companions, Tim did a couple of hikes with them while I stayed in camp, I was so tired I didn't want to go anywhere. Usually it is Tim who is staying in camp.

The ride - From Cottonwood we rode 89A to Sedona and up Oak Creek Canyon, the shoulder is wide on the four lane highway. Traffic is heavy in Sedona and there isn't a bike lane, they are working on it. The road in the Canyon is narrow and windy. We didn't have any problems when we rode it. I would not recommend riding in the canyon on weekends, traffic will be heavy. We rode in between 3:30 and 4:30 and traffic was getting heavy. Lots of people commute to Sedona for work. From Cottonwood we climbed about 3000 feet, this is an estimate, wish we had our altimeter so we would be more accurate.

May 1 Manzanita campground to Observatory hill, Flagstaff 28.7 miles

One of the best things about cycling is the awesome sleep I get. My head hit the pillow and I was out until sunrise. Even though we are in the canyon the sun was on our tent at 7:30 am. Nice. We took our time packing and saying good bye to our neighbors. We also had plans to stop in Cave Springs campground to take a shower, we weren't sure when our next shower would be. The climb out of the canyon was not as bad as I thought and I was thrilled when we got to the top. Tim on the other had was tired, guess he ran around too much last night. haha. We took a break and had peanut butter sandwiches at a table between all the native american vendors, nice jewelry by the way, and talked to any tourist who was interested in our peanut butter sandwiches.
On the road again and Flagstaff couldn't arrive fast enough, I don't know this part of the road as well and it seemed like traffic had picked up. We rode into town around 3:30, picked up some groceries and took the bike path through the NAU campus. Wow can I say Wow, it has changed, all the open spaces are now full of buildings, I didn't even recognize the geology building. Nothing like seeing things change and feeling old, hmm I have been feeling like that lately. A big plus, tons of bikes everywhere, I would say a large majority of students do not have a car, that a good thing because I didn't see a place to park them. Lots of new buildings and add ons, I wonder how many students go to school here now.

We rode through town and had plans to camp on Observatory Mesa so we stopped in at Thorpe park to pick up water but all the fountains were off so we went over to the Army National Guard to get water. We were pointed in that direction by Mike another bike tourist. He also told us about a bike gear swap in the morning.

We rode up Observatory Mesa and Tim was surprised how many houses were there, we had to ride about 2 miles in to find national forest, it was yet another climb, oh my legs. Dinner was great and we were fast asleep at sunset again.

The ride - The road is narrow in the canyon and the switchback start at about mile marker 288 and ends at 290. Don't think your done climbing at the canyon view because the road continues to climb until about 5 miles from Flagstaff. This part of the road has no shoulder and on the climbs we would usually ride in the dirt, not much room on the road.

May 2,3,4 Flagstaff

May 5 Flagstaff to Valle 52.3 miles

May 6 Valle to Grand Canyon Mather Campground 25.6 miles

May 7 Grand Canyon, hike along the rim

May 8 Grand Canyon

 

See index of all (several years) Cindie's Journals here

RoadNews Newsletter: Seven Years DownTheRoad: What has changed and what we have learned.

March 30, 2009 marks the completion of our seventh year of this trip so, it is time for another anniversary newsletter.  Those of you who have been with us for awhile know that seven years is very important and symbolic because we originally thought this trip would end in seven years when our savings ran out.  We wrote about this in our first book. (see Leaving It All Behind)   It was not until many years later, several huge explosions of traffic to DownTheRoad.org, and a second book that we started breaking even financially and our bike trip became a new career and nomadic lifestyle.  That is, if you can call living on US$20 - 30/day a career.  More information about the transition in funding of our trip can be found on several new pages including Our Finances, Budgeting, and Sponsors linked to below.

http://www.downtheroad.org/money/Finances.htm

In the future we plan on visiting all the bike-able places we have not been to yet including, but not in order, India, Central Asia, Russia, The Middle East, Europe, Africa, and more.  Along the way there will be new books and there is even talk of a DVD movie project.  (more below)  We have no plans to stop traveling, writing, and exploring new opportunities!

What is new this year?

