In Moab, Scott and I attempted once again to meet a patron who wouldn’t be opposed to a few smelly boys sleeping in his/her living room. Once again, we failed miserably, although we got closer than we have ever yet gotten- the cool Arches park ranger we became friends with considering letting us crash after a few drinks and some chatting, but ended up being worried about her paranoid roommate. No problem- after all, the exploitation of our new friends is simply a side mission. The primary goal is to be making new friends and having fun. Mission Accomplished!

That night, only somewhat dejected, we slept in a local high school parking lot. It was there that I was… attacked!

Three things to note in my semi-defense about this video. The first is that I consider it to be both hilarious and embarrassing, which makes it doubly hilarious. The second is that I really cannot believe these razor-sharp pain-mines look so small on camera. In person they were more the size of a fist or a small grapefruit.

The third is that I had a “dull ache” in my foot for several days after this happened. So the story to which I am sticking is that they were mildly poisonous. True or not, for the sake of my masculinity I’m going with it.

In the morning some school official came out and kicked us out of the parking lot, explaining in vague terms that people would be worried about some Columbine or molestation business with strange scary men sleeping so close to children. I should have threatened to sue for pain and suffering.

Landing in the badlands after spending an entire night crossing the prairies of South Dakota was incredibly eerie. Waking up after hunkering down quickly to avoid a thunderstorm the night before, we woke up and saw we had camped in someone’s driveway.

So hurried to get out of there before we got yelled at, we didn’t even really appreciate the wide open and beautiful prairie that surrounded us. Now, I used the word eerie not to describe waking up in someone’s driveway, but rather the feeling we had of driving out of lush and green Minnesota and coming to the next morning surrounded by landscape you’d expect to see on Mars. We spent the day driving some pretty cool dirt roads through the park, scrambling all over the features and seeing our first collections of wildlife. Included in this wildlife were incredible numbers of fellow bikers. Without knowing it, we had landed in the black hills smack in the middle of Sturgis Bike Week!

Pretty excited that we had the chance to experience the famed bike week at the same time we were already going to be in town, we headed north from Rapid City towards Sturgis. Only about 15 miles out, we saw some of the most intimidating storm clouds of the trip. Black, huge, and full of lightning strikes. I flipped on the local radio to see what we were in for and the first thing I heard was “meteorologists are recommending that residents take cover in hard shelter to avoid the effects of hail, lightning and severe thunderstorms”. Knowing we had to find shelter quickly, we got off at the first exit for Sturgis and, like idiots, thought that we’d find a spot on a back road to set up camp. Surrounded by 500,000 people, we realized that that was not going to work out. Feeling the storm closing in, we spotted a bunch of tents crammed in on the grass around someone’s house. Brendan asked if we could join the group and 30 bucks later we had a place to make camp. I pitched my hammock between a tree and fence post, with Brendan taking the area right next door. As the rain started to come down we were both dry and sheltered. With the wind picking up, I realized that I had pitched myself facing the wrong way and was about to get hit with enough wind to render my rain fly ineffective. In the time it took to readjust, the storm had hit and I found myself climbing into my hammock, in my skivvies…completely soaked. The hammock had worked well up to this point, but was showing it’s limitations in rushed situations. Knowing that the trees were going to become sparse and that more storms were inevitable, it was right there…on the lawn in downtown Sturgis that I decided I needed a tent.

Nearly two full months and only a handful of uncomfortable situations have left me with good feelings about the hammock. It’s clearly not the best long term option for shelter but I still have it with me and intend to use it whenever possible. It remains the the most comfortable way to sleep I’ve ever found. The limitations in rushed conditions, trees, and warmth however make it necessary to augment for the long haul.

One of the many moments of “wow” that we had in Salt Lake City. This picture was taken in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building book store. They also sold clothing here that you had to be a member of the church to buy.

So far the impression that I’ve gotten about Mormons is the following: their religion may be silly and/or misogynistic (not exactly a unique charge) but, just like most religious people, as individuals we’ve found them to be super nice and friendly and open about their faith or lack thereof.

We had the following exchange with two of the missionaries at Temple Square in the center of Salt Lake City. There were pairs of missionaries walking the grounds and approaching tourists like us and offering information. I didn’t think to turn the camera on until we were halfway through with it, so for background- the video starts after Scott asks a question about different levels of dedication to the faith. As in, people who go to church every Sunday versus those you only see on Easter and Christmas.

I swear to god, that moment in the middle was an accident. These are chaste women!

Fort Collins, Colorado. We stopped at a Honda Powersports shop to get my bike looked at, post-Deer incident, and to get some advice on where to stay in town. Scott talked to a guy at the counter who recommended a place called the Mishawaka Inn on the Cache La Poudre river. We’re game, so we start up the bikes and head out.

