First Day in Destin, Florida

We went to the beach of course.

Seems that all of the coastal regions of Florida have nicknames; they call this area the Emerald Coast.

New Orleans, LA

We had wanted to get a hotel close in to town, but based on the on-line reviews, a decent hotel here will run about $200.  In addition, most of the close in hotels have limited parking or valet only parking.  Considering the prices and the huge amount of luggage we have, we decided to head for the suburbs.  We ended up at a Fairview Inn at $129 per night.  One of the most expensive hotels on our trip, and one of the worst in terms of quality.

I'm not sure what to think about New Orleans.  It has all the crime, traffic, and other difficulties of a large city, but the reality is that Portland is nearly twice as large and yet infinitely more livable.  We only stayed 2 nights, but ended up having a nice time.

We took the bikes for a ride along the levy, all the way from Kenner to the Garden District, about 30 miles total.  Cruised around the garden district for an hour or so looking at the old mansions.  I really enjoyed the ride along the levy.  The viewpoint from the top of the levy gives an interesting perspective as it passes along the different neighborhoods.

We also went down to Bourbon Street later that evening, but only lasted until about 9:30.  I have a feeling the party was just getting started, but we were ready to call it a day.

Houston, TX

The next stop on our tour of Texas was a few days at my brother's house in Houston.  Unfortunately, he wasn't there, but we had a great time visiting with Julia and the kids.  I think everyone improved their ping pong skills over the course of many games played.  I borrowed Terry's road bike and took a little tour around town including the Bray's Bayou bike path.  It has been over a month since I've been on a road bike and it was nice to ride some easy rolling skinny tires for a change.

Here is the track from my Garmin.  I've had this GPS for a few years, but I am still amazed that a wristwatch can record my position, heart rate, and speed; and then download all the data to a server where the data is held for no charge.  It's a huge amount of technology to fit into a watch.

The elevation recording is not broken, Houston is just that flat.

Here is a link to the Garmin model I've been using:
Garmin 405

San Antonio, Texas

The drive from Carlsbad, NM to San Antonio is long, but it went well and the 80 mph speed limit helps the miles go by a bit quicker.  Had a couple of relaxing days thanks to the southern hospitality of our friends Lisa and John.

Did a bit of touristing and visited the mission San José.  Fairly impressive considering that Texas must have been more or less wilderness when the mission was established in 1720.  

Carlsbad Caverns

We took the Lower Cave guided tour of Carlsbad Caverns.  Although the self-guided tours of the Big Room  are indeed impressive, the Lower Cave tour is much more intimate and is a completely different experience compared to the Big Room tour.  On our 3 hour venture, there were two guides and eight tourists.  The entrance was fairly scary.  First we had to scale down a sloped rock face using a knotted rope.  That was no problem.  That left us standing on a ledge, from which we had to step on a series of 3 ladders that were bolted to the walls of the cave.  I didn't like the ladders much.  Everything was wet and a bit slippery and the top is about 30ft from the cave floor.

If we were to visit again, I think we'd skip the town of Carlsbad and instead stay in Roswell.  Carlsbad is bad.  It just looks like a town that nobody cares about; lots of vacant buildings, the hotel was expensive and beat up, we didn't see any decent restaurants, and there doesn't seem to be much else to do except visit the caverns.  On the other hand, Roswell looks like fun.  They've really embraced the alien visitor theme, and it has a walkable downtown with some interesting looking shops and restaurants.  

Santa Fe & Taos, New Mexico

We spent 4 days in the Santa Fe area, and drove up to Taos on one of those days.  For Taos, I think I should invoke the policy of, if you can't say anything nice...  On the other hand, Santa Fe was a real treat.  It is the first stop in our travels that felt like it could be in a foreign country.  Building codes going back to 1912 have restricted the allowable styles of architecture in the historic districts to various versions of the pueblo style.  The result is a town that is surely unlike anywhere else in the U.S.  Although the town is certainly scenic, I didn't take any photos of downtown.  I guess I was just too busy enjoying the moment.

Our first night here; walking through town while the bells of St. Francis Cathedral announce the evening's Mass, then dinner at the rooftop patio of the Coyote Cafe under the full moon.

We biked for two days.  Santa Fe could give Portland a bit of schooling when it comes to having excellent mountain bike trails close to town.  The first trail system we rode, the Dale-Ball trails, were inside the city limits and just a few minutes drive from downtown.  There are plenty of other close by trails that can be combined with the Dale-Ball system to make some truly epic riding days.

Here are a few photos of pointy things on the trails...

After 4 states, and unknown miles, about 15 of these small thorns brought my bike to a halt.

