Mike Jones Appreciation Post

Today we took the day off from riding to return the van (which Mike named Mama Chungus) to Denver. Tomorrow we start the next chapter of this adventure, once again without a support vehicle. This seems like the perfect opportunity to highlight how critical the support vehicle was (and how wonderful Mike is for volunteering to drive it for us).

Going into this trip, we really had no idea what we were doing. We knew, on paper, that there were some long stretches between services. We thought sure, we can ride 80 miles in a day but we were thinking about ideal conditions: good weather, flat terrain, with no understanding of how heavy a bike can get. Not up a mountain! In the desert! With 50 pounds of food, water, and gear!

I’ve mentioned before the wee freak out we all had in Kirkwood, California. This was the point where we fully understood how hard climbing with a loaded bike can be and we really didn’t think we could make it through the long stretches in Nevada and Utah between services.

It was the very next day Mike decided he would drive a support vehicle until we finished the Western Express. He told me that cycling across the country has always been my dream and was never his, and the most important thing to him is that I finish successfully. I am so lucky to have a husband so supportive of me and my dreams. I am so grateful to him for everything he has done to make sure that I am able to keep riding.

Highlights

• on our way back from Denver we stopped at a vegan fast food place. I may have gone overboard ordering because I wanted to eat all.the.things.
• also on our way back from Denver we stopped at REI. I am sick of “weatherproof” cycling gloves not being waterproof, so I bought waterproof ski gloves. I also got little booties to go over my shoes when it’s wet/cold, and fleece cycling leg warmers. I am so ready for the next cold rain!
• we had an eventful trip back from Denver. We also stopped at a bottle shop and found the exact beer Mike picked up in Rico that I declared to be my new favorite beer! It’s apparently a special beer because they limited sales to one bottle per costumer. The beer is Fremont’s coconut cacao barrel-aged Dark Star (an imperial stout). We also picked up Fremont’s Dark Star for comparison purposes, and it tasted like a boring old English stout. It’s fascinating how aging in a bourbon barrel can completely transform a beer.

Lowlights

• we went to a coffee shop this morning specifically because they have tofu breakfast burritos on their menu. Except today they didn’t have tofu, so I had to eat whatever-combination-of-plants-they-had. I’m real sick of eating scraps at restaurants. I miss living in England. I never had to eat scraps in England. England always had vegan food on a menu that was well-marked.

Julie’s food

• Breakfast: bagel with hummus and avocado, vanilla oat milk latte
• Lunch: half a BBQ bacon cheeseburger, half a buffalo and ranch fried chicken sandwich, half an order of chicken strips, half an order of seasoned fries, iced vanilla oat milk latte
• Dinner: hummus and crackers, chips

Stats

• Total distance: 0 miles
• Elevation gain: 0 feet
• Weather: dry, high of 78 degrees Fahrenheit