Day 53: Mother of All Bicycles

Moab, UT -> Green River, UT — 56.8mi, 1900ft

It’s that time of the week again, its Joseph’s blogging day! But it’s also my driving day, woot woot. This morning, we would finally leave the Schmitt’s, who pretty much enabled us to go full vacation mode while in Moab. It would be back to reality for us. The thing was, the people weren’t ready. In fact, the spokies were very disorganized today and locked out. As people were leaving, Charles remembered that he shipped his cycling shoes to Moab, then spent half an hour finding if they were shipped to the Airbnb we stayed at. Simultaneously, everyone decided last minute to go to a cafe in Moab before the first rest stop, but Ramona never got the message. I too pulled up to the cafe, partially to hang out but also because I was ravenous from a smaller than usual breakfast. I got myself a fire sandwich.

After Charles eventually realized his cycling shoes weren’t delivered, he too started heading towards the cafe. Hearing this news, I also remembered that Ramona was nearly at the first rest stop and I still needed to get groceries before I left Moab. You see, Moab is a bit of an oasis in the desolation of southwest Utah. Green River, our destination for the day, was a lot smaller and I suspected there wouldn’t be as much variety in groceries. I rushed to the grocery store to buy ingredients for today’s dinner, a gnocchi and rigatoni soup, as Ishaq went off on his own sidequest: buying new Specialized tires. Ishaq’s tires may have been slightly leaky, but it wasn’t enough to warrant getting new tires. This was entirely a luxury purchase (Ishaq paid for it himself of course). Ishaq delivered me his new tires as I was walking out of the grocery store. I then rushed over to the first rest stop, where I was sure people were already waiting. Ramona had long since passed the first rest stop after refilling her water and I figured she was going to get to the second rest stop before me. The big issue here is that our last two rest stops were in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, meaning that the bikers wouldn’t be able go self supported. This meant that I really had to be able to support the bikers and be there, especially in the heat. This is the start of my driver struggles. I get to the first rest stop, a gas station, where everyone but Ishaq is waiting for me. I get them all sorted, then wait for Ishaq to eventually show up. While he was getting himself sorted for the next stretch, I went to fill up on gas and realized that gas was pretty darn expensive out here, so I only put in like 5 gallons. It’s enough to get me to Green River.

After Ishaq left, I rushed to meet Ramona at the second rest stop, passing the bikers along the way. They seemed to be struggling a bit. This road was heavily trafficked, high speed, and there was almost no shoulder. This is probably the worst possible combination of conditions for a biker, and I was a bit worried for them. Charles was stopped on the side of the road, seemingly to take a breather from the stressful biking. I eventually make it to the second rest stop, but then realize that making a sharp left turn on this single lane highway with cars going 80 was going to be impossible. I pass the stop and pull off a bit later. I prepare to make a very scary u-turn. It’s like making a U-turn on an interstate, but you can’t even see the cars coming until half a mile away. I manage not to die and finally meet Ramona, who had been waiting for around 15 minutes. This is where everything goes wrong. Ramona’s back derailleur cable had snapped, leaving her unable to shift gears. This wasn’t something we could fix ourselves, so Ramona’s bike would have to get to a shop. This was very inconvenient. There were no bike shops in Green River and tomorrow was not a rest day, but a long cycling day through a desolate part of Utah, meaning that driving a long distance for a bike repair was not an option. Our only two options were to either have Ramona be a passenger princess until we reached Escalante three days later or to speed back to Moab, where bike shops were abundant. We decided to speed back to Moab. As we were preparing to drive back, some of the bikers arrived and I was able to serve them, but for those who were further behind, I left them a care package of waters and food that I would later pick up. The plan was to drop Ramona off in Moab, drive the 40 miles back to rest stop 3, then drive back to Moab to pick Ramona up, then drive all the way to Green River to set up camp. This was going to be complicated and very annoying for me, the driver. But alas, this is part of the job.

I drive back to Moab and drop Ramona off, then prepare to make the drive back. This is when I receive a text that the bikers had found a wacky alien themed gas station/convenience store, where they were able to fill up on water. I ask if everyone’s good with me staying in Moab, as this would make the day a lot easier logistically. I do worry about Greta, as she chose to take a stint on a dirt road to avoid the scary highway and she wouldn’t pass by the ufo store. This meant doing 30 or so miles in the Utah heat self supported. She said that she was fine with it, so I decided to stay. I go back into the bike shop and see Ramona intently watching the mechanic do his thing. She really likes this mechanic, he’s very down to earth and knows what he’s talking about. I go to the food truck park that we had stopped at two days ago and grab myself a fire quesadilla. I’m just able to finish my quesadilla when Ramona finally comes out with her fixed bike.

We rush out of Moab, hoping to catch the bikers before they reach the third rest stop, but then realize it’s a pointless effort and change course straight to the campground. We arrive and see half of the cyclists sitting around, waiting for us. We set up camp relatively quickly and laze around for a bit. We actually have electricity and good signal for once, which is a nice change from most of our camping. Some people go for a dip in the Green River and I eventually start to set up dinner. Ruth goes to a laundromat and I cook up a feast. There’s not much else to report for the night, it was pretty calm following a bit of a hectic day. I got good sleep, rare for camping nights. See you next time, where we ascend into Zion’s backcountry!