We've been using Continental Tires set up as tubeless with Stan's sealant.  I pulled a bunch of these same thorns from our other tires and they sealed up with no problem; probably not enough sealant in this particular tire.  In any case, no harm done and the bikes are ready to go again.  It may however, be awhile, as we are headed to Texas and don't expect to be riding much.

Santa Fe Farmer's Market

We've been making a real effort to use the foods available from farmer's markets and trying to stay away from fast food.   These photos were from the Tuesday morning Santa Fe market.

It has been interesting to see the regional differences.  California markets had a huge variety of tree fruits, cantaloupes, and artichokes.  Roasting chile peppers is a big thing in New Mexico.

Grand Canyon

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Grand Canyon, other than the obvious, but in any case, it certainly delivers.  When arriving at Grand Canyon Village, most choose to park their cars and either hike, get carted around by tour buses, or ride bikes.  Private vehicles are not allowed access to most of the developed overlook points. The overwhelming majority of visitors choose the tour buses.  For bikes there are several miles of paved trails and an 8 mile road along the rim that is used only by the buses and bikes.  The result is the potential of a 20+ mile round trip ride, with essentially no traffic, along the rim of the Grand Canyon.  Simply staggering.  And I’ve got to hand it to the Park Service for having the courage to make these restrictions in our car-centric society.   

Seeking Sol Fail

Our trusty steed had a hard day.  First we drove on gravel roads for about 10 miles to see the Palatki ruins.  Then on the way up the scenic canyon between Sedona and Flagstaff, we were blocked by a rock slide and unfortunately ran over a rock that didn't quite fit under the car.  Since the road was completely blocked, we turned around and headed back to Sedona to take the freeway route to Flagstaff.  We were nearly to Flagstaff when we encountered this.  Not too bad, but crazy since it was in the mid 80's when we set off less than a hour earlier.

Sedona

We bailed out of Palm Springs early and traded those days for Sedona, which we picked on a whim, mostly because it was on the way to Flagstaff.  What luck, Sedona is a great little town!  It is surrounded by lots of hiking and mountain biking trails, some of which can be accessed right from town.  The weather was nice, hot in the afternoons, but perfect in the morning and evenings.

We rode the Cathedral trail.  The trail was great, the scenery perfect, but our timing wasn't so good.  We ended up riding on the pavement during the hottest part of the day and it was tough.

We also hiked to Devil's Bridge; a nearly five mile hike but well worth it.  

We stayed for three days, but there was so much left undone I think we'll likely be back someday.

Ain't that the truth...

Nothing in sight but more of what you see here.  About 100 miles South of Prescott, Arizona.

Hearst Castle

We played tourists for the day and stopped to see the Hearst Castle.  The castle was of course completely over the top.  But what I found interesting was the story behind the building of it.  Given our current perspective of living in hotels, for someone to put such an emphasis on possessions is hard to comprehend.

In any case, the central California coast is beautiful, and thanks to the hospitality of our friends Carole, Tony and Milo, we had a great couple of days in the area.

Pebble Beach

We did our version of the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach; on our bikes of course.  The 17 mile drive is a scenic road through the town of Pebble Beach.  It hugs the coastline and passes several famous golf courses and some very large houses.  It is unusual in that non-residents are charged a $9.50 fee to enter with a car.  Since we were on our bikes, it was a freebie for us.

The first portion of the ride was fabulous.  The traffic was slow and the road wide; the views were stunning.  After our lunch break, the road got a bit more narrow and the traffic was too much to bear.  We decided to get out the GPS and find a safer way back.  In the end, it worked out great. We took a winding shortcut through some Pebble Beach neighborhoods that were really interesting.

Here is a link to the Pebble Beach Resort website with some more information. 

17 Mile Drive

Emigrant Trail - Truckee, CA

The Emigrant Trail is one of those rides that doesn't have jaw dropping scenery, but is none the less still a great ride thanks to the constantly changing views and the flowing, rolling singletrack. There is not a flat spot on this trail, and yet the climbs are short enough to keep your attention. Here is the output from my handy Garmin GPS.

And here are a few photos from the ride.

Fallen Leaf Lake

This was supposed to be an easy ride part way around Fallen Leaf Lake.  This small lake is just a few miles from South Lake Tahoe.  It has a network of trails around about half of the lake.  Most people would reach the end of the obvious trail and turn back; not us.  We spotted a thin ribbon of trail along the waterfront and for some reason thought it was a good idea to continue, thinking we might be able to make it all the way around the lake.  After pushing the bikes about a half of a mile through manzanita bushes, we finally gave up and headed back.

We did see some interesting ruins along the trail.

I did a bit of internet searching and think that this might have been the home of "Lucky" Baldwin's daughter.  Here is a link to an article about him.
"Lucky" Baldwin