The week was summarised by the generosity of the folk we met along the way, whether a place to stay or simply some water to fill our bottles, for which we have been forever grateful! Given that the sideshow was the stunning backdrop of the landscape surrounding Sedona you'll understand just how grateful we were by having a quick glimpse at the photos. It also draws an end to our attempt to kill time hoping that the national parks open up, and so we are re-kickstarting our route up north through Utah and Colorado which is really exciting for us!

The day began with myself leading us stubbornly on a cycle/walk from where we had camped to an interesting rock formation "nearby". It was a little further than anticipated but an effective way to wake up... We had camped in a dispersed camping spot, which was effectively some small parking spaces off a dirt track where people could park cars and caravans for a few nights. Our neighbour with whom we had had a brief chat with the night before came by in the morning as he was leaving and had a few gallons of water leftover for us. What a lovely man! He refilled our tanks, very important given the heat, with what he had left and gave us some conversation as well about the surrounding area, as he was living in the nearby town of Prescott. For this reason we left him off for the coffee grinds that were floating around in his water which left us with that wake up taste during every mouthful, meal and wash for the next couple of days! We really did appreciate it however and without it we'd have struggled during the afternoon cycle to a nearby rock formation we were to climb the next day...

The night before I'd had the stupid idea of waking up at 5 o'clock in order to climb "Doe Mountain", I would describe it as a smallish flat topped but steep sided hill (I'm sure there is a better geological name for it!). So at the chosen hour the alarm started to sound as Ruth started to groan and I did my best to gently rouse her. Miraculously we were up and at 'em in no time and storming towards the summit only a little late to catch the official sunrise. Luckily the view from the top was sprinkled with red mountains and strange rock formations enough to obscure the sun for a further half an hour so we could see it slowly peak over the top of one! Wow what a sight, I'll let the picture do the talking with the obligatory "the picture doesn't do it justice" caveat. What I will say is that Ruth muttered the words "I think this is the best walk I've ever done, effort vs reward", some praise!

The rest of the day we trickled down the view towards the town of Sedona where we hoped to find a campsite with water and a shower to help us feel human again. We rocked up at the first one we could find only to be informed that they neither allowed tent camping (only RV's) or indeed any use of their showers! Queue our new friend Cliff who subtly caught our attention from a nearby window as we desperately pondered our next steps. I'll keep the name of the campsite a secret to avoid repercussions, but after a quick chat he led us to their fenced in back garden which we were offered for the night, too good to be true it seemed! But amazingly it was true, Cliff and Jenny were a charming couple who kept us entertained (all the while maintaining good social distancing etiquette) from the French doors and helped us with all we needed including some planning for our hike up the "Hangover Trail" which we were to take on the next day. The only catch was that the campsite toilets were out of bounds until there was no chance of any staff noticing, which was late into the evening (at least late for our "going to bed with the sunset" routine!), which I can tell you was not what my guts wanted to hear. Despite the trauma of this it was a price well worth paying and we are forever grateful of Cliff and Jenny's kindness and willingness to help people in need. They even treated us with lovely handmade cakes which were gorgeous, thanks so much!

We awoke with the prospect of the Hangover Trail before us, birth child in our minds of our Warm Shower host Dave, with Cliff I guess acting as midwife. Admittedly we didn't feel quite ready for it having spent a sober week in the sticks, but thankfully we were feeling fresh as otherwise it would have been a real struggle... After a morning of advice from our hosts we eventually set off into the heat with a limited amount of water and about 5 hours of breathtaking scenery and blazing heat ahead. After traversing cow pies (rock formations named after their similarity to cow pats), near vertical rock faces (thanks Cliff for the advice, your feet really do just stick to the stuff like Spiderman!), washes (where the water run off tears down when it rains) and of course the "Hangover". This was a path round the back of a mountain where the rock face overhangs the path with fantastic scenery to the other side. This is where we stopped for lunch and revelled in the location. Our way back was only slightly soured by our schoolboy decision not to bring more water but luckily we had plentiful on arrival, and the sound of music being mixed by Cliff in the background to help us recover. After saying our farewells we hit the road once more, direction Flagstaff. This was on a road that climbed a beautiful valley, unfortunately camping was prohibited outside of official campgrounds which themselves were closed due to the Coronavirus... Nothing for it but to camp in one anyway! We paid the price with the endless mosquitos but settled into a well deserved sleep.

