Or, How Jody and Janie Went from Iowa City to California with the Car and the Bikes
This post is the story of the first leg of our journey – moving the car and the bikes from Iowa City to California. It’s about Waldo Canyon, playing Where’s Waldo? and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The logistics of a three to four month bicycle ride across America are complicated. Very complicated. It’s like playing a four-dimensional game of Where’s Waldo?. If you want to play, read the whole post, and things will begin to become clear. If you just want to jump to the journey, look at the pictures. (Many of these aren’t actually our pictures – some of them are on the laptop, which is in the garage in LA, which is where the bikes are today . . . I did say it was complicated. I wasn’t kidding! I’m writing this from my office in Iowa City, knowing that I have to go home and do laundry before we fly back to LAX tomorrow morning. I’ll start posting our pictures when we get back on the road.)
The logistics of a three to four month bicycle ride across America are complicated. Very complicated. It’s like playing a four-dimensional game of Where’s Waldo?. If you want to play, read the whole post, and things will begin to become clear. If you just want to jump to the journey, look at the pictures. (Many of these aren’t actually our pictures – some of them are on the laptop, which is in the garage in LA, which is where the bikes are today . . . I did say it was complicated. I wasn’t kidding! I’m writing this from my office in Iowa City, knowing that I have to go home and do laundry before we fly back to LAX tomorrow morning. I’ll start posting our pictures when we get back on the road.)
When we decided on July 9th that we would go in 2012, we had a lot of planning to do in a little over five weeks. We had family coming to work and coming to visit. We had the massive changeover of apartments that occurs every year in Iowa City, driven by the academic calendar. We had work commitments, some of which couldn’t be moved. We had to figure out the route, the timing, the bikes, and a myriad of other matters, large and small. Who would watch the house? (Thanks to Theo, Mary, Jim, and Phyl.) Who would harvest the tomatoes and peppers? Where would we spend the High Holidays? (Santa Fe and Denver.) Which vehicle would we take?
Questions started to come from family, friends and co-workers. Some of the simple answers:
The route: The set points of the route are Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Denver, Iowa City, New Orleans, Savannah – everything in between is negotiable. We are driving car with the bikes on it to California, riding across the country, then driving the car with the bikes on it from Savannah to Iowa City at the end of the ride. We will dip the back wheels in the Pacific and the front wheels in the Atlantic.
The professionals and the sag wagon: We have professional assistance with the routes (a big shout out here to Joe Tonon, Peter Doran at Destination Cycling http://destinationcycling.com/ where the home page says: “Does your bike dream? Let the fantasy begin . . .”). Peter will ride the first ten days with us. There will be rest days along the way. Jody will ride each segment of the route. Janie will ride the beginning of each day, turning around early to return to the car and move it to that night’s stopping point.
The bikes and other equipment: Jody is riding a new Surly Disc Trucker touring bike. He also brought his Trek road bike as a backup in case of mechanical problems with the touring bike. The third bike is my new Trek hybrid (a 7.5 FX WSD for the bike geeks among you). It’s an on-going game of three-dimensional Tetris for the car. We’re learning every day, every time we load and unload. We have a rack on the back of the car that holds three bicycles. In Denver, we had a roof rack with luggage carrier and fourth bike rack installed.
More details: No, we are not camping. If Jody has a mechanical or other issue on the road, we’ve got our cell phones and Janie will drive out with all the equipment in the car to provide assistance as needed. Yes, we are excited about the trip.
The Trip to California: On Tuesday, August 14, I flew to Denver. On Wednesday, August 15, Jody drove The Little Darkness (yes, we name our cars – that’s my Volvo V50 station wagon) to Denver with three bikes and most of our equipment, supplies and clothing. Jody called me from the road to tell me he had good news, bad news and worse news. “What’s the good news?” “I got everything in the car.” “What’s the bad news?” “There’s no room for Peter in the car.” “What’s the worse news?” “There’s no room for you in the car!” Yup. We’re learning every day.
