I hadn’t slept all that well, I don’t think the van was quite level, so I’d have preferred to sleep in a little, but the sun was up so I was too. I left camp and continued on the winding road through absolutely beautiful mountains spotted with red rock. I couldn’t wait to get riding…

I woke up to some messages on my phone that I could only look at briefly before the cold killed my battery. So, I was left for ten minutes while making breakfast wondering what Kevin had said. Kevin is a very good mate of mine who was coming to visit me for two weeks and…

I still had camp to myself all morning until someone rolled in at around 8:30am as I was leaving. My first stop was at the Walmart I was going to camp at the night before for a shop. Despite the signs, I saw a couple of RVs there that had been parked in the same…

There was ice in my water bottle and the fridge had gone down to 0*C. Not a good sign. I just hoped that at lower elevation it wouldn’t be so cold, I don’t think I can hack more consistently freezing weather, Florida made me soft. I only just managed to keep my fingers warmed up…

I was happy to wake up to not a breath of wind. All was calm in the City of Rocks. The sun was warm too, setting itself up right behind the van, which heated me perfectly as I made breakfast. After I ate, I did some Pilates in the face of the sun, enjoying the…

The wind had not died down by morning. When the camp host came over to say hi while I was having breakfast, he warned me that it would be even windier today than it had been yesterday. Wow. Playing it safe, I took the bike off the roof so I wouldn’t have to worry about…

The “Pop! Pop-pop-pop!” could still be heard when morning came. Oil processing is obviously a 24/7 business. While I was waking up, a guy drove around the carpark very slowly in his white Mercedes sedan. Strange, because I’d seen him last night and waved to him, he was an older guy. I kept my curtains…

The sunrise behind the mountains I’d driven out of was beautiful and the sun immediately felt warm. I was glad that the cold nights weren’t a sure thing. I did a good half hour of pilates/stretching to ease my aching back and slightly tight legs, it did me good. I manouevered carefully out of camp,…

It was bloody cold in the morning! In denial, I donned shorts, sure it would soon heat up. I was up with the sun which is a pretty early start these days, but I was happy to get going. I saw the same ranger at the entrance station and I wished her a curt good…

I was out of Cracker Barrel as quick as possible and on to the nearby highway. I stopped at the first picnic area after catching up on some news through the BBC podcast. I’ve been out of it for weeks. Apparently the North Korean leader’s half brother was killed with a chemical weapon. Nice, thanks…