I can think of no better time to be eaten alive by a mountain lion

So I'm in Study Butte, just outside of Big Bend National Park. I think Big Bend nice. I don't think I'll elaborate. I'll just say I think it's nice (and crack my knuckles while tapping my foot). I won't go into detail as to why. But if it makes you feel better about yourself, maybe I'm either too stupid or just not interested enough to have an opinion.

I rode I guess about 37 miles today. It was nice riding. About 15 miles were on dirt/rocky gravel, which was really nice. I forget sometimes how much I enjoy dirt. I think I may take a look around at some trails that are supposedly flooded tomorrow. Get a bit muddy, maybe. That'd be fun. But as I'm not a serious cyclist, who knows. Maybe I'll take take pictures, that, as I'm also not a serious photographer, probably won't turn out that great. I might have to wake up early to get decent lighting to take pictures, though. But since I'm not truly serious about anything, really, I can't see why I'd ever wake up early.

Oh, did I mention that I get the feeling that Dorit doesn't want me here? Yeah, there's that. It's such a wonderful feeling. To quit your job so you can take the time to be stuck in the middle of the country with someone who not only doesn't want you around at all but also finds fault in nearly everything you do or have done. I'm so stoked.

Regardless, I'm still happier here (my presence desired or not) than I likely would've been riding from Marathon to Del Rio carrying all my shit on my back. And slow speeds on dirt are so much safer for me anyways. Since I don't have a real bike, as it didn't cost $4,000.

I think I've said enough that I probably shouldn't. And there's plenty of time for that in the future. So...untill next time.

Oh! Wait, sorry. Here, I thought I should share with you some of my terrorist propaganda. I think that some questions raised on this website have at least some merit, which must mean I'm of the same mindset as a terrorist. (Ok, I'll clarify; that was sarcasm. I do not consider myself to be a terrorist, nor should you. But, gasp!, I may be a bit weird and I do think you should do some reading at 911 Truth.)

Oh, and I also wish I could remember the name of that restaurant that we ate at in Ft. Davis so I could give them a 1/5 on yelp. Worst service EVER!!!

Beer, cereal and danishes for breakfast in Van Horn, Texas. I went North on SR-54 yesterday. I'm going to go south on 90today and see if it's a bit less boring. Ok, that's all. Gonna pack and get rolling. I also have to Yelp! the place we ate 2 nights ago and yesterday morning in Hancock, Texas. It was everything you'd think Texas might be. But more on that later. I'm sure Dorit wrote about it.

I woke to 37 degree temperatures. But Dorit warned me when she knocked on my door so I was pretty well prepared by the time I left the warmth of the hotel room. We ate breakfast at the Hillsboro General Store Cafe, where Gretta was having a coffee. It was huge and quite tasty. I had a 'Highway 152 Pile-Up' which was eggs, hashbrowns, spicey sausage, pinto beans, green chili, and cheese over a flour tortilla. It took up the whole plate. I had a late lunch, but nothing in town is open past 3, so I was starving. I'd had a banana muffin (Dorit didn't like her banana muffin. I thought mine was just fine) after my ride and 2 granola bars last night at around 6, but that was it. I ate the whole plate of food and a blueberry muffin. I must say the blueberry muffin was quite good. Maybe it's because my mouth was still burning a bit from the green chili (a welcome burn) but even though the blueberry muffing seemed to be zested, with either a lemon or orange zest baked in. I didn't mind the zest! This is a first for me. And if you know how I feel about zest, you'll find this quite surprising! Well, I should be going.

Oh, last night I ended up ordering Dorit a chicken salad sandwhich and a banana muffin. I ordered her the sandwhich rather than a burger, because even though I knew she likes beef, I thought chicken salad would taste better cold than a hamburger. When I first told her this she was all "You know I prefer a hamburger any day to a sandwich!" As it turned out she thought the sandwhich was wonderful, but, as I mentioned earlier, didn't like the muffin too much.

So in conclusion, I think Silver City and Hillsboro are both pretty neat towns. Towns worth visiting. Or, if your passing through, I'd say either cafe is worth having a bite to eat at. And do your grocery shopping at the Co-Op in Silver City!