Even though our second book is newly published we are already receiving requests for a third book about our ride through Asia and it has been repeatedly pointed out that the books are falling behind the trip.  It does not take a mathematician to see that we just finished a book about our second year of travels while we are entering our eighth year.  I do not know what to say except we will just keep plugging away at it and do the best we can.  Maybe someday, when we retire from all this, we can spend the remainder of our lives catching up.  It is a lot of fun and satisfying to write and publish books but our travels come first.  It can be said that we are selfish with our traveling lifestyle but it can not be said that we are greedy or just doing this for the money.  We could more than double our current income if we both got Burger King jobs so this is a long way from making us rich - at least financially.

A few newsletters back I mentioned the hours of raw video I have shot since the first day and the possibility of having a professional post production specialist turn it into a DVD.  This must have been passed around movie studio circles because we have received numerous proposals for a wide variety of ways to get such a project completed.  Life on the road has taught me many things and near the top of the list is to be cautious when something sounds too easy or good.  Sometimes I think I am too careful but at other times this hesitation has probably kept us out of trouble all these years.  I had all the tapes in Yuma, and could have sent them to someone to edit, but when it came time to go, I wasn't ready and sent them to my brother to hang on to.  I stashed all the email proposals to be reexamined on some rainy night in the tent.  If you are one of those video producers who wrote please accept my apology for not writing back yet and your proposal will be considered and an email reply returned either way.

Our travels are always evolving in unexpected ways and the latest twist is being invited to numerous public speaking engagements.  It started with the Tour De Tucson a few months ago and, through word of mouth, has grown to being booked for dozens of appearances in many sizable cities on our route.  When we started out seven years ago I never dreamed I would have people eager to hear me speak or waiting in line for our autographs.  Yet, I would be lying if I did not admit that I enjoy the attention.  Like I said in my last newsletter; I believe this attention has something to do with the economic troubles we all face and the constant flow of negative information from the media which has spurred this increasing interest in something beyond spending money, credit, and greed.  I love bringing people a positive message in this time of economic trouble and convincing them that dreams really can come true.   This is all happening so fast we have not gotten used to it and it is daunting to think about where all this will lead.  I hope when people actually get to know us they will see we are just like everyone else. I feel like saying, "You can ask anyone who actually knows us; there is nothing special about us.  We are just plain old Tim and Cindie who clip coupons and search through the discount bin."

The only down side to all this attention is the growing lack of privacy.  Now that we are in our own country we regularly get recognized in public, or more accurately, the "DownTheRoad.org" sticker on our bikes is recognized.  This is especially true in campgrounds and busy restaurants where our bikes are loaded up and visible.  We have also had a couple cars pull us over to chat which is a bit dangerous and very disruptive to our cycling rhythm.  More than a year ago I wrote about other bicycle tourists recognizing us (sticker) in New Zealand, which still happens, but now it is non cyclists as well.  Appealing to the mainstream, outside of cycling circles, is always something I am proud of.  I truly love meeting other people but I sometimes miss things like quiet meals and solitary nights camping in National Parks.  We understand it is excited people like this that keeps us afloat and moving down the road and we really appreciate all the interest in our trip.

What has seven years of bicycle touring and international travel taught us?

We are often asked what have we learned during our travels.  This question seems to get increasingly difficult to put in words yet we have a sense of great responsibility in crafting its answer.  Obviously, traveling this many years is having profound affects on us but not in ways many would think.  These changes are not static but instead continue to happen slowly, as we experience more of the world and constantly reevaluate our values. 

When we were on temporary trips the simplicity and freedom of a bike tour was a vacation from our regular lives of working, and surviving the rat race.  Looking back at the years leading up to our departure we wonder how we juggled all the complexities of modern life.  There were bills to mail, cars to fix, schedules to keep, bosses to impress, and a million other things to get done before the end of the day, month, or year.  We used to say, "There aren't enough hours in a day to do all the things that need to get done."  Now we have far less things to worry about and feel like we have all day to see what will come our way.  After several years of living a simple existence on bikes with our possessions being limited to what can be carried, we have evolved into a simplistic yet open minded way of looking at life.  Everything is beautiful in its own basic way and a great weight of worry and stress has been lifted from our shoulders.  We are free to explore, learn, and drift.

Before this trip we needlessly complicated the world around us by over analyzing everything until we found faults and became angry.  Traveling has caused us to make peace with our surroundings.  For example, in our own country, instead of seeing good and bad politicians and political parties we see a democracy and a healthy debate.  Instead of seeing National Parks that need infrastructure upgrades we see pristine mountains.  Obviously if everyone were like us nothing would get done but we have never wanted everyone to be like us.  This is our dream and our reality; we have made it as painless as possible.