I don't know if you've seen Mount Everest, I hadn't until the 24^th of April 2020 when cycling out of our mosquito ridden campsite we encountered "that hill". The lovely road we were on, quietly winding up the valley, suddenly became a knotted wiggle of tarmac somersaulting uncontrollably up endless switchbacks towards the heavens. Lucky we were as fit as we'd been in our entire lives at that point as we jumped head first into the challenge! After a couple of hours and all the 89A had to throw at us we reached the top, triumphant. Some cool guys from Cottonwood on elaborate looking choppers greeted us at the top and later said their goodbyes in a cloud of thunderous popping noises as they thwacked off back down the hill, leaving us to find a spot to camp out in the woods, that seemed to cling to the road as if afraid of heights. We found our spot for the night in a dispersed camping spot surrounded by some full-time RV people, who I might add had amazing little gazebos with mosquito netting all the way round so they, unlike ourselves, could enjoy the evening air without fear of fainting from blood loss.

The day proved to be easy and mundane. A short cycle ride to Flagstaff brought us back to reality and the day to day of shopping and washing clothes. Although getting naked outside a busy laundromat in order wash the few clothes we had in our possession kept the excitement up, it's amazing how little shame you have on a bike tour! We also finally managed to find an open music shop to get some new strings for the Ukulele which we managed to fix up later in the week, including some luthering to get it sounding a little better. You can't expect much from a £12 instrument if even I can make it sound better with the help of a few tools! In the afternoon we'd heard back from our previous Warm Showers hosts, Dave and Sharon, and they somehow had the strength to take us in for another few days. They'd spent a few days hiking, camping and kayaking around what further down river becomes the Grand Canyon. So when we all arrived back at their home at roughly the same time all the neighbours must have been wondering what on earth the smell was, as we all really badly needed a good shower! Nothing like a sofa and a bed after a couple of weeks to help the recovery process!

Today could be called a lazy one, however in truth we really needed to socialise a little to keep our sanity levels ticking over above normal. We spent the morning on video calls with friends back in Europe (Zoom parties you could call them?) and, given the fact it was Friday night over there, we joined in with a couple of beers despite the early hour! These go right to our heads now and I think it's due to two influences, firstly we have barely touched alcohol for nearly two months given all the bars are closed down and booze is heavy! Secondly, as we found out later that day, because we'd lost some significant weight and I'm starting to turn into a bit of a wrath... More food required me thinks! In the afternoon Dave and Sharon had invited us up for pizza, salad and more beers and it was lovely to have some in person company, not to mention the amazing home made pizzas and salad :). Sharing stories and trip ideas was brilliant and with the backdrop of the san Francisco peaks from their balcony it was almost as if we'd arrived in heaven. The time slipped away quickly with all the excitement and before we could say "what's the time?" the day was over and it was time to rest our tired souls.

As well as the socialisation from the day before, another thing we really needed was to undertake some serious maintenance of our stuff. I've had the feeling so far this trip that everything we have with us is falling apart rather rapidly, something which fills me with stress and dread. If it's not the pan lid handle falling off it's the stall breaking, and if it's not Ruth's sandals ripping then it's my front handlebar bag attachment inflicting the pain... Then there are the bikes themselves which, bar a single puncture repair, have seen very little love over the course of the trip. Not so much as a single pump from the pump in 1000 kilometres. So we had to turn things around before we headed off to Utah, our next destination, and quick. So in a whirlwind of grease, glue, tools (thanks to Dave's endless tool collection for making this possible) and swearwords we set about remedying this situation and my word... how tiring it was! Even after all the hiking and cycling, I hadn't been that tired at the end of a day since I don't know when! Maybe it was the mental toll of taking bikes apart, maybe it was the brief but manic video call with Ruth's extended family (I didn't count but somewhere in the region of 20 people!). In any case, we are now proud owners of seriously smoothly running bikes and a close to 100% functioning set of kit packed into our little panniers. Ready for the off!!!