Saturday June 30th Day 23

Montecello, Utah-Dolores, Colorado!
All has been forgiven! We have evidently passed the test and can now proceed without further hazing. We had the most beautiful ride today. It was the kind of ride that I would do just for the ride, even if I wasn't trying to get somewhere...like doing Pope Valley or Wooden Valley. The wind was at our backs almost the whole time. It was about 62 miles which now seems like an average day instead of a long day. We are getting so much stonger. I still can't riqochet a pebble off my butt, but I feel stronger. I still can't spell riqochet.
Besides that little half day out of Blanding to Montecello, most of our days begin early. Matt and I wake up at 5:00am or 5:30am and do Yoga for 30-40 min. Well, I do Yoga anyway. Matt does something that sort of loosly resembles Yoga..and which seems to involve a lot of farting. Then we make some tea and get the boys up about6-6:30am. We make them breakfast,usually cereal with milk (either fresh or powdered, depending on what is available), some yogert, some fruit...stuff like that. Yonah usually eats at least twice as much as the rest of us. Then they take their tent down, stuff sleeping bags, brush teeth, etc. and we shove off. They now quietly endure each day's new verse of "on the road again"...sometimes I can even come up with a verse that makes them laugh.
Anyhow, the weather was perfect, the sky was about 4 different shades of blue, the clouds were white and fluffy, there was a gentle breeze to cool us off, and there were just enough hills to make it fun, and not so many so as to make it "work". We crossed into Colorado early on in the ride and everything gradual became more irrigated. There were rolling hills of agriculture. The soil is this stunning redish brown, like the color of the clay we all used in elementary school ceramics (I mean, those of us who grew up in the "high end Bay Area"). Carpeting the red soil were neatly planted rows or clumps of bright green alfalfa seedlings. It was just beautiful. About 11 miles from Dolores we passed this huge, beautiful lake and I just got off my bike, stripped down to underwear and bra top and jumped in. It was perfect! We can see the Rockies up ahead as we ride. There is still some snow on them.
We met a group of riders from Chicago. There is one main guy who is riding from SF to Boston to raise money for this rehab. clinic he runs (like spinal cord, sport medicine stuff, not drug rehab), and then he has a bunch of friends all taking turns riding with him and sagging him in a van. So they all ride with just water (and their ipods). Cushy, huh? They were cool though; funny, Jewish, signed our petition without hesitation. We were going to meet them in Dolores for beers or something but didn't hook up as planned because we ended up going to the greatest little Brewery place for dinner and met these locals and chatted with them until too late for beers. It is still a little shocking to meet these totally cool people, who seem like they should all be living in Berkeley, in these little out-of-the-way towns. Actually, one of the women in this group of locals at the brewery,was born at Woodland Memorial Hospital. I think her dad was a professor at UCD. They were also very happy about the petition and totally jazzed about our bike ride. Solomon, of course, made friends almost immediately with one of the kids and was playing tag the whole evening. We ate outside and had salads with organic greens, pizza's from a brick oven in the middle of the brewery, and homemade cheesecake (berry with honey drizzled over it)!!! When we finally had to say goodbye, Solomon, who was still running around and having so much fun, said "you might as well just leave me here".
Now I am in the office at the RV campground and it is almost 11pm. I don't think I'm supposed to be in here this late...but the door was unlocked...there is a notice however that says "if whoever is using the computer to access porn sites doesn't stop, this room will be locked and you will need permission to get in". So I've taken this to mean that if I can just resist the temptation, I'm ok to blog until whenever.
Tomorrow we head out to Rico (where there are some hot springs I MUST soak in)and then hopefully to Telluride. We have about 4,000 ft. of climbing so it may end up being a two day ride, instead of one.
Here is one thing I will never get used to; seeing motorcyclists with NO helmets on. It is just so startling to me. Their heads just seem so pink and soft...and vulnerable. I can't even stand being on my bicycle without a helmut...I can't imagine being on a motorcycle without one.
I keep telling Solomon and Yonah to write on the blog but they are refusing. The truth is, the only time we really have to write is after they are already asleep. Our next rest day though I'm going to get them to write something of their thoughts on the ride. I haven't read Yonah's journal but he writes in it every night..so he must be thinking SOMETHING.
Ok, that's it for now.
Love,
Djina