Day 77: Hurricane
Posted by the girls on Sunday, June 19, 2011
We've experienced just about every kind of extreme weather thus far on our trip. Today we experienced Hurricane. Okay, so not the weather phenomenon, but the city. Hurricane is decent-sized town of about 8,000 in southwestern Utah.
We left Pipe Spring and headed northwest. After about 20 miles, we reached the state-line between Arizona and Utah. We took photos with both state signs since we missed the Arizona state sign coming in. Technically, we were already in Utah at Four Corners Monument, but now we'll be here for awhile.
Right on the state-line are two small polygamist towns, Colorado City on the Arizona side and Hildale on the Utah side. We really enjoyed that there was a cafe on the border called "The Merry Wives."
We were about to leave the gas station in Colorado City when Michelle noticed that her front tire was flat. After changing it, we continued on toward Hurricane. The last few miles of the ride were fun...all downhill (3-8% grade). Hurricane is located in a valley, so we just went down and down. Unfortunately, Michelle had ANOTHER flat tire; this time the rear tire. Luckily, it happened just a 1/2 mile from the bottom of the hill. Even more luckily, there was a bike shop located on the bottom of that hill (she also somehow broke one of her water bottle cages in the process).
At the bike shop we were able to get a few supplies and also some important information. We had been planning on riding on the interstate to Cedar City (it is legal in Utah when there aren't any other routes available). However, we found out that the road was under construction, steep, and not really biker-friendly. The guy working offered us a ride with his wife., so we had to think about what to do.
While thinking about our decision for the following day, we biked 4 miles to Wal-Mart. We picked up more supplies and then headed to our warmshowers.org hostess' house. We are staying with a wonderful woman named Lucy. She is an avid biker and volunteers for many bike-related causes. She let us shower and then prepared an awesome dinner of southwestern salad, salmon, and chocolate ice cream for dessert (she knows the way right to our hearts!).
Lucy volunteers every Sunday at Zion National Park. We have really been wanting to go there. It just so happens that tomorrow is Sunday. How perfect! We will be graciously accepting the free ride to Zion tomorrow. Also, instead of going to Cedar City and renting a car to get to Las Vegas, we will now be taking a bus. Lucy has also offered to drive us to St. George (16 miles away) the day after tomorrow, where we will catch a bus to Vegas. As usual, thing are fall into place; not as we expected, but even better, might we reckon?!
We left Pipe Spring and headed northwest. After about 20 miles, we reached the state-line between Arizona and Utah. We took photos with both state signs since we missed the Arizona state sign coming in. Technically, we were already in Utah at Four Corners Monument, but now we'll be here for awhile.
Right on the state-line are two small polygamist towns, Colorado City on the Arizona side and Hildale on the Utah side. We really enjoyed that there was a cafe on the border called "The Merry Wives."
We were about to leave the gas station in Colorado City when Michelle noticed that her front tire was flat. After changing it, we continued on toward Hurricane. The last few miles of the ride were fun...all downhill (3-8% grade). Hurricane is located in a valley, so we just went down and down. Unfortunately, Michelle had ANOTHER flat tire; this time the rear tire. Luckily, it happened just a 1/2 mile from the bottom of the hill. Even more luckily, there was a bike shop located on the bottom of that hill (she also somehow broke one of her water bottle cages in the process).
At the bike shop we were able to get a few supplies and also some important information. We had been planning on riding on the interstate to Cedar City (it is legal in Utah when there aren't any other routes available). However, we found out that the road was under construction, steep, and not really biker-friendly. The guy working offered us a ride with his wife., so we had to think about what to do.
While thinking about our decision for the following day, we biked 4 miles to Wal-Mart. We picked up more supplies and then headed to our warmshowers.org hostess' house. We are staying with a wonderful woman named Lucy. She is an avid biker and volunteers for many bike-related causes. She let us shower and then prepared an awesome dinner of southwestern salad, salmon, and chocolate ice cream for dessert (she knows the way right to our hearts!).
Lucy volunteers every Sunday at Zion National Park. We have really been wanting to go there. It just so happens that tomorrow is Sunday. How perfect! We will be graciously accepting the free ride to Zion tomorrow. Also, instead of going to Cedar City and renting a car to get to Las Vegas, we will now be taking a bus. Lucy has also offered to drive us to St. George (16 miles away) the day after tomorrow, where we will catch a bus to Vegas. As usual, thing are fall into place; not as we expected, but even better, might we reckon?!