Another big change we have noticed is our growing freedom from "want."  During the years on the road, visiting rich and poor alike, the idea of "I want" will never be the same.  We used to walk through stores and fight the urge to buy all the things we thought we wanted with that little piece of plastic in our pocket that promised immediate gratification.  It was stressful to want something, ponder the consequences, and use restraint to deny the purchase or, give in to our desires and buy it and often feel guilty later.  So many people in this world live on a fraction of what citizens of developed countries consider the bare essentials and yet find far more happiness in their lives.  The most content people we have met in our travels all have a clear sense of the difference between want and need.  After riding in their countries and staying in their houses we have learned to open our minds to new perspectives.

The answer is not to make or borrow more money in order to have more possessions because acquiring material things will never satisfy wanting more.  There will always be something else to want.  The secret to happiness is to be content with what you have and not want things you can not afford.  It is much more fulfilling to feel fortunate when your work has earned enough to cover all your real needs and have something left over for extras.  It is a shift in perception from agonizing over wanting something like a new TV to being excited when the household's finances have gone so well that you can have something extra.  The TV is no longer wanted every time it is passed in the store but rather an unexpected reward for a job well done.

This many years on the road have taught Cindie and me to throw away the big list of things we would like to own and be content with what we have.  We now find happiness in the simple pleasures of life and don't seek our identities in the things we own.  It sounds so simple and idealistic but the results have been monumental.

After reading this you may be looking at your own life and thinking of ways you can live out your dreams.  Dreams are individual so there is no specific advice I can give, no blue print to success, no ten steps for achieving your life's goal.  The solution is as individual as the dream.  I can only suggest that there are probably creative ways, often unimagined out of the box ways, to turn your dreams into reality.  Patients, creativity, and guts are the tools that will take you anywhere you want to go.

Cindie stopping to enjoying some free whale watching.

Tim taking the time to enjoy a morning cup of coffee (the Alaska look)

http://downtheroad.org/Publishing/PICS.zip

Pictures and Cindie's Daily Journal for our Bicycle tour through Arizona and the Desert Southwest.

Our first campsite from Yuma, Antelope Hill.	Here is a rattlesnake on Hwy 8, he is pretty harmless, it is a cold morning.
Organ pipe cactus at our campsite. The desert near Sonoran Desert Monument.	Our camp in the desert. On our way to Phoenix. Our camp at Sentinel.

Organ pipe cactus. Mexican poppies.	Gila woodpecker.
Female collard lizard.	Hedgehog in bloom.

Full moon rising over our campsite in Organ Pipe.

March 6, 2009 Yuma to Antelope Hill 42.3 miles
Oh my god! my bike is so heavy, I'm not sure if I can pedal it for more than 15 minutes. Tim's bike is loaded too, I guess I went a bit overboard on food. Well we will eat everything eventually. We stopped by to say goodbye to Mark and Faye, I will miss Faye, we had so much fun while I was in Yuma. Sometimes hitting the road is hard, leaving friends behind is a tough thing to do.
We were in luck the wind was from the west and we were riding east. We set off from Yuma through Dome Valley and it was a beautiful ride through the valley. By the time we got to Welton two and a half hours later I was ready for a break. During our break Tim talked me into stopping at Antelope Hill for the night. I really wanted to go on but it was a case of wanting to do more then I could physically do, taking the last week off the bike really slowed me down. On the other hand Tim seemed to be riding well. We began to set up camp at Antelope Hill and Joe came by with our package from Ortlieb, it had arrived 6 hours after we had left. I guess we will have to pick it up in Phoenix later.

March 7, 2009 Antelope Hill to Sentinel 52.3 miles
I woke to the sounds of bullets flying over our heads. No kidding! someone was hunting in the wash near us and the bullets were flying. Hmm maybe we camped in the wrong place. we quickly go up to pack and start our day. Only one day on the bike and my arms feel like lead. Experience tells me that this soreness will pass eventually. We had a light wind and headed towards Dateland. The rest area near Mohawk was open and we met Cheryl's husband from the cycling club, he was on a 100 mile+ ride. He commented that we looked really loaded. yes I know I bought too much food. Yes Yes a pack rat I am and it is such a bad habit to break when I get back on the bike. In late afternoon we pedaled into Sentinel and picked up water at the only gas station and headed into the desert to camp. We camped behind an old adobe building melting into the ground, it was surrounded by trash including an old stove and refrigerator. It always amazes me that things left in the desert 50 years ago are still there and look like there were left behind just yesterday. The area was pretty trashed with broken glass too a sad sight to see.

