We left Moab rather hurriedly, after a few great bike rides, when the nighttime temperatures were threatening to dip down to 19 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 7 centigrade I think!), and spent a very windy night at Goosenecks State Park, close to Monument Valley. Our camping spot was just a few feet away from the edge of an incredible gorge, which plummeted more than 1000ft down to the San Juan river below, a tributary of the better known Colorado river. I spent most of the night terrified that either the collapsible roof of Tortuga would indeed collapse, crushing us in our bunk, or that the wind would somehow disengage the parking brake and send us hurtling into the dark chasm of the gorge. Ken was worried about neither possibility and slept like a baby! For a ... read more

Hello from Tucson! Yesterday we rode back into the city and so came to the end of our 4 1/2 month bike trip. It was a bittersweet moment - our bodies are ready for a rest but it's been such a fantastic trip that it's sad to be at the end. It seems a long time since we first rode out of Pukekawa on New Zealand's North Island last November, and we had no idea how the trip would go. But here we are, almost 4,000 miles later, pretty much unscathed, bikes still more or less working, and full of great memories. Instead of doing my usual description of the places we passed through during the last couple of weeks, I'll leave the photos and captions to do the talking. I'll finish instead with a few ... read more

Hello from New Mexico, where the second stage of our bike tour is well underway! We arrived back in the States from New Zealand a couple of weeks ago, and within a few days were back on the bikes and navigating our way out of Tucson's urban sprawl. It was quite a shock to the system after riding through such peaceful little towns in NZ, but we were able to find a cycle path that took us all the way through the city and up to Catalina State Park, where we camped for the night under a beautifully clear sky. Since we hadn't originally planned on continuing to cycle tour after NZ, we weren't too sure what kind of route to take, but we realized that the ACA cross-country Southern Tier route wasn't too far away, ... read more

Hello folks and thanks for checking in with us. Ken would like to make the following observation: 'Mark Twain once famously said, "The coldest winter I ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco." Clearly, he'd never travelled to New Zealand's South Island. But we don't want to get off on a rant so soon.' Now back to me...It's been quite a long time since we updated our blog, as internet access has been a little sporadic, but here's a quick overview of our last few weeks. The weather has featured pretty prominently, not in a good way, so riding has been very challenging and we've had a few too many soggy camping nights. On the plus side, we've learned some amusing Kiwi expressions for describing the bad weather: 'turning to custard'; 'it's gone a little ... read more

Hello from Nelson, on South Island - NZ's sunniest city according to the Rough Guide...and so far it has lived up to its reputation! As did windy Wellington, where Ken and I got drenched as we were blasted into the city by 40km/hr winds and torrential rain last weekend! After leaving Napier a couple of weeks ago, we had some fantastic riding days, which took us on peaceful back roads through the tiny towns of Waipawa, Porangahau and Pongaroa to the larger settlement of Masterton. We followed old route 52 for several days through beautiful rolling hills in the welcome company of our friends Adriano (Brazil) and Chee Peng, "Chips", (Singapore), and it was great to camp together each night and encourage each other on the big climbs. From Masterton we continued south through wine country ... read more