This was our first real taste of Colorado and it didn’t disappoint. The road we took to get there followed the river, and was amazing for motorcycling. There were pull offs everywhere and people were fishing, camping, and just hanging out by the water. And the scenery took our breath away. Rising up out of the river were these beautiful stony hills. A real refreshing change from the miles and miles of flat land we had been dealing with for the past few days.

Turned out the Mishawaka Inn was just our speed. Check out the pictures above. As far as we could tell, everybody working at this place was either stoned or a little (or a lot) drunk. Totally nuts but cool for us because it meant they were always ready to chat and hang out. They had good food. They had a stage, though sadly no music the night we were there. But best of all, they had camping, right on an island in the middle of the river.

Also, since they were all hippies, they didn’t care that we bathed in the river. We got food and drinks, chatted with the people who worked there, and generally got a good dose of relaxation. Scott ordered chocolate cake and got a piece bigger than his head. The sounds of the river churning soothed our frayed nerves. All in all it was an amazing recharge after what Scott and I both felt was a bad-mojo week full of Sturgis, Black Hills Chiggers and Deer Encounters. At the end of the night we stumbled over to the Island, curled up in our already set up tents, and went to sleep.

The next day Scott finished his leftover cake and I got some Freedom Toast and Huevos Rancheros. Tell your friends- Mishawaka Inn rocks.

Watching this political season unfold has been both interesting and maddening. Never under the illusion that politicians were any more moral or righteous creatures than the rest of us, it wasn’t hard to accept the deficiencies inherent in each candidate. I’ve also never felt that I should cast a ‘protest’ vote just because there was no candidate that spoke to my issues. That always seemed to be an ineffectual way of protesting the main political parties and their delirious run to the center. Governor Jesse Ventura said that the best thing to do to measure political activity would be to offer a ‘none of the above’ option in the voting booth. Doing so would encourage full participation and force the major parties to try a little harder than just the avoidance of pissing people off.

All that said…with questions surrounding the honesty surrounding both John McCain’s most utilized POW story and Barack Obama’s history with Chicago politics and money, it leaves the whole idea of personality politics seeming pretty silly.

Without a candidate’s character to go on, all that is left are the issues. As close as they are on so many large issues, I think that there is a clear advantage with regard to the economy, the environment, and as crazy as this is…science - when you look at the Obama campaign.

Look, this isn’t a big deal. It’s not something I am seriously freaked out by. But occasionally since childhood, when sitting on the can, a thought occurs: It sure would be awful if there were something down there, coming to get me.

It could be anything. Snakes. Spiders. “Knifebutt”. Really, I just don’t want anything malevolent back there.

So there we were in Moab, Utah, camp soap in hand, preparing to bathe in Ken’s Lake. We’ve had a great day, hiking around the Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park, and we’re going to hang out with some of the Park Rangers we’ve met. It’s turning out to be one of our more exciting days!

I need to use the public toilet. Looks nondescript, like every one we’ve been to lately- nice clean building with a composting toilet inside. We’re in Utah though, and these buildings aren’t ventilated, so it is HOT inside.

I sit down and do my thing. It’s quiet. Peaceful. There’s a “plop”, and it happens: Flies!! Tens of flies shoot out of the toilet, between my legs. Oh God! I’m not finished yet! I can hear them buzzing around beneath me!

Well, you can connect the dots. I had to sit there and finish while about 30 flies tried to find there way to the nearest exit. The displeasure was palpable. Thank God we were just about to jump in the lake.

A few links that made me laugh

* Hiring Advice From Rudy Giuliani
* Very punny movie poster
* Republicans….fighting the eastern elites!

* John Stewart rolling out the ‘Gotcha’ clip reel

Over the next 24 hours, you’ll start to see a backlog of posts going up with stories about the last month or so. The pictures have been updated with what we think are easily the best groups of the entire trip. Take the time to get through the sets as we had to leave a ton out. Brendan has been working hard on a new category structure that will allow you guys to see posts grouped by the region we’ve traveled through. We’re here in Jackson until Saturday morning and hope to get all caught up.

Here is one of a bunch of videos that are up as well. Check ‘em out.

Watched most of the Republican Convention and it was nice to see the Republicans rolling out their attack machine in such a proud way. The media talked about how the Democratic Convention was going to be about catharsis for dejected Hillary supporters….I think the Republican Convention has been about catharsis for people sick of Obama getting so much love from the media. They were so sick of this ‘liberal bias’ that they felt the need to go out and be as mean spirited and factually incorrect as an adolescent throwing a temper tantrum.