March 8, 2009 Sentinel to mile 10 hwy 85.40.1 miles
The first thing we saw laying in the road was a rattlesnake and at 9 am it was cold and the poor thing could not move, ok that was a good thing because I had to ride within inches of his head. We stayed on the highway until Painted Rock and rode the frontage road from there until Gila Bend, the road wasn't as smooth but it was quieter than the highway.
In Gila Bend we stopped at the truck stop and I checked to see what the price of a shower was, ughh! they wanted $9 for a shower or free with the purchase of 50 gallons of fuel, well that isn't going to work for me. Drat. We turned onto highway 85 and into the abyss, nothing but the Goldwater bombing range for the next 40 miles or so. our luck we had a headwind heading south and our pace slowed down to 8 mph. We collected water in Gila Bend and Tim was miles ahead of me even with the 2.5 gallons of water tied on top. I can see that the rest in Yuma did him some good. Anyway, we had to find a place to camp and the only trees were in the washes and the fence to the bombing range wasn't that far from the road. We decided that it would not be a good idea to hide since we were on a road to Mexico and border patrol was everywhere. Sometimes it is tough to find a place to camp but this was proving to be exceptionally difficult. Then over the hill we saw what we thought was a rest area. No it was an observation area for people to watch the planes go by, novel. We pulled in and decided that was it, a place for the night. The sign said, "Overnight parking permitted, NO Camping". Ok we decided to park for the night instead of camp. HeHe.
We were expecting company at any moment but instead were eyeballed from two different border patrol helicopters. No illegals here. No one bothered us all night it even got quiet after midnight. one of the stranger places we have camped for sure.

Day 4 March 9, 2009 Mile 10 hwy 85 to Ajo 40 miles
The morning was pleasant and I even got to do some tai chi this morning, ah how relaxing. Then the fun began immediately we started heading south and the wind just continued to pick up with gusts practically knocking me off my bike, oh my aching arms. Patience was in order today because it took more than 3.5 hours to ride 30 miles. I can't remember the last time we were in a wind like this. Lucky for us the wild flowers were everywhere, we had good music to listen to and traffic was light. so we pedaled on and on.
We took refuse in town for a couple of hours, let the wind die down and camped in the desert just outside of town.

Day 5 March 10, Ajo to Organ Pipe 37.4 miles
What a difference a day makes, the winds died down. For some reason I have been having stomach ailments, I am guessing the water in this part of Arizona is a bit too salty for me. The ride to Organ pipe was stunning we came over a rise and the view of the desert took my breath away, it went on for ever. It seemed like it took forever to get to the campsite and rest. We could see Mexico from our camp site.

Day 6 March 11 Organ Pipe Wildflower tour. A day off the bikes and I had an opportunity to take the wildflower van tour through the park. We stopped at a number of sites, the wild flowers are out but it has already gotten too hot for some of them. This year the flowers are mainly in the washes.

Day 7 March 12 Organ Pipe Ajo Mountain Loop road. Tim and I decided to ride the 22 miles intermittent dirt/paved loop. Even though I was here yesterday the difference between riding in a car and riding a bike is huge. I saw so much more and enjoyed the smell of the desert as well. The ride was a bit hilly with a few steep place, however the park has paved some parts of the road. We stopped at Bull Pen and did a three mile hike through Estes canyon. This is where all the wildflowers are, well worth the trip.
We went to an evening presentation, it was suppose to be about the geology of the park and the poor girl who gave the talk obviously didn't understand the geology. Geology can be intimidating to some and when she mentioned how old the park was some people actually got up and left. I guess the age of the earth is still a bit of controversy. Tim and I felt really bad for the girl it was all so confusing and we didn't want to get up and leave as well. She could have used some help from one of the many geologists in the audience.

