Another big long essay for you to read!

Before I start thanks to everyone who has been emailing us and posting comments. We get very little internet time so cant reply to everyone but all are greatly appreciated. I was saying how friendly American people were in the last post, a few people need a special mention. Firstly Steve Lowry. We got talking to him at a roadside gas station/cafe in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. Our digital camera had just broken so he gave us a lend of his digital camera for the rest of our trip. He said just to post it back to him when we get home! An unbelievably generous and trusting guy! Also he told us if we are in trouble anywhere to call the operator, get the nearest DEA (drug enforcement agency) office and tell them we are friends of Steve and they will come pick us up pretty much anywhere in the country! We havn't needed them yet but its nice to know we have the option. Also need to thank Leo the climber for giving us a full road atlas of the States. We havn't got lost once since then thanks Leo!

Once again it has been really hard to get internet access. Didnt find a single place in the whole of Arizona! Almost a month in America now and still going strong. Right now we are in a town called Durango at the foot of the Rockies in Colorado, our fourth State. We are still camping rough on the side of the road most of the time but stayed in a motel last night so we could get our weekly shower. So we were still in Las Vegas last time i posted. Seems a long way away now. Vegas was a lot of fun. By the end I was $200 down but when you take into account the amount of free beer I drank over 5 days, I think I got value for money. Daithi on the other hand was $450 up at one stage from playing Blackjack. Our 2nd last night in Vegas we were in Circus Circus playing Blackjack again. The Cocktail waitresses were firing the beers at us. A few hours later Daithi had lost all his winnings and $100 more. $550 in one sitting! We now know why they dont bother charging for their beer. In fairness to him the next day he managed to win back some money and left Vegas $5 up. Overall a great few days in Vegas. Heres a few pics of the crazy looking casinos on the strip. I only got the camera going on the very last day of Vegas so just took a few shots as we were leaving on the bikes.

The Stratosphere (not sure how to rotate the pictures!)

The Venitian

The Colleseum (part of Ceasars Palace)

This ones pretty obvious part of the Paris casino

Excalibur, look like something from Disney land

I might have mentioned already Vegas was HOT. Even at night it felt like the sun was shining on you. I think it went up to 45oC one day. We left in the early morning to avoid the worst of the heat. Made it to the Hoover Dam by midday. Twas a pretty impressive sight. We spent a few hours sheltering from the sun and wandering round the dam before taking to the bikes again and crossing into Arizona, our 3rd State. We lost an hour crossing from Pacific time to mountain time.

We headed south towards the town of Kingman battling a strong headwind. The 150mile journey from Vegas to Kingman took 3 exhausting days. Luckily we climbed some hills after the Dam so the temperature got a lot cooler. 30oC actually felt cool after the scorching heat of Nevada. We didnt even need to shelter from the midday sun. We arrived in Kingman at about 3 in the evening. That day was a beautiful day. Blue skys, sun shining and a nice cool breeze. We took a break bet as it was still early in the day we were keen to get a few more miles behind us before dark. Until someone informed us that it was monsoon season and there was a storm coming tonight. We didnt really believe them but we booked into a motel just to be safe. Dumped the bikes in the motel and headed to the nearest Subway for some food. Within the space of 15 minutes the weather turned from a amazing to a full blown thunder and lighting storm with gale force winds and torrential rain. We had just paid for our sandwiches and filled up our Coke cups when the power went out. We couldn't even get our free refills! The previous few nights we had camped in the huge storm darins on the side of the highway. Lucky the storm didnt come a day earlier or all our stuff and maybe even us would have been washed away.

Quite a spectacular sunset

Apparently they have a Temple Bar in the Mohavae Desert

Arizona is a lot greener than Nevada

The next day we headed off down Route 66, the old historic highway across America. It was actually quite a pleasant cycle with lots of little towns along the way. We went as far a Williams. The next day we headed north up to the Grand Canyon. We arrived there late in the evening but didnt really get to see the sun set as it was pretty cloudy. The next day we wandered round the South Rim of the Canyon for a few hours before heading off to the east side of the park. That night there was another monsoon storm but this time we were just in our tent.

Made it before dark!

More shots of the Canyon

I didnt know the Amish went on holidays!

Next morning we headed off downhill out of Grand Canyon National Park and into the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. We had never been in an Indian Reservation before and had heard mixed reports from people as to how friendly the locals would be. It took us about 2 and a half days to cross the reservation and pretty much every Indian person we met was just as friendly as every other American person, with the exception of one guy! In the town of Kayenta while standing outside a shop this guy came over and warned us not to go down the road we were planning on going down. He said its very narrow and 10 cyclists have been killed there over the last few years. We assured him we would be careful but he told us we should call our familys and friends and say bye before we set out. Didnt really pay much heed to him cause he seemed to be a bit of a nut. So of course we went down that road towards the small town of Mexican Water. The road turned out to be pretty similar to every other road we had been on so we agreed he was just a nut. By the time we arrived in Mexican Water it was nearly dark so we were looking out for a good camp spot. Who did we meet in Mexican Water but the same guy. We hadn't told him we were going to camp but he started warning us about camping in the Navajo Nation. He was a lot more angry this time and he went on about terrorism and respect all kinds of crap and said he drives around every night looking for tents but didnt say what he would do if he found one. As we are in America and any fruitcake can easily buy a shotgun in the local Wallmart we were more than a bit worried. We had already done 100miles that day, it was dark and we were 44miles from the border of the Reservation. Not sure what was more dangerous, cycling at night or the Indians, we put our lights on and headed a few miles up the road till we found a good spot hidden from the road by bushes. We didnt bother pitching the tent that night, just rolled out the sleeping bags and slept under the stars with the pen knife drawn within reach. As we suspected that guy was full of shit and we weren't bothered all night.

Another Arizona shot


Dinosaur foot prints in the rock




Fossilized Dinosaur Poo (or so we were told...)



More Arizona shots

Next morning we left that reservation quite promptly. Stopped at the Four Corners monument. Its the point where the corners of Arizona, Utah, New Mexcio and Colorado meet. We met a guy there a from Greystones there who was traveling round for a few weeks. We had a burger and a good chat with him in Utah. He gave us something important that we had forgotten to bring, some Irish ribbons for our bikes! Then we refilled our water bottles from a tap in New Mexico and headed off into Colorado. We reached the town of Cortez that night and camped a few miles outside it. The next morning we set off for Durango stayed the night there in a motel and here we are now in an internet cafe!

Standing in the 4 corners with stupid looks on our faces

By now we are a good few days behind schedual so we have made a few changes to our route. We are not heading up to Aspen or Denver as it would mean going over lots of mountains and would take ages. Also we may not be going to Chicago or Toronto as they are too far out of the way. Basicly we dont really know exactly what road we will take after the Rockies but we do have a map (thanks to Leo) so we will find some way through. At least we are through the desert so it wont be so hot!

Hope you didnt get too bored reading all of this!

Cormac