Shawne and Jo say... Day 23 Mileage Today: 24.5 Total Mileage: 892.6 Flats Today: 0 Total Flats: 27 We've heard of a city that is showing great promise of growth and prosperity due to the location of the first ever Space Port nearby. The town used to be called Hot Springs, because of the abundance of natural hot springs throughout the downtown area. The water is piped into tubs and pools, and the locals charge tourists to bathe in the healing waters. Back in the 1950's, a radio show called "Truth or Consequences" put out a nationwide search for a small [View Full Entry]

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Shawne and Jo say... Day 22 Mileage Today: 57.5 Total Miles: 868.1 Flats Today: 0 Total Flats: 27 Last night, Manuel locked the German Shepherd inside the horse trailer so he wouldn't bother us. The puppy wanted us to play with him, so he'd wake us up, snooping around our bikes and scratching at the door to the tent. The German Shepherd, however, was so upset that he was locked up while strangers were present, he barked and whined all night. Farm workers were in and out of the front gate in pickups and on foot, headed for the shop behind [View Full Entry]

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Shawne and Jo say... Day 21 Miles Today: 26.2 Total Mileage: 810.6 Flats Today: 0 Total Flats: 27 Who's great idea was it to do this trip in Winter? It was ridiculously cold last night. Shawne woke up around 4 a.m. and checked the thermometer at the RV park. It was 35 degrees! BRRRRRRR!!! Shawne went back to sleep, snuggling with Jo to keep warm. We woke a few hours later and walked to the library to see what time they opened. Then we went to the gas station for fuel for our campstove (.50 on pump 3!) and went to [View Full Entry]

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Shawne and Jo say... Day 20 Miles Today: ZERO Flats Today: ZERO Yippee skippy! Day off today. We did laundry. We washed all the road grime and grasshopper guts off our bikes. We saw our first signs of Fall yesterday, and they are evident again in our campsite today. It's colder than we expected, but it's manageable. The big storm that was supposed to roll in today never showed up. We rested. We ate beef-heart hamburgers for dinner and hung out around the campsite. Lazy day. We deserved it. [View Full Entry]

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Shawne and Jo say... Day 19 Miles Today: 39.1 Total Mileage: 784.4 Flats Today: 2 Total Flats: 27 The rain kept Jo up most of the night. She had a nightmare that a character from 'House of 1000 Corpses' (named Tiny) cut Shawne's head off and came to the tent to get her. "Can I have him back?", she asked Tiny. He handed her Shawne's head, and she pulled out the Marine Corps knife that is mounted on Shawne's bicycle and stabbed Tiny over and over and over, then she awoke, sitting straight up in bed. The rain wouldn't let up. [View Full Entry]

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Shawne and Jo say... Day 18 Miles Today: 46.1 Total Miles: 745.3 Flats Today: 2 Total Flats: 25 Waking up before sunrise, we prepared a breakfast of leftover tacos. Forest Service workers began to show up at the Ranger Station for work. Arriving in the dark last night gave us little knowledge of our surroundings. It turned out that this Ranger Station was fairly large, with many outbuildings and 20-30 government vehicles including fire apparatus and ATV's. there were even horses in a corral in the back. The horses! That's what was making all the strange noise last night! [View Full Entry]

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Shawne says... Mileage Today: 40.6 Total Mileage: 699.2 Flats Today: 2 Total Flats: 23 I woke briefly at 4 a.m. as James left to "make some hole" as they say. I thanked him for his hospitality as he headed for the mine. I don't miss the early mornings and long days of being a Driller. I went back to sleep, snuggling up with Jo. We rose around 6 a.m. and started packing. Mitchell was already up and was very eager to help. He said, "Come on, guys, let's get the packin' done so we have time to play some catch!" Pam [View Full Entry]

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Shawne says... Day 16 Mileage Today: 36.4 Total Mileage: 658.6 Flats Today: 3 Total Flats: 21 We rose to the smell of breakfast cooking and roosters crowing at 6 a.m., a few hours later than we had anticipated. We walked into the kitched to find Evelyn had cooked up some homemade tortillas, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and bacon for some great breakfast burritos. We packed our freshly washed clothes as Jo laughed out loud at a young rooster that hadn't quite learned to crow like the others. His call was warbled and off track. (Jo says...He sounded like "AH-Ah, OOH-OOH, rooowooo". [View Full Entry]

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Shawne says... Day 15 Mileage Today: 50.6 Total Mileage: 622.2 Flats Today: 2 Total Flats: 18 Another late start today. I just couldn't get out of bed. Jo made an oatmeal breakfast as I wrote in my journal. We packed slowly as a maintenance worker approached us. (Jo says...He was wearing an old tophat full of pins, and his long gray beard swayed as he walked. We initially were not convinced he worked there. We thought perhaps he was a friend of the homeless woman who'd slept on the community center's front steps last night.) He said that he'd unlocked the [View Full Entry]

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Shawne says... Day 14 Mileage Today: 24.5 Total Mileage: 571.6 Flats Today: 0 Total Flats: 16 The hair on my head was wet when I awoke. Our leaking tent was to thank for that. I rose and tried to get the soaked campfire to reignite. It took a few minutes, but I managed to get it going. Jo was still passed out, and I wanted her to sleep in today. Yesterday was pretty rough on her; well, it was rough on both of us. We needed to let the morning rush hour mining traffic pass before we got back onto this [View Full Entry]

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