Day 8 March 13 Organ Pipe 3 miles. A short hike around the camp ground and then off to the visitor center to work on our presentation that is coming up at the end of the month. Lets just say we were inspired by last nights presentation. We always get funny reactions when we work on the computer in public places, the Organ pipe visitor center was no different. It was nice of the Park staff to let us work in their area.
We met a local ranger when he was gathering up food left behind by a couple of campers, the birds were having their dinner before they got back to camp. We asked him about the roads that are closed in the park, half the park has been closed since 2002 when a park ranger was killed. He was patrolling the border road and was gunned down by drug smugglers. Sad really sad. The Park Ranger we talked to was armed to the teeth, when did a park ranger job become scary? He said that a million dollars worth of drugs comes through the park a DAY, yes a DAY. The border patrol stops most of it but some gets through. He also added that the desert is now littered with trash where they come through with their loads. We have lost a piece of our country and a life for money and drugs. This really bothers me and I have no idea how to get it back. This is not a one way street it is a supply and demand situation and the demand must be high for so many to risk their lives for the money.

Day 9 March 14 Organ Pipe to Ajo 37 miles
sunny, headwind, NE winds 5 to 10 mph
People can just be funny and not always in a good way. Tim was walking to the bathroom when an RV pulled out of its space in front of him. He noticed that an electrical cord was dragging on the ground, so he was trying to tell the driver who had his window rolled up that his cord was dragging. So Tim pointed to the back of the RV and said, "Your extension cord is dragging," the old guy in the RV looked at Tim, obviously didn't understand him, and flipped him the bird. Tim was flabbergasted, at the same time some other guy was trying to get the drivers attention, the driver ignored him he just drove away. Easy going Tim let it roll, it bothered me more than him. How incredibly immature and rude of the old guy. He must of assumed something else, one only can guess.
on the road again with a mighty tailwind and to Ajo we pedaled. If it wasn't for the huge tailing piles around Ajo I would think it was a nice town.


Day 10 March 15 Ajo to Sonoran Desert Monument Wilderness area. 53.4 miles sunny 75 degrees, SW winds 10 to 15 mph. A tailwind can make all the difference in an easy or hard day, today was an easy day for the most part.
As we were riding along the fuel bottle for our stove that was on the back of Tim's bike slipped out from under the bungee cord and fell into the road. A car behind us ran over the bottle, yikes, that thing is full of gasoline, and rupture the bottle, before we knew it a liter of gasoline was on the road and our bottle was destroyed. Ut oh there goes dinner. With heavy hearts we rode into Gila bend and picked up some bread for dinner. We also picked up 10 liters of water and turned on to Maricopa road towards phoenix. Since it was Sunday traffic was heavy and we took the first road into the Monument. No motorized traffic allowed and we were glad to get to a quiet place in the desert to camp. What a beautiful place to camp and so close to phoenix.

Day 11 March 16 Sonoran Desert Monument to South Mountain 60.2 miles sunny 70 to 85 degrees by the end of the day. the first half of the ride was a headwind from the east and when we turned north at Maricopa we had a tailwind from the se. I dreaded riding into the city today, I thought we would be on narrow roads with lots of traffic. The road was a bit narrow out by Mobile but as soon as we arrived in Maricopa we were in suburbia, a line was drawn in the desert, nothing on one side and suburbia on the other. Sadly as we were riding up Maricopa road towards phoenix the amount of trash on the side of the road really brought tears to my eyes. I don't mean to complain about this all the time but the desert is so trashed, I can't understand why people just don't care.
When we got to Phoenix we rode through Awatukee and the roads had bike lanes so it was much easier to get around then we though. We met Jay through warmshowers and we stayed at his house off baseline for the night. We had a grand time with his too cats and he made us a great salmon pasta bake. Yumm.

Day 12 March 17 South Mountain to Paradise Valley 28.5 miles
We left Jays house and rode the canal to central ave. then followed the Phoenix Sonoran Bikeway through downtown then dreamy draw to Paradise Valley. It was a nice ride, not at all what I expected in Phoenix. I am impressed with the bike facilities including bike lanes, they have come along way since we left 7 years ago. Since Tim and I were involved bicycle advocacy we know how much work it takes to get things done. Thanks to all involved. We will be going to Prescott in a few weeks and honestly I know I have to lower my expectations, we will see what has changed since we left 7 years ago.

RoadNews Newsletter: Back on the road and you are invited to our public appearances.

As you read this we are back on the road riding and camping in the desert.  The handful of rainy days these past three months has caused otherwise dormant wildflowers to pop up everywhere.  The sun is out and the temps range from 70F - 80F during the day and cools off dramatically at night; as dry climates do.  Cindie has the glow back in her eyes and is on the hunt for adventure; she is a child of the road.  We are home but not because we are in the USA or even Arizona, we could easily be anywhere on earth.  We are home because we are on the move, learning something new and free.  It's good to take a vacation but in the end home is the most welcoming.

