Giant Ants in the Desert

One thing I never expected about this adventure was the vicious and in one case, monstrous ant! Before the powdery sands of the desert and the hundreds of ants of all varieties that live in it, there was no reason to use a tent on a nice night.

As I was laying down in the dark last night, I noticed a biting every once in a while on my exposed skin. At first, I thought it was the norm, mosquitos or horse flies, but once I turned my headlamp on I noticed there were hundreds of red ants, everywhere! They got in my panier bags, in my food bag and were climbing all over me, biting. Then I saw the mother!...


Ferocious looking. Some mutant ant that was most of the size of Dwight's index finger. No one told me about this...Ants aren't suppose to get this big...

I'll be tenting it in the desert.

Handsome Western States

Yesterday we rode 50 miles to the middle of nowhere on Route 98 towards Page.

Tale of Two Rumble Strips

One was nice, a little massage for my feet.

The other was mean, and beat me in the hands, and grabbed me and hit me in the mouth and knocked my teeth out, almost. But the road could not make up her mind, and kept changing back and forth between them. Oh, capricious road, why must you play so carelessly with my little heart?

They left these signs for us to follow

This one is my favorite

Legend

Beautiful Ladies on bikes! and the Mesa Verde National Park

When we arrived at the entrance to the Mesa Verde National Park, we met three girls who were cycle touring, as well. Elsbeth and Brooke were from Alberta, Canada, and Lindsay from Colorado. They were visiting National Parks on their way south, down the United States when we bumped into them at Mesa Verde. We ended up hanging up hanging out with the girls that night and checking out the park with them the next day. It was a pleasure to meet up with them and share stories and food.

All laughs

New Mexicarizutah

Mesa Verde bike caravan

We rode through a forest of fire-blackened trees to reach the ruins

We set foot on New Mexico soil at the four corners

And then we left

And went to Arizona. As you can see, Ryan has just done something totally hilarious.

Rosalita got her handle bars did

We've had very little luck with cell phone service or public computer access on The Navajo Reservation. The owner of the movie theater where we slept last night. Gordon, has been kind enough to let us use his computer for a quick update. Our recent daily mileage:2 miles from Durango to the outskirts of Durango, where we were cut off suddenly by another thunder storm and forced to take shelter under the awning of a shack behind a gas station; 35 miles to Mesa Verde National Park, where we met three awesome girls (also touring cyclists) who helped us get in on their parks pass and shared their campsite with us; 30 miles to The Ute Mountain Tribal Park Visitors' Center (plus 35 miles within Mesa Verde), another thunder storm cut us short; 97 miles to Kayenta, AZ, where we slept in the theater. Thanks, Gordon!

This old fella finally kicked the bucket. Made it all the way from New Haven to Kayenta

Replaced this once-flat Continental. Must have been a pinch flat because the tire still looks strong. Call him Lazarus.

Welcome to the desert, son