*She championed the bridge to nowhere
*She herself is being investigated for corruption
*80% of all Americans would receive a tax cut under the dems and those people she mentioned would be in that group.
*Fiscal responsibility?? Alaska is all about receiving pork barrel spending and she doesn’t mind a little deficit spending

I thought the dems did a decent to good job of keeping absolute falsehood out of their speeches and just settled for exaggerations of the truth or subtle suggestions of rumor. I don’t know what’s worse, the plausible deniability that that allow,s or the unapologetic embrace of inaccuracy. Coming from a speaker that doesn’t believe all that much in science(read evolution/global warming) …I guess we should have seen it coming.

I have always been better at posting when we are on the open road, versus when we are staying with friends. When being hosted, there’s usually so much to do that it’s easy to lose track of the “work”. Scott and I have been staying with Tristan for about a week now and we’ve built up to the point where we can do some major catch-up. Hence some new blog features (the “Road Trip Archive” on the right side) and lots of new image content including title bar pictures. Lots of writing forthcoming.

Before we were being lazy at Tristans, we were sprinting hard to get to Jackson. After we leave, we’re going to be sprinting for a week or so in order to get to Portland. I think we’re both grateful to get this chance to write about the stuff we’ve experienced over the past few weeks in greater detail.

Over the last couple of days, I have been passively paying attention to some of the civil rights issues surrounding the Democratic Convention. While there seemed to be a number of troubling situations, none rose to the level of setting me off.

A Few Examples:
* Many police officers not wearing any type of identification
* Many protesters being detained and even arrested having committed no crime
* Reports of police using violent and aggressive tactics to detain peaceful protesters
* Limiting permitted protests to areas far away from the convention

Each of these ‘offenses’ drew a frown, a few seconds of disappointed thought and quite a bit of curiosity. I thought, “why can’t there be a way for protests [which have such a historical place in our society] to happen in a way that allows for both security and adherence to the fundamental right to assemble.

This morning I came across a blog post that greatly disturbed me and, in my opinion, illustrates behavior that is completely unjustifiable. The author is Glenn Greenwald and I have mentioned before how much I like his work. His writing and experiences highlight what I think are substantive and very real consequences to not caring about more “abstract issues” like warrant less spying.

Reports of -what I would consider to be widespread governmental awareness - people’s identities, whereabouts, and routes of travel in the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are not getting the attention of the Main Stream Media. These are normal people who plan peaceful protests about the subjects that move them. The idea that governmental agencies know enough about these individuals to track them down riding their bikes at night, force entry into their homes and actually get warrants to do these things… show either how out of whack our system has gotten or how far out of whack my view of this country’s ideals is.

If you missed the hyperlinks above, his story is here

Hey everybody -

Quick notes to those of you who wonder if we’re still alive. We’ve been dealing with camera/photograph transfer issues, I’ve been stuck with writers block in trying to catch up with all that has happened and we’ve both been seduced by the comforts of home as we spend a week here in Jackson Hole with Tristan(Brendan’s Cousin).

After a couple days feeding my politics and baseball needs all at the same time with Sox Yanks coverage AND a national convention…I went mountain biking with Tristan. Now, I’ve enjoyed cycling as long as I can remember, but mountain biking has always been this enigma in the biking world for me. It always seemed like something I could do, would love to do, and would do quite well. Oh boy….I was looking through rose colored lenses! Tristan took me on a local intermediate trail that soon had my heart pounding out of my chest in a way I don’t think I’ve experienced for years. Breathing became a very conscious and seemingly voluntary endeavor as we made our way up the second big hill. Meeting Tristan about halfway up, he declared “This is where I always walk”. Now in my diminished mental state, this made total sense to me. I mean, who in the hell could ever pedal a bike up this hill. The section we were about to walk was very rocky and incredibly steep. Bottom line is that I was very pleased to have been saved by this “we walk it” section. At the top, I announced that I needed a breather. Not intending to gross any of you out, but I think a representative illustration of the shape I was in can be the face that I wasn’t able to properly spit out a mouthful of dirt and dust, nor was I able to properly drink water from my camelbak.

Moments later I hear heavy breathing and mechanical sounds coming from the trail…. Out of nowhere, these two guys come huffing and puffing over this hill…pedaling! It was at that moment I knew that he had meant, “this is where I walk it when I have city folk like yourself with me!”

The rest of the trip was a lot less hilly and I found myself more and more able to anticipate the uphills and thus let myself go a bit more on the downhill slopes. Save a bruised ego and one trip over the handlebars, I would have to label it as a success. The views from the ridge overlooking Jackson at sunset and the incredible fun that the downhills provided were outstanding.

Off for a weekend of hiking, camping, and clamboring in the Grand Tetons. Can’t wait