We have several upcoming public events but the two biggest are a presentation and discussion with the Arizona Bicycle Club, Phoenix Metro Cycling Club, and the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists. The combination of these three groups in a city (metro area) of over four million people promises to have a big crowd.  If you are in the area please feel welcome to attend.  More information can be found at the link below

http://downtheroad.org/Publishing/Travis_Event.pdf

A couple weeks later we are having a similar event with the Tucson Greater Arizona Bicycle Club on April 6, 2009.  I will post more information on this event in the next newsletter.

I would like to thank my good buddy Neil, living on the Oregon Coast, who volunteered to make us a flyer.  He actually made it a few months ago for the Bike Expo at El Tour De Tucson where we handed out several thousand copies.  So, thank you very much Neil; your hard work really paid off by connecting us with several new friends who did not have time to talk at the event but did later through our web site.  You can see Neil's good work at the easily printed file linked to below.

http://downtheroad.org/Publishing/Travisflyer3.pdf

Our travel plans are not set in stone but we have a good idea of what the next nine months will bring.  We will spend this spring riding north through Arizona and Utah visiting as many national parks as we can with our park pass.  We may get as far north as Yellowstone National Park, or not, but at some point we will start riding east across the USA.  Along the way we really want to make the famous recreational ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI  http://www.ragbrai.org/ before continuing on.  We hope to be on the east coast this fall to ride south from New York to Virginia before heading back west to visit my friends and family in Indiana before it gets too cold.  We are arranging more speaking events, book signings, and other public appearances along the way.  Stay tuned and we will make announcements here as dates become concrete.

After the holidays with my family we are not sure where to go next.  We know we need to go somewhere cheap because the recession is hurting us along with everyone else.  India/Pakistan/Nepal or Middle East/Africa are on the top of our list.  I am going to do more research on this and open it up for discussion in a future newsletter.

In closing, we wish all of our friends around the world who read our newsletter the best of circumstances as we all find ways to get through this terrible global recession.  Our list of subscribers has grown several fold to a incredibly huge number in the past year and we wonder if these hard times has created interest in the downsized and simplistic bicycle lifestyle.  Sadly from many of you we have heard of bad, even horrific stories of how these hard economic times in various countries has created hardship and deep sacrifices.  It really breaks my heart.  We, as a global community, are all affected and things may get worse before they get better.  Hang in there because better days are ahead.  Do what you need to do to get through this, be kind to each other, and be optimistic that this storm, like all the others, will pass and the sun will shine on all of us again.  Also, please remember those who were already impoverished before all this happened because while people living in rich countries may foreclose on a house or get a car repossessed the truly poor in undeveloped countries will literally face starvation. 

We feel very fortunate to be able to tighten the belt some and remain on the road.

Thanks and a big welcome to all the new subscribers.

Tim Travis

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www.DownTheRoad.org RoadNews Newsletter: Return to America and 50% Off Autographed Books
Day, Month xx, 2008 (Sent From place, USA)

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Ever since we got back to the lower 48 we have been on a whirlwind tour of meeting a nonstop stream of people.  Riding down the west coast of the USA is popular and along the way we met and camped with hundreds of people loaded up on bikes like ourselves.  We would make dinner together and talked late into the night about every subject imaginable.

 As we got reacquainted with our country again, I realized just how friendly Americans really are.  After this many years abroad my perspective has changed, I can now see the good and the bad with my homeland.  Bottomless cups of coffee, Pop Tarts, and an accent that I can understand every word of were refreshingly familiar.  We don’t need a tourist visa so there is no need to hurry through.  Oh yes, we are only a few time zones away from our families so calling is easier not to mention we are going to be visiting many of them in the next 12 months. 

 On the down side I was sad to see that America still uses miles and feet as measurements.  I just can not bring myself to switch back.  Even my bike computer is still in kilometers and I have to stop myself from quoting altitude in meters.  Cindie, who does most of the navigating, switched her computer to miles as soon as the ferry landed in Washington State from Canada.  The lack of international news in the papers and a billion dollar election process that looked like a circus also fell into the negative category. 

 We have been using www.WarmShowers.org for several years now to meet fellow touring cyclists all over the world and stay in their homes. In the USA there was a high concentration of hosts on our trail.  In addition, we rendezvoused with people who have read our books and with other travelers we met abroad.  Staying with people, in our opinion, is the best way to get to know the local culture.  With our hosts, we have learned about beekeeping, gone to festivals, eaten regional food, and loved every minute of it.