We spent time with friends and family, and time out for a Murder Mystery dinner (Jody’s Chanukah gift to me):
On Sunday, August 19, we departed for
Bryce Canyon, Utah. We took the stunningly
scenic route over Vail Pass, through Glenwood Canyon and on into Utah.
On our way to the tiny town of
Tropic, Utah (we spent our first night on the road in this town of 490, a few
miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon), we passed through Red Canyon State
Park, where a paved bike path follows the road for about 12 miles. Red Canyon has much of the same stunning red rock as Bryce Canyon, but on a much smaller scale.
We entered Bryce Canyon National Park
that night at about 7:30. We stopped in
at the Visitors Center to chat with the rangers and pick up maps. From there we drive in twilight up the main
park road to the top of the park. The
views are spectacular. We saw deer and
pronghorn antelope within feet of the side of the road. We saw the prairie dog village and a sign
warning of black bears scavenging in trash cans. Signs everywhere warn of rough trails and
that one should stay in the car in the event of lightning. Miles in the car: about 575.
Early the next morning, Jody rode
that same road, 34 miles total up and back, with a 1200 foot elevation
gain/loss, approximately 9100’ at the summit.
The lower part of the road undulated over increasingly steep rises and
falls, with the last few miles a steady and winding climb.
Jody at the top of Bryce Canyon
I drove back to the rest area at the
top of Red Canyon State Park and rode 10-12 miles on the paved bike path, a
mere 7777’ at the summit. I met Jody at
the Visitors Center and we took a last short drive into the park, where we
walked out on Bryce Point.
Jody and Janie at Bryce Point
We left Tropic early in the afternoon, headed for St. George, Utah. Garmin recommended that we return to the highway, but we had made good use of the maps from the Visitors Center and the maps on the back of the placemats at The Pines, where we had eaten dinner the night before. Instead of the highway, we took the road less traveled, south to the east entrance of Zion National Park. We didn’t ride the bikes in Zion, but the drive from the east entrance to the south entrance is not to be missed. We passed Checkerboard Mesa, which reminded both of us of Jabba the Hut. We passed a pair of cyclists, their bikes loaded with panniers, huffing and puffing their way up the twisting road to the tunnel. At that point, we were glad to be in the car and not on the bikes. Miles in the car: about 250.
We spent Monday night, August 21, in St. George, Utah. The next morning (Tuesday, August 22), we drove through the northwest corner of Arizona and into California. There we got a good look at where we’ll be next week, the Mojave Desert:
We drove into Los Angeles in the
middle of the afternoon, where the traffic is not for the faint of heart. We spent a lovely time with Jody’s sister
Corky and brother-in-law Milt. We then
unloaded the bikes and most of our equipment and luggage in their garage. After dinner, we drove through what those who
live in LA consider light traffic (we considered it crazy), to our hotel at
LAX. We parked The Little Darkness in
the hotel garage. Miles in the car: about 550.
Wednesday morning, August 23, we flew
from LAX to Cedar Rapids, returning to Iowa City for a pair of business
functions related to SouthGate’s 50th Anniversary.
I don’t know where Waldo is. There will be some days when we don’t know
where we are. But I do know where Waldo
Canyon, Colorado is. Later, we’ll pass
fairly close to where the devastating Colorado wildfires burned through
beautiful Waldo Canon, near Colorado Springs.
Local and national news covered the fires throughout the summer. We were inundated with images of
destruction. This is how Waldo Canyon
looked before the fire. This is how
Waldo Canyon will look again. This is
how we prefer to think of it.
The Colorado
Fire Relief Fund 2012 assists Colorado communities impacted by wildfires in
2012. Contributions may be made through
the Colorado Fire Relief Fund 2012 at The Denver Foundation: www.denverfoundation.org
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it
with us or we find it not.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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