We've watched The Milky Way melt into splendid sunrise while rolling between canyons, we've been carried over obstacles by heroes, we've toured with our first friendly cycle tourist and let's not forget posting a cutlery set half way across the world... It's been another week of sharing surprises with new friends and the biggest surprise of all is how they have put up with us after spending so long without taking a shower! After some weeks of Utah treating us so well its time has come to pass the baton on to Colourful Colorado.

The dawn met us with the insurmountable challenge of crossing a lake hundreds of miles long and presumably as deep as the Grand Canyon; given it's part of the same river... Clearly we needed that helping hand we couldn't find while making the rounds of the campsite the night before. There was however our last hope, a man who spent his whole time on the phone but whom we managed to catch with his hands empty in the morning for a final try. Initially reluctant our new friend Jim warmed to our story and, hoping that some well deserved karma would come his way, finally decided we were worth the effort! After a chat over breakfast we said goodbye for now to Jim and Jen and took to the water with Jim #2 after squeezing the bikes into the stern of his little fishing boat. We took to our role as deckhands well enough to avoid damaging anything as we listened to Jim's stories: how he'd rescued some guys the day before (and was keen to pass on his well earned $ from this to us!), how he was due some serious luck in life after some fairly recent health scares and of course how he loved fishing and hunting. We can't be thankful enough for Jim. One in a million and some serious fun for the brief time we were together. We were then where we wanted to be, the other side of the lake without the few hundred kilometre cycle around, and were wheelbarrowing our puncture ridden bike up the hill to the campsite where we made the necessary repairs. This side of the lake was peaceful and friendly, we first met a lovely couple, Bill and Kay, who let us know the ropes and shortly after rocked up with a crate of beer for us! Wow how we needed that. These guys it would turn out over the next few days had a knack for knowing exactly what we fancied... We also got to know a cycling couple, Molly and Greg, who offered us their second home in Durango if we need later in the trip. We were pretty mesmerised by the people we encountered this side of the lake which also included the guys working there who were from Louisiana and had the coolest accent to match, I've never felt such solidarity in a campsite! But the relentless winds reminded us that we had an early start the next day and forced us to relocate to the lee of the toilet building. Glamour, zero. Practicality 100%.

I said early, and I meant it! At 3am we were up and at 'em, ready for a long days cycle. The Milky Way was lighting our path and we watched while we pedalled, with the moon at our side, as the sun smudged out the stars and turned the blackness into greys and then onto orange. We ate up the miles and climbed out of the depths of the valley, native American settlements kept our interest until we burst out onto a vast plain where monument valley was visible on the horizon, totally unexpectedly. Man it was beautiful, but the price to pay was the roaring wind that whipped up the dust into our faces and so we made a dash for the shelter of one of the few trees scattered about the landscape. Here we had some lunch and caught up on some sleep. Little wonder that Bill and Kay stopped on the road in their car when they spotted two abandoned bikes propped up on the side of the highway, they'd just been shopping and were making their way back to the campsite. We were dying for some refreshment and these guys had read our minds and had picked up some fruit for us, which went down amazingly! We jumped at the chance to spend some more time with them when they offered us a lift a little further up the road to a camping spot, it was great to chat and they really saved our bums from the hot winds we were facing. Thanks so much guys!

We had the pleasure of Roger the biology teacher's company at the camping spot Bill and Kay dropped us off at, we'd say his Russian wife was company too but we never saw her in the end... He was a fun guy who had that look about him that he knew far too much for his own good! We said our farewells to warnings of the Coronavirus and were on the road to the next town, Blanding. In transit we met some biker guys near a old ruin, Paul and Greg, who were lovely to talk to and were really interested in the trip. They even offered us some money which, although we turned down at the time, made us start thinking about what to do when met with such generosity (especially given Jim #2's recent offer of cash also). After an afternoon mulling it over we have now taken steps to begin to associate the trip with a charity close to our hearts so that we can point people in the right direction if they are keen to contribute. Thanks Paul and Greg for unwittingly triggering this, I sincerely hope it will help improve people's lives no matter how little we manage to muster over the course of our journey! Back on the road we made it to the town of Blanding but after being rejected from the few campsites around (apparently the grass was too long...) we drowned our sorrows in an enormous take away pizza which we chowed down in the petrol station forecourt from which we bought it, yes stylish I know! And although we didn't really need the help of wheels to do so with our bellies so full, we rolled on a few miles to a place to camp out of town.

