USA-Ride Diary

Today we started by climbing 12miles from Telluride (appropriately pronounced, to-hell-you-ride) up to Lizard Head Pass. From there it was plain sailing to Dolores, the end of out seventh stage. It was all down hill, following the Dolores River, which like much of the other scenery we have passed through, was absolutely stunning. The excitement for the day came when a group of Elk ran across the road literally feet from us! Thankfully we received warnings from the oncoming drivers of their presence…
Now that we are at the end of stage seven, we are pretty close to the Utah border. In fact, tomorrow morning we will cross in to Utah, our seventh out of nine states. The elevation profiles look to be a little more interesting, and we are expecting some fairly major climbs over the next week! Still…you know what they say: “What goes up….continues going up for a lot longer than you were expecting.”
Liz has fallen in love with the many chip-munks running around the area. We had to empty her pockets and her bags to make sure they were left where they belong. She has also taken a liking for Mexicans…don’t panic Mrs Tilley…Mexican meals. Owen, on the other hand, is relieved to be meeting up with his parents just in side the Utah border. They will replenish his sudocreme supply, making his behind eternally grateful. While I am sat here trying to think of something informative to write, I can only note how Owen appears to be a screw loose. Actually, each day he appears to have another screw loose, (in his shoes) making a wonderful squeaking and clicking noise on EVERY turn of the pedals. Enjoying the peace and quiet of the mountains would be too much to ask for?? 
The upcoming Saturday will be our first day off from cycling since the start of the journey. We will be heading off to Monument Valley to take in some of the famous sights which we tend to associate with films and car adverts! We have sent some more pictures off to our IT experts (edgeliveuk) so along with these ones, we will hopefully be able to upload some more photos fairly soon. Some people have been in touch to say it takes a while to upload the gallery. Please blame me for this, if this is the case, as I have uploaded them poorly! We are trying to get them in to albums so it will be easier to browse, and should make more sense…
Anyway, thank you, as always, to everyone who is sending messages to us, and thanks for following our progress. Hello to everyone back home - has been one month of cycling now…Oh…for anyone on the modern means of Facebook (which Paul D happens to be too…I know - we were flabbergasted too!) you can check out some pictures which Owen has been uploading at USA-Ride Coast-to-Coast 2008 in the groups section.
Or you can put this in to the address bar at the top of the page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4797684732