Rode out of Vegas and didn't look back....ahhhh amaazing time. We rode 70 miles out of Vegas and slept in a desert valley on the side of route 15. We made ourselves a dinner of chili dogs and made sure our shoes were in the tent with us - scorpion/rattle snake territory...

Rode into Mesquite,NV and snacked on a rotissery chicken outside of a supermarket (savage) and then we champed it through the most gorgeous/dangerous roads we have been on so far...Virgin Creek Canyon in Arizona . The road was directly through a gorge of towering red rock mountains and bridges that went over sulfer yel...low streams...your sences were all over the place, not only because of the beauty, but also because the road had virtually no shoulder and it felt like it was International Trucker Day on that road....super sketchy but beauitful.We got into St. George,UT and asked around for a place to sleep and we scored a camping spot in one of the last places- a Mormon Church's backyard....cooked up more chili (this time with bacon...like 2 pieces- those cheap-skates) and hot dogs and passed out...only to be woken up @ 4am with our tent being smashed on all sides by the all too familiar sound of a high powered , Mormon, sprinkler system....thanks bishop Snow

While in St George looking for a camping spot we met the most wonderful woman named Lucy from Hurricane, UT. Not only did she feed us and put a roof over our heads, she provided us with a vast array of information and supplies! Last summer Lucy rode cross-country so it was wonderful to hear everything she had to say.... Her spirit lifted us up and we left the next morning happy as can be. Thanks Lucy! We were headed to Zion National Park and it took forever because we kept stopping for pictures. The ride up was spectacular and the park is even better! Last night we met a really cool group of girls from Colorado who couldn't find a campsite. In exchange for firewood we agreed to let them set up on our campsite where we had a whole lotta laughs. Today well be hiking as much as possible because tomorrow we gotta get riding!

APRIL 17th: Hiking in Zion National Park was outrageous! We ended our day at "Angels Landing" to get a glimpse of the entire canyon. Hike of a lifetime. While we were gone our neighbors witnessed a squirrel snooping around our camp. After investigating the matter we found a hole in our tent, and half a bagel missing! The suspect h...as yet to be found. Today we rode out of Zion (crying) to the little town of Kanab.

April 22nd: Get your mustache trimmers out cuz we are in New Mexico! Today we woke up to the loud sound of an air compressor. "What the hell is that!" Turns out we slept outside a gas station last night. Yesterday we somehow managed to ride 45 miles in a crazy sandstorm. Jay (see story below) hooked it up bigtime! He gave us a... place to crash, two awesome meals, REAL beer, and two boxes of power bars! Most importantly we now have another great friend we've meet on this trip; thanks Jay! So now we are in Shiprock NM hanging in a supermarket. Tonight we camp on the pavement again and tomorrow we leave the Navajo Reservation.

April 22nd: Following the trail of bones we came across some unusual prints. All the sudden a mountain lion jumped at us from the rocks ahhhh! Just kidding but we did see some big cat tracks and we followed them to see if we could get a glimpse of the elusive creature but no luck. We had a nice fire that night and enjoyed some s...weet tunes, the nighttime sky, and some barbecue chicken sandwiches. One of the best camp spots so far.

April 30th: So we stopped into the small town of Chama and decided to get a 'High Altitude beer' and as soon as we walked into the old saloon we were greeted by a friendly guy by the name of Cain. Cain was a wold traveler himself and we ending up making friends with him over some beers. He then offered us a spot on his property t...o camp... we ended up setting up shop in his barn to get out of the raging winds....later that night we went back to the bar and hung out with the local crowd...funny times, crazy convo' s and good music...perfect!

Left the barnyard and rode to the base of the Rockies pass we weretaking. We happened to run into a woman named Kelley (below) who let uscamp on her ranch for the night before we hit the "agro craig"--Thanks Kelley. Was achilly night, but we got up....slammed our recent favorite meal -de-frosted burrito's and washed t...hem down with peanut butter coveredpower bars, then we hit the mountain with gusto. We climbed for an hour and 20 min and conquered the beastlymountain....the NY boys showed no mercy . With battle cries and lots ofhooting we road the back end of the mountain reaching 49.6 mph and crossing out 1,500 mile mark...WOOOOWEEEEE , what a ride!