 An unexpected opportunity came our way and at the last minute we threw our bikes on a train near Los Angeles and arrived in Tucson at 2 am.  We switched gears from touring cyclists to book sellers. We were in Tucson for both the annual Bike Swap meet (4,000 people), and Tour de Tucson Bike and Fitness Expo and ride (around 9,000 cyclists).  The Swap Meet was the first opportunity we had to sell our books face to face. At the open air street market, we set up a booth with a borrowed folding table next to our friends at GABA Tucson. We printed a few of our best full size colored photos from our web site, spread them out on the table, parked our loaded touring bikes behind the booth, hand handed out literally thousands of flyers.  The experience was a mix of meeting a surprising number of people who follow our web site and for the first time, telling our story to a large group of curious cyclists. The best part was talking with old friends we had not seen since we left Arizona in 2002.  Thanks to Steve Wilson for providing us with a place to stay and introducing us to the diverse bike community in Tucson. All and all both events were a success.

 We had no idea how many books we would sell at these events and were a bit optimistic when we ordered double the amount of books we needed. So, we have a few boxes of books in our possession, much more than we can safely carry on our bikes. Normally we would ship them back to our web order fulfillment warehouse but we are currently taking a break from our travels and staying with friends in Southern Arizona. So, we are offering personally autographed copies at a 50% discount.  Cindie says if we don’t lighten the load, I get to carry all the remaining books with us when we get on the road again in April and I already feel like an overloaded donkey.

Click on the link below to go to our book sale.
http://downtheroad.org/Publishing/9_discount_on_sale.htm

Computer Crash and Selling Books at El Tour De Tucson

Tim with Linda and Don in Lafayette, California

Cindie’s Daily Journal: Northern California, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Big Sur

Rather than write day to day info on the west coast I decided that I will add some tips that are not in the books or maps we are using. We are using  Bicycling The Pacific Coast, A Route Guide, Canada to Mexico, it details the day to day ride from Canada to Mexico so I don't feel I need to give that information over again.  We also picked up a map called Oregon Bicycle Touring Map and it has more information on shoulder width, terrain profiles, and lists all the hiker/biker campgrounds.

Tips for the US West Coast

Fall 2008 - The hiker/biker sites in Washington are $14/ tent, Oregon sites are $4 per person and California sites are $3 per person. I am pretty sure that Washington, Oregon, and California law that if you arrive at a state park by bicycle or on foot then they can not turn you away.  It makes it really easy to tour the west coast where camp grounds can be fully booked.

The bridge from Washington to Astoria, Oregon is long and has a very narrow shoulder littered with glass and wood bark.  I was white knuckled most of the 2.5 miles across.  I later learned that you can take a bus across the bridge for 50 cents.  You need to be in a place that the bus can pull over and pick you up.  Buses have room for 2 bikes up front and your gear will have to be removed.  If I knew we could have done this I would have.

Pick up a copy of the Oregon Coast Bike Route Map at the visitor center in Astoria, it is free and shows all the hiker/biker sites along the coast and in addition it shows the land profile too.  What more could you ask for.

We stayed in hiker/biker sites all the way down the coast and our favorites were the following:

OREGON

 Fort Stevens near Astoria, the bathroom was close by and the sites were pleasant.  When we arrived there, there were a total of 12 cyclists camping.  Wow, bike touring has gotten popular.

Cape Lookout near Tillamook has some nice quiet camping spots near the ocean.

Newport has a great bike shop, so if you need some work done stop in and see Elliot at the Newport Bike Shop on 6th street, he also has an upstairs lounge to take a break where you can connect your laptop and do your laundry too.  Stop in say hello and sign his guest book.

South Beach State Park is located 2 miles from Newport, the hiker/biker is a bit noisy but it does have a hospitality house where they offer free coffee and tea, and a warm place to read a book, do a puzzle, connect to the internet, and watch a DVD movie.

Jessie M Honeyman may be the prettiest hiker biker site although the bathroom seems to be far far away.  The campsite is within Redwoods and surrounded by sand dunes. Just a pleasant setting.

Harris State Beach near the Oregon/California state line also has a laundry at the state park.

CALIFORNIA

California does things it own way, it took a while to get use to the mileage marker signs, rather than show the mileage through the state, each county must be responsible for the signs so the miles count down through each county, how convenient.

