Leaner diet and more miles

So, we've scored some library time in Douglas AZ. We stopped short yesterday after climbing 13 miles of 5-8% grade to Bisbee. In Bisbee we toured a coffee roastery that was amazing. Seth hooked us up with so many shots of espresso we were jittery most of the night. I had seven shots, Iz stopped at five.
Back up for a moment...in Tucson, after the great Ethiopian food we were hoping to go the local farmers market the next day (Sunday) that Jaime with Peddler on the Path told us about. Well after talking to some bicycle reps, we redirected for a short ride over to a stand with state bicycle maps. It cost me a rear gear shifter. With a simple and silly mistake I ripped a $60 part off my bike and listened to it scatter into three pieces and fly into the bushes. Moments later though an aircraft mechanic came riding by and asked me what happened. After givin him the skinny he told Iz to tow me to his place 3.5 miles away and said I could have his derailleur! A little wrenching and some hand shaking and we were rolling again. Tucson was amazing. Oh, and an avid cycling couple took us out for a great local meal! We suffered out of Tucson though with lots of climbing into the high deserts. Two days ago we walked the streets of Tombstone AZ where the famous shootout with Wyatt Earp occurred. We've left the Sonora desert-land of the Giant Saguaro cacti and are now in the Chihuahua Desert-land of the little ankle biting dogs...i guess, though we've not seen or felt (or tasted) any just yet ;-) While at the roastery, Seth bought a pizza from Roma's (next door) for us and a cycling tourist who's settled in Bisbee dropped in and invited us to sleep at his place for the night. Spartan but warm accommodations and we finally got to wash our clothes after nearly two weeks! I make Iz ride down wind from me!
We're very thankful for thorn resistant tubes, I'll post pictures later of the nail that went right through my tire but didn't cause it to flat!
Just over 200 miles to Las Cruces, hopefully there by Tuesday morning for a food drop by our wonderful Mom!
The clarity of the night sky in the desert blows us away; so many stars are visible that its nearly overwhelming. Very cold in the early morning too, makes us really appreciate the rays of golden sun striking the tent as we get ready to break camp. Guess that's about all for now. Time for one more revolution at a time. May random acts of kindness guide your day.

No Internet in the Sonora Desert

So, we had a brief stay in Yuma after the amazing hot springs in southeast California. The roads were absolutely terrible in the far eastern edge of California. Once in Arizona we jumped on I-8 into Yuma. We spent one night in Yuma with Meng, a guy we met thru an online site for cycle-tourists. After Yuma, we started pedaling 50-65 miles a day to Tucson. It's amazing how the roads can vary so widely; with some the surface makes you so aware of a leather saddle tenderizing your nethers that you want to fall over and cry. Others feel like sliding through soft butter on a sheet of velvet. So, we're using computers at a public library so we have limited time to be online. We were able to watch a re-enactment of the capture of John Dillinger today in downtown Tucson. Afterwards we asked a man who owns/operates "Peddler on the Path"-a mobile coffee shop about where in town to eat. He suggested a place about 12 blocks away so we started pedaling. Half way there, we were stopped at a red light and looked to our right and saw Cafe Desta, Ethiopian Cuisine. This was, hands down, the most exquisite spiritual dining experience Iz and I have ever had. The owner of the cafe, first of all was incredibly amiable-he brought our food out in a traditional shared family dish typical of Ethiopia with twice as much food as we ordered; spicy Kaye Lamb, Kaye Beef, Kik, Azifa, Timil Gommen, Lijera and maybe one other dish. Then, we had an amazing hot Yehemen Shai(tea) and the owner joined us to discuss One God and Baha'i. After finishing our food and tea and conversation with this wonderful man, he refused to let us pay for the meal! I literally hugged the man in tears. Simply profound. This type of kindness, love and generosity should exist in all of us! We wish all the best to Telahoun and his amazing restaurant endeavor!! Out of time for now...peace to everyone until next time.

Over the mountains across many bridges and through the desert

To the Florida coast we go!
Finally! After three days of painful uphill and every local for 70 miles telling us that El Centro, CA is "only two more hills and 60 miles away" we arrived already sun burnt and wind kissed. Arriving at the top of the final hill of the San Bernadino Mountains was glorious. Even more divine though, was the 10+ miles of downhill at 6% grade! First time in my life that I've stayed above the legal vehicle speed limit on my bike for almost half an hour: the posted speed was 35 mph and we sustained 36-40 mph for all except the last mile of the downhill. Hands down this was the most blissful ten miles of bike riding in my life to date, and I've now pedaled almost 4,300 miles on my Long Haul Trucker. Though Iz hasn't spun that many miles, he echoes the same about the grandeur of the downhill.
A fire captain who was returning from a fire call spotted us on the road and had the engineer pull up behind us. He is dreaming of pedaling the southern tier in a few years once he retires. He allowed us to stay in the Imperial County fire hall overnight which was a blessing. After so much uphill pedaling it was very nice to have a warm place to sleep and a hot shower. Thank you captain Celis. The fire crew also escorted us over to the naval air facility where the Blue Angels are trained and housed to get food. For $5.50 each we had a big double cheeseburger, fries and a drink. Still no lizards or cacti in the diet.
Got a package from the parents that was loaded with food; what a blessing to have wonderful parents! Also in the package was my waterproof Kindle case which will be wonderful for the hot springs where Iz and I will take a day off for relaxing & camping tomorrow. Apparently there are great natural hot springs just east of El Centro on our route...why wouldn't we stop for a day!? 
We posted a load of new pictures on my facebook account for anybody who'd like to see :-)
Now we're off to find a bicycle shop and our warmshowers host. Until next time, all it takes is one revolution. May God bring peace to your hearts.