Well awesome! Just rode for about 4 hours and it was super nice! Did only about 45 miles...I could've gone much further but timed it perfectly. I ran out of light completely just as I got back. I did a climb from about 5k feet to about 7.5k feet. Then back down to about 6k, back up to 7 and down again. I won't have to do it again, tomorrow, but maybe I will. It was a blast! Especially the descent. I still think my fit is a bit off, but I'm not going to mess with that I don't think. Though if anyone wants to buy me a Specialized S-Works....I'm sure that'd fix all my fit issues. A 58 should fit nicely. Though I'd settle for a new rear wheel. Oh I met this girl at the top. Her name was Gretta. She'd biked here from Silver City on a crappy old Schwinn, which apparently she'd built up a few days previous. Out of frustration she'd ripped off the derailleur, set it to a modest gear, and made the trek single speed! Awesome, simply awesome. Oh and in sandals with no toe clips. (Which you couldn't really do with sandals anyways. It'd hurt pretty bad after a while.) Apparently she and her boyfriend are going sailing tomorrow, but he's riding his motorcycle down. She wanted a way to get here tonight so she could camp, but wanted to be able to ride back with her boyfriend. So she built up a shitty Schwinn that she could just leave here. Pretty awesome. I wish I had more time to talk to her. She seemed super cool. Then again, Silver City didn't seem like such a bad town. I wouldn't mind living there for a few months. There was a ton of bike shops.

So we're staying in this little motel that has a cafe attached. The Cafe is called the Barbershop Cafe. The people who run the place also run the cafe. They must be partly retired since she said they were originally from I think, Huntington Beach, California and they keep odd ours. 11am-3pm (Thursday - Sunday) Anyways, THE FOOD WAS AMAZING!!! I had a green chili cheese burger with a slice of avocado on it and vegetable soup instead of fries or coleslaw (yuck!). The soup was incredible!!!! As was the burger. It was just spicy enough. I mean it was perfect! It was quite hot, but not too hot. Really, it was just right. It's not so surprising that the food was so good, though. The people were from California. More and more I'm realizing how much California truly is a food mecca. The climate is quite diverse throughout the state...and the people who live there just seem to know a ton about food. Some more than others, of course. Colleen in particular. Man, I want a Colleen cooked meal, so bad.

Alright, I think I'm done. I'm going to stretch and then take a shower, then probably do some more math. There's no desk in here, which is unfortunate, but i'll work it out. Hopefully I'll get through this review sometime soon so I can actually start learning some Calculus. Though my note taking is going to have to get better.

So I'm in Hillsboro, New Mexico and there's no internet. I'll post quickly since I think this cafe is about to close and I'd like to get some lunch. Apparently nothing here is open for dinner, so we'll have to order take out for later. If I don't see Dorit soon, I'm going to attempt to order something I think she would like to eat later, yet something that'll keep well. Hopefully she'll descend like a monster. The roads coming down were super windy and I kept half expecting to get passed by her. It's easier on a bike to navigate windy roads like that at greater speeds than a car could manage. And of course I was driving super safe. Never would I take advantage of such a powerful, well handling car on windy roads. No matter how loud I turned up the music, I drove like a grandma.

I may try to wake up early tomorrow morning and climb those roads and descend before I move on. I've been bad about putting my miles in these past few days. I would've ridden harder, had I not caught a bug last night. I was up until about 12am vomiting. I blame the chocolates at the hotel. Ok, that's it.

First Post

So today is the first day that I've blogged (if I finish this, that is.) of the 14 days we've been on the road. I may try to recap later where we've been before now, but the whole reason I haven't blogged yet is because I really don't like to. Though it'd probably be easier if I did rather than have to tell the same stories to everyone.

I guess I should briefly explain the details of the trip. While working as a bike messenger in San Francisco, I attended a San Francisco Bike Messenger Association poker tournament/fund raiser held at Sports Basment (map) on Bryant. Dorit was there shopping for a new track bike, and had wondered over to where the events were taking place. I think the first thing I heard her say was "I'm faster than every messenger." This was the first time I met Dorit and Andres.

So Dorit told me that she wanted to ride from California to Florida and be in Florida around Thanksgiving. She didn't want to carry all her stuff, though, so she needed someone to drive her car. I wouldn't get paid, but my expenses would be covered. Sounded like a deal to me. So that's the back story.

So right now I'm in Silver City, New Mexico. Dorit had a pretty bad infected saddle pimple/sore or whatever, so she took a day off and hiked allowing me to ride here from Safford, Arizona. The distance was about 133 miles. I made it about 110 miles of the way when I met up with Dorit and was feeling pretty good. So I said she should drive into town and I'd meet her there shortly. About 10 miles later things got pretty rough. It was a slow uphill climb to Sliver City at about 5700ft and I just ran out of steam. I called her and she came and picked me up about 7 miles out of town.

We had dinner last night at a place called Issac's bar. Met two people from Louisiana that were doing the same tour in the other direction.

I also went to a really neat little Grocery Co-Op and got some Dr. Bronner's (which I was almost out of), a jar of lanolin, raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, a small bag of rasins, and a small bag of coconut rolled dates. I mixed the rasins, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds together as sort of a trail mix. And ate some this morning with a bit of milk Dorit had purchasd. Made a nice cereal.

Ok, I'm done typing.