Northern California is the home of the giant redwoods and it is certainly a special place, especially when we realized that the groves of redwoods we rode through were preserved for future generations not by our park system but a group of people who pooled their money and bought large tracks of the redwoods in the 1920s, true visionaries. When you tour the redwoods you will see what inspired them.  We took a rest day at Elk Prairie campground and did a day hike through the redwood forest, just magical.  After Elk Prairie we stayed the night in Arcata, home of Humboldt State University.  I stopped in the grocery store and was at awe at the bulk food, organic food that was reasonably priced and shear variety of food.  I came away from the store with lots of granola. Tim still teases me about leaving Arcata with 2 pounds of granola. OK Arcata is a hippy town. The Avenue of the Giants located south of Arcata is a beautiful cruise through trees so tall your neck hurts looking at them.

We left the coast at Jenner and headed up highway 116 towards Guerneville.  We spent the night in Guerneville and the next day we rode to Napa Valley and stayed at Napa Booth State Park.  A nice place, we toured Napa Valley during crushing season and it smelled great.  Napa is an interesting mix of wine connoisseurs and the workers that work the fields. We felt like we were visiting a part of Latin America at the same time. Needless to say we found some great Mexican food to eat. YUM.

We then rode over to Sonoma Valley via the Oakdale Grade and Trinity road.  The Oakdale Grade may be the longest steep grade we have ridden in a very very long time.  We arrived in Glen Allen to visit Melanie, Brian and their daughter Rosie.  We met Melanie 6 years ago in Guatemala and have kept in touch ever since. We toured wineries they worked at and learned a lot about wine, I even got the hang of the difference between Zinfandel and Chardonnay. Cool. Little 5 month old Rosie was a bundle of sunshine too.

We then rode back to the coast via 116 and Petaluma.  California has lots of traffic and it was a bit congested on narrow roads.  We camped at Samuel Taylor State Park in the Redwoods again and it felt like it got below freezing that night. Again, there were lots of touring cyclists.

The next day we headed into San Francisco and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a difficult route to follow from the campground but it being Sunday plenty of cyclists pointed us in the right direction.  We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge just in time to see the Blue Angels roar over the bridge. The Embarcadero was packed with people and it was a lot of fun to ride through Crissy field.  We took the Bart (subway) out to Lafayette and stayed with Linda and Don.  We are not sure when we met Linda on line but we know we have been writing each other since the beginning of our trip so it was a no brainer for me to stop in for a visit.

We were really tired when we arrived at Linda and Don's and we stayed for 4 days, watched the debate, did a presentation about our trip to a group of friends, did an interview with Roger Wendell and just relaxed.  Boy did we need it. It was a bit strange to be so comfortable with someone I had never met before but then I realized that wasn't true, emailing through the ups and downs of our trip really did develop a relationship so meeting Linda was easy and added another dimension to our friendship.

We went back to San Francisco and stayed with a bike nut named LX who shared his house, his lifestyle, and his city. Tim kept confusing his name and called him XT, (LX and XT are shimano bike components) he didn't seem to mind.  I have been to San Francisco many times and I thought it would just be impossible to ride a bicycle around the city.  Well my perspective is changed, it is not as bad as my expectations led me to believe.  Riding around with LX and Jon Winston of Bikescape, showed us the bike culture of San Fran and if you can ride a fixed gear track bike with no brakes through town well than I can ride my multigeared touring bike there too. It seems that San Francisco cyclists have a fascination with the fixy, one gear no brakes (ok a few had hand brakes) track bike.  It is interesting that we saw this same fascination with fixys in Auckland, New Zealand as well.  

We left our host on Sunday and headed down to San Jose via Cal Train. Cal Train has a special car for bikes where we could bungy cord them in so they didn't move around.  A nice alternative to riding in traffic.  Along the way we met Rick who plans to embark on his world tour in a year.  Well Rick you have good timing, it seems the Dollar is getting stronger against most currencies again. We watched a 40% decline of the dollar and it chased us home.

While in San Jose getting an overhaul on our Phil Wood hubs at the Phil Wood factory, plan a couple of days to do this, it is taking longer than I thought it would. We are staying with an old college room mate of mine, we haven't seen each other in 18 years, whoa, that is a long time. Boy is it good to be back in the USA. 

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Lx, Jon, and Tim in the Velo Rouge Cafe.

INDEX #6: Alaska, Canada, and USA
5-3-08 to present