I had a surprisingly good sleep thanks to the plan that I’d made last night to tackle my car trouble. I delayed getting out of bed though, a little apprehensive of what was to come. Gary, the camphost informed me that there was a group coming in to occupy the group site, but that I…

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…