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| The peaceful, tree-lined Main Street of Torrey |
It started sprinkling sometime late into the night. I made myself get out of the tent to collect our drying cycle kits off our bikes that we'd hand washed in the shower that afternoon and zipped up the fly just in time before the thunder, lightening and wind started up.
It rained on and off throughout the night and into the morning and early afternoon. Just when you thought you'd get a break to make a bathroom run or we'd contemplate getting up to see if we should ride today, the rain would start again. In the end Steve opted for a cosy sleep in. So much for it not raining in the desert!
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| The Chuck Wagon - Torrey's grocery store |
When we finally crawled out of the tent at about 8:30am to brave the on and off rain, "The Dude" told us that there was a hurricane in Baja that was moving a storm system all through the mid-southern states and that it should clear the area by late this afternoon. It was raining all the way to Escalante, which was where we were headed.
We didn't want to have a miserable day climbing up Boulder Mountain in the rain, which would be miserable enough trying to get over the summit without dealing with adverse weather conditions as well, plus we also knew there was a narrow section of road coming up after Boulder with steep drop offs and we wanted every opportunity for cars and passing RVs to be able to see us here.
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| Torrey Trading Post on Main Street |
So we booked ourselves into one of the campground's $35 rustic cabins and took off for Robbers Roost Bookstore & Coffeeshop to pass the time out of the rain while we waited for the cabin to become available.
Robbers Roost was a very cool place to hang out, a cosy and welcoming cabin style establishment with the friendliest server. It is named after the isolated, treacherous and hard to reach area in the nearby desert where bank and train robbers, bandits, horse and cattle rustlers and various outlaws used to hide out to escape the law. They had a great collection of books, guitars, jewellery and other handicrafts, and proper espresso-style coffee and baked goods.
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| The historic log house and school house |
The rest of the day was spent completing boring, mundane chores like drying the tent out and feeding ourselves stupid, with blue sky finally appearing around 2:30pm.
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| Some Torrey homes back right onto the mesas |
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| Late afternoon isolated storm passing over the mesas |
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,724
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (36.7 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 5
Bonks: Steve (1) - Day 46
Dog chases: 3
Dummy Spits: Steve (7) Day 10 - because it rained; Day 16 - because the rocks in the river were slippery; Day 29 - because it takes me so long to get ready in the morning; Day 36 - because I was blogging and Steve was dieing of starvation; Day 44 - because the clothes dryer didn't dry his clothes; Day 45 - because by the time I got organised he didn't get to eat a crappy dinner until 8pm; Day 47 - because his bike shoes were smelly and wet from sitting in the pool of water around our tent yesterday afternoon
Mandy (3.5) 0.5 Day 14 - those freakin' wreckless Idaho drivers!; Day 26 - because my bike computer had a meltdown; Day 28 - because Steve wouldn't help hold my bike up in the wind after watching it nearly fall over 3 times whilst I tried to put my clothes away in the panniers because it looked like rain ahead; Day 44 - because Steve's bushies flew back and hit me in the face (twice)
Flats: Katie (4); Steve (1); Mandy (2)
Wrong turns: 8
Beer of the day: Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale
Lesson of the day: you can't believe anything Steve says - Take Two ("it doesn't rain in Utah")
No. of days with no shower: 17
No. of days in a hotel: 13
Starting weight: Steve (90kg) Mandy (51.5kg)
Day 30 Rawlins weigh in: Steve (183 pds / 83kg). Mandy (110 pds / 50kg)
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