Eastbound at 9 mph!

Since we were homeless on my birthday and warmshowers and couchsurfing both failed us in SD, Iz and I decided to start out yesterday. We took our bikes into the sand, walked to the surf, took a couple pictures and pedaled away. One revolution at a time we slipped unhurriedly out of San Diego. By late afternoon we had only covered thirty miles since we stopped to consult our map myriad times and talked to countless curious people. Its so fun to have cars pass and see people giving us thumbs up or fist pumping to cheer us on.
Nearing three oclock we found a San Diego park on our map with a campground and decided to have a short day. To our delight, there was an art show, reception and native american wind instrument concert all for free at the park visitor center! We unabashedly loaded plates with cheese squares, crackers, grapes, carrots, chips and salsa, pastrami and my personal favorite...deep fried ice cream balls!
Losing daylight and wanting to set camp, we rushed on to the campground only to find it closed. Through certain methods of sweet talking we were able to stay anyway. And more importantly we got wonderful hot showers for the first time in five days, built a nice campfire, had hot tea and then the camp host who didnt let us stay for free brought us two medium pizzas; one hawaiian and the other, his favorite, mushroom onion pepperoni and green peppers! Amazing day.
Today though was our first set of real challenges. We had to sneak out of the campground just after daybreak which was very cold on bikes. Midday on our first big climb up the San Bernadino mtns Iz promptly broke his chain. He pushed his bike to the top of the hill then we coasted down the other side to a jack in the box. After a few phone calls and texts we located a shop three miles away so I dropped all of my panniers and pedaled away. Six miles and fifty dollars later I returned with a repaired chain, a new chain and a new chain tool. We were two hours from chain break to back on the road. The hills really took a toll on us today. Things were looking grim late in the day for a place to camp. We have ridden out of the area our map covers and everybody we asked had no clue were to camp. Finally though we met a Mexican gentleman who is allowing us to spend tonight and tomorrow in a camper on his ranch! Longterm dividends of working hard to go to Uruguay...speaking the only language our new friend speaks! Thats all for now. Goodnight.  

End of the Line

Imagine if you can riding a train to the edge of a dream. You awake and you're still on the train. Keep imagining that you're still on the train until the train arrives at the end of your imagination.  Come back to reality and realize that you are sitting at a station about to miss your last connection to your final destination -the origin of the next step in your long journey. Now you are back on a train. 

From Chicago, Iz and I were on the Western Express for twenty five hours until we stepped off at Albuquerque, NM to stretch our legs and snap a couple pictures! We asked if a train was our southbound to San Diego and this lady says "nope we are norrthbound" but sounded uncertain of her answer. Two minutes before it left another agent asked if we were headed to SD and said same train was leaving now and was certainly our train. Coming so close to missing our last train connection was heart pounding and unfun!  Lesson: when you change trains ask at least two people to verify your train so you dont miss it! 

Back on the train we rode for another twenty two hours to San Diego.   Traveling by train is great overall. Very little traffic. Don't have to worry about dozing. Sleeper includes all meals and snacks; no complaints about salmon, flatiron steaks, unlimited snacks juice and coffee, omelets and beef brisque stew. Now though, we don't have a place to stay in San Diego, so its looking like stealth camping on a beach...unless something saves us last minute. The real adventure and learning starts today! Happy birthday to me :~) 

And we're off!

Every journey starts with sweet calm, tears of farewell and a maddened haste of last minute packing. In a flurry of hurried excitement, the rush of another adventure swept over Israel and I. Just yesterday we were in east Kentucky stocking the furnace room with firewood and throwing all of our stuff into bags, disassembling bikes
and trying to decide on what might be our last music and meal. Now, relaxing in our sleeper on the upper deck of Amtrak's Western Express we're westbound waiting on our dinner reservations. Dinner last night with our wonderful mama was awesome and was our calm before a storm of load and go to the train. Overnight northbound on 51 Cardinal was a painfully sleepless time spent between an 'all knowing' girl and an ex-con who's moving to San Francisco. Today though I reconnected with a girl I met six years ago in Austria and met her boyfriend. After showing us around Chicago they treated Iz and i to Chicago style deep dish pizza. Worlds better than rattlesnake, lizzards and cacti that i'm expecting in southern Arizona and New Mexico! Well, the next two days will all be on a train toward San Diego. Iz has started snoring on the bunk above me. Time to catch up on some quality sleep time.
This journey has begun.