From there we took the old Santa Fe Cattle trail all the down 64 easttowards Taos. We had a 50 mph tail wind so we took out the top canvasof our tent and tried to have it pull us to Taos...in style...didn'twork out so hot...we started whipping, I got thrown from my bike andhad my chain crank rip into my leg...no style ...in that! On the way intoTaos we were riding and noticing these futuristic/mad max stylecommunities and we went into the EARTHSHIP Visitor center to check itout. WOW, how cool; houses made from all recyled materials(tires,cans,glass bottles), is solar/wind powered electricity, and usesgray water and black water for bathing and yearround greenhousesthroughout the adobe finished house....NO UTILITIES! So seeing that andgetting a cool tour was well worth it.

We got into Taos which is abirthplace of the hippie revolution in the 60's and not much haschanged from then...so many art galleries, book stores, great livemusic (Ten Pound Strap....awesome stuff, check em out....got my crazylegs flyin), friendly people and the all the buildings in town are inthe Pueblo Adobe style, ...so it's a great feel/atmosphere. We were putup in a Best Western by an awesome guy from Kansas named Ralph...peoplehave been soooo helpful and friendly on this trip...thank you soo muchRalph and Fam!

We made friends immediately with the bartender and her husband, Monicaand Matthew at the BW...good spirited people and def took care of us.Then the next night Mr./Mrs. Hundgen put us up in the hotel again forStetson's 22 B-day and also got us dinner and drinks (thanks a tonguys!...70 mph winds and forest fire on 64 eas...t wouldn't have been fun)So we went out on the town for Stet's b-day and got our dance on at alocal club....Then came back and jammed and hung out with two cool guyswho are backpacking around named MuD and Josie...these guys are reallydown to earth chums ,hardcore backpackers and have the machete's andarmy rationed foods to prove it...God speed boys, show no mercy! Timeto celebrate Stetsons birthday AGAIN tonight with a friend fromColorado, Andy.....twist my arm!

Fancy foot Chris nearly just stepped on a rattlesnake. A couple jazzy-fly moves and he was safe. Close call!

We had a great birthday weekend with our new friends Josie and Mud....great guys who love life and adventure. We also loved that Stet's friend Andy came and had a camping/ adventure weekend with us....weekend of close calls with rattlesnakes, good meals cooked over a fire, massive burrito's, some disc golf and an awesome waterfall hike in Cimarron State Park

We said our farewells to Andy and set up camp in 'Bear Country' Cimarron State Park and then we set up camp and went fishing for some dinner. We were able to catch 2 rainbow trout and also met an awesome couple named Nick and Debbie Perez who greated us kindly with a beer each, some bait that would work and also gave us two of their fish for dinner! We brought the fish back to camp, cleaned them and roasted them over the open fire with of course our beast friend Baked Bean and tortilla's.....mmmm fresh fish Taco's (still need some schooling Tommy, but it's getting there, watch out!) We ate like kings and then decided we needed to move camp because sometimes "kings" are a little messy and thats not smart in bear country...the end of the night was spent around a fire talking about philosophy and thoughts of life.

We left Cimarron and contacted our new friends Nick and Debbie. They told us to ride to their place for some supplies (MRE's and backpacker meals....soooo awesome) and some lunch. When we got there they hooked us up big time with military ration's, organic power bars, and a lunch of BUFFALO STEAK, mashed per-taters, corn and fresh cookies for dessert....soooo good.
Nick and Debbie saw us off with two shots of special Tequilla and limquats...eases the muscles.
We left their amazing home and went to the famous St.James Hotel which was freqently visited by famous outlaws and cowboys such as Jesse James, Davey Crockett, Clay Allison, Buffalo Bill,etc.....walking into old saloon you could still see bullet holes in the ceiling from when the wildmen use to get rowdy in the bar....feels good to be in cowboy country......YEEEEEE HAAAA!

Slept outside of a ice cream shop in Springer, NM and then we rode 130 miles in 6 hours 18 min to Boise City, Oklahoma! MILE 1726! We went into the 'Rockin 'A' Cafe' to greab a well deserved meal and we met the owner Mark and his wife Cindy. They greated us with some great South West hospitality and offered us their backyard for a place to crash for the night and a hot shower....woooow the softest grass in the world, grea nights sleep. We woke up and then we went back to the cafe for some breakfast and an interview for a local newspaper. Mark and Cindy picked up out breakfast and now we are heading off to Hugoton,KS.....time to chase some Tornado's...hopefully they don't chase us!