We shared the National Forest we called home for the night with some humming birds, well we found this out eventually after hearing what seemed like military flying insect dive bombing the tent! In the end it was humming birds making huge U shaped flight paths in the 'airspace' near by, talk about a waste of energy... Our rude but truly awesome awakening kick started a short day into the next town where we paid for our first motel room for a long while, and first shower for a while... This gave us some time to place an online order for some junk we think we need and start to figure out how to make the bikes lighter in time before we received it!

Our efforts to identify things that we really didn't need to be carrying around were paid off as, after checking out the motel, we headed straight for the post office to send some stuff back home. OK, we were paying for sentimental value as forking out a good $40 to post some cutlery, a lamp and more small bits of crap than you can shake a stick at half way across the world may not be worth it in some peoples' eyes, but I think we felt happy with it in the end. Lucky also we had the loveliest lady at the counter cause we spent a good hour getting right up to the 3lb weight limit before the price doubled! With a weight off our shoulders, or at least the bike rack, we set off into the crosswinds to see if we could make it across the border into Colourful Colorado. We cruised past the frontier and carried on until a lonely cycle tourist caught our eye at a gas station. Jason was chowing down on some ice cream and thinking about camping at the baseball field in town before we left him to make a little more progress and, feeling guilty that we hadn't offered him to join us, 5 minutes later we hear a shout from down the road behind us. It was Jason! We were so pleased he was going to join us for what was left of the afternoon and camp together. On arrival at our camping spot, a park in the smallest of towns, we cooked up a meal and got chatting. It turned out our new friend had been cycle touring for a while and had even written a book about it! (follow link if interested). We got some great tips as well and are now rocking some little flags on the side of our bikes which we took from gas/road works so we're more visible on the road. "Caution Fibre Optic Cable", "Water" and the like plastered all over them. We had a real hoot and were to spend the coming days with Jason and his friends.

We'd agreed to try out our first interview for the podcast given how interesting Jason's story was, so after breakfast we set about it. I say we... Really it was Ruth and Jason as I only had to ask the odd question in English while Jason was under pressure answering and Ruth was under equal pressure having to translate it all! It'll be my turn in Latin America to take the translation role so I'm not going to feel too bad about it now! It turned out that the park was also home to the locals' toilet as there was no running water in town, so a nice lady popped down for her mid morning business and seemed stoked that the park was having some use, besides being a cesspit. We hit the road and made the most of Jason's animal spotting skills seeing snakes, deer, birds of pray and the odd hypodermic needle... We cruised along and in the afternoon caught up with his wife Jenny and friends Mark, Heather and Drew who we spent the afternoon with over a campfire while beers and marijuana edibles (legal recreationally in the state!) were passed around. The tiredness set in and we retired to the comfort of the tent.

A well deserved rest was in order and we chilled out at the free camping spot while doing the chores. Truing wheels, sorting out the podcast and collecting some water from up the road. Again we passed the evening with Jason's friends who made us feel so welcome and cooked ourselves a Paella! We were rocking the Spanish foods as we'd enjoyed a Spanish omelet the night before, I'm just amazed that more things didn't stick to the frying pan in a more permanent fashion given our lack of utensils... Well another week flew by and now established in Colorado we had some people to visit over the coming weeks and were really looking forward to a change of scenery from the dry desert we've become accustomed to as we climb into the Rocky Mountains. Let just hope the legs hold up to the strain...