This is the end...

The Loaf Love Tour Ends

Odometer reading: Start of the Loaf Love Tour on January 4, 2011--183, 941 miles

                                   End of the Loaf Love Tour on April 1, 2011---197, 029 miles

                                   Total Mileage for the Loaf Love Tour: 13, 088 miles.

It is with some sadness but mostly joy, pride and gratefulness that the Loaf Love Tour concludes. Sadness because we have to resume a life of responsibility and work again. Thankfully, we both enjoy our work therefore making it more tolerable.  Joy because we’ve had so much fun adventuring around the USA in a VW Van. We dig the VW community.  We had enough time, despite losing 2 months, to really take in the awes of what this country has to offer-historically, geologically, and the differences between regions.  Pride because we set a goal and accomplished it. Gratefulness for so much. We had the love and support of our families and friends… and employers who allowed us to take the time to travel and do what we needed to do…with the likelihood of employment on return. We made it through 9 months of our first year as a married couple. We have learned to fight differently…fighting nonetheless!  We are working on tolerance and patience with ourselves as well as with each other. Sonia really needs to work on the patience part!!  She’s well aware atleast.  We had a few rough patches along the way but the commitment to ourselves and to each other has persevered.

We had a few bad days/events: getting our bike tires stolen,  hearing the tragic news of Danny Z who passed away in an avalanche, and breaking down in Denver during rush hour. But all in all, the bad days were far out-numbererd by the good days.

We both agreed that Zion National Park was our favorite place where we hiked our favorite hike to Angel’s Landing.  Although, the hike up to Yosemite Point was a close match. Mountain Biking the Slick Rock Trail was a thrilling feat.  Biking through Redwoods National Park without seeing a single other human was pretty extraordinary too. Having our brakes nearly fail East of San Francisco sucked but we were overjoyed to be alive and not have had the brakes fail us entirely while driving up or down those crazy SF hills.  Running out of gas and getting our drain plug repaired in TX was a great experience in the kindness of people. We were inundated with the kindness and generosity of all the brown people all along the East Coast while visiting Sonia’s side of the family, now Jason’s family.  We were warmly welcomed into every home given gifts of food, chai and all the comforts of home-showers, beds and most of all good company. We were able to see where many of our friends and family live and, in some cases, get a glimpse of the communities in which they choose to live. We got to ski the East Coast and West Coast Mountains. We soaked in some excellent Hot Springs in NM. And we met some cool folks along the way. 

Most of all, we feel intimately connected with life in the Pacific Northwest, primarily Leavenworth. Too bad all you suckers in Leavenworth, you’re stuck with us living there!! Now we can say with confidence we have traveled to many parts of the US but Leavenworth is where we want to put roots down .  Not to worry, Claudia (the nucleus, the glue of Mt Stuart Physical Therapy, and also a good friend), Sonia told you she’d come back. A little side note--When Sonia put in her Time Off Notification. Claudia asked Sonia, “Are you coming back?”  Sonia said, “yea probably”, Claudia said, “Good then you can go, but you have to come back.”Awwww.  But if we had to move, we’re going to the Colorado Plateau.. It’s a really cool place...you’d love it there too.

But for now, we are anxious to get home and get back into the swing of things. Pick up DeWayne, our beloved Mutt.  Move back into our house. Take a shower in our own bathroom.  Start our garden.  Unpack the Loaf. And then start thinking about the next phase of our life….perhaps that will include starting a family. Tulsi.  Did we just say that???  If we don’t have a family, we’ve agreed to buy a Sportsmobile with all that extra money and keep on traveling!! Either way sounds good to us.

So, we thank you all for your continued positive vibes, good wishes and unending love and support while we were out on the road—it certainly helped. We hope you enjoyed the Blog as this will transform into our journal and scrapbook in the future. We had a great time logging in our adventures and it was a motivating factor to keep us doing our homework for all of our loyal followers. Thank you again.

This officially ends the Loaf Love Tour.

Signing off,

Sonia, Jason and, of course, The Loaf-1985 Westfalia Vanagon.

March 30-April 1, 2011 Lowman, ID at Kirkum Hot Springs, Kittitas, WA and then Home at last!!

Since it has been such a strenuous and stressful trip we decided we’d better visit one last Hot Springs for a proper soak before immersing ourselves in our “real” life…haha! It just so happens that Idaho has the largest concentration of Hot Springs than any other state and we have to drive through it on our way home…so why not?? We tracked down some natural hot springs outside of Lowman, ID. It was 20 miles out of our way…not too bad. We drove thru a Wildlife Scenic Byway to get there. There were steep, granite rocky hillsides with the South Fork of the Payette River raging wildly in the valley floor. We saw lots of Elk, deer, a huge golden eagle, a marmot, and some other birds…cool. We got to the campground and could see the steam rising from loads of vents on the hillside across from our campsite. Sonia walked over to check out the likelihood of having the springs to ourselves…looking good. The only other car was loading up and heading out…good timing!

We gathered up a few things and excitedly walked down the trail to the 2 hot springs pools just above the river. There was some garbage left behind—don’t people realize that Hot Springs are sacred and they should be properly cared for??? Ignorant people. It could’ve been so much worse—its spring break and is a great party place, therefore could have been really thrashed. We did our part and picked up the diapers (grosse), bottlecaps and paper trash when we left. The pools were hot and lovely. Cascading waterfalls of steaming hot water flowing down and collecting in a few pools. .. what’s not to love about hot springs? These HS are a result of active fault zones. The friction among the shifting rocks heat up the water as it rises to the surface. These HS weren’t smelly either like some mineral springs. Many people have commercialized the hot springs here and make it into a pool or spa setting rather than simply soaking in collecting pools out in the great outdoors. We prefer the great outdoors. We soaked for about 30-40 minutes before we turned into raisins and headed back to camp. We tried to dunk into the very cold river to seal in the heat (like a girl in Gila told us) before getting dressed but it was just too cold and downright painful.

Back at camp, we did something we have not done yet on this trip. Relaxed and read in the van with a cup of tea while there’s daylight!! It was grey, rainy and cool outside—no need to be out in that. This was kind cute…some high school kids were camping a few spots away and they came over to ask for help getting their fire started. Jason, being the boy scout he is, went over to help. They had huge chunks of wet firewood, no axe/hatchet and minimal skills/experience camping. Jason shaved off pieces of wood and the fire was slowly catching on…he left them with our knife to keep at it…About a half an hour later, they returned our knife after giving up. Sonia offered to help them out, but they said it was “hopeless”. We let them know if they needed anything to come ask…that’s all we can do.

We sat back and enjoyed our books until dark, then ate dinner and went to bed reading more. Ahhhh….a great day again.

First thing Thursday morning we soaked in the pool right near camp (not down by the river) about 30 ft away! It doesn’t get much more convenient then that. We soaked in the 115 degree water for a short while, then ate breakfast, loaded up and headed for home.
We drove a lot of miles today--almost 450!! Poor Loafy and Poor Us…we were excited to get home now that we were “so close” in relative terms, of course. We pulled into Palouse Falls State Park in Eastern Washington. The falls were a hot chocolate color and downright raging! Pretty cool. What a cute little campground and park…it’d be perfect place to spend our last night but we were heading to Kittitas to Matt and Kate’s for our last night--fellow Westy owners and good friends. Matt and Kate were actually at our house the night before we left for the Loaf Love Tour in January, so they are like bookends for the Tour. Jason did all the driving today to…Sonia did offer several times, but he kept on going. It was soooo frickin’ windy in the Columbia River Gorge, as usual. We were getting tossed around in that wind…scary. Sonia thought to herself, “if we crash 300 miles from home….” But we made it safely to Matt and Kate’s by 815pm that night. So happy to be out of the van!!

We had a few beers, ate pizza and swapped stories. Their van is currently not operational but Matt is working on it so we can take some trips this summer together. We have lots of tips and tricks to share with Westy folks.
April 1, 2011, we left after breakfast--anxious to pick up DeWayne from Tammi. We know she and her daughter, Taylor, will be sad to part with Waynee…but we are soooo excited to have the family back together again. We made it over Blewett Pass just fine. Watched the raging Swuak and Peshastin Creek flowing like mad from all the rain and spring run-off as we drove down.
DeWayne was at Tammi’s workplace and was initially cowering from uncertainty, (“is this really them??”) then got his tail wagging as he remembered our smells. Then he was all kinds of excited, as we were too. Tammi was crying big ol’ alligator tears. Awwww…We were so fortunate to have Tammi and Taylor looking after DeWayne so lovingly. He’ll miss them too.
We loaded DeWayne in the already packed van, but he was happy to go…no change there. He’ll go anywhere, with anyone, anytime…
We were happy to walk into our house and be home! Yeah! We now feel like we live in a mansion…all this space and furniture and kitchen stuff and electricity and plumbing…we were pretty happy. Monty, the cat, eventually graced us with his presence later that afternoon. Monty and DeWayne were pretty happy to see each other, they even kissed--how sweet.
Now we are all back together again under one roof…life is good.
Unpacking….ughhh! But we’re home-YAH MAN!!

March 25-29, 2011 Mountain Biking in Fruita, CO, Arches National Park, Moab, UT and Canyonlands National Park, UT--This is a long one!

Getting the local Beta about how sweet the mountain biking is in Fruita, we decided to check it out. Now that our bikes are put back together once again, it’s time for a trial run. We stopped in the local Fruita bike shop for a map and an extra tube for Sonia’s bike and we’re on our way. We’ve stocked up on camping provisions for the next leg of our trip. Driving though Fruita reminded us of a wider Kittitas Valley in Eastern Washington. Farm country, flat and wide valleys with mountains encircling the small town. Fruita has recently been getting a lot of attention from the mountain biking community and is

THE up and coming mountain bike area, according to locals. There’s free camping all along the road, where you can access several single track trails right from camp—that’s pretty sweet. As we drove in, ominous rain clouds were surrounding us and hanging over the mountain tops….yikes! We were told, “DO NOT GET STUCK OUT IN THE RAIN ON YOUR BIKE. Your bike will weigh twice as much because the clay-mud will cake to your tires.”---good to know. We decide to take a chance and go out for a ride anyway-it wasn’t raining and the ground was dry. We rode Joe’s Ridge which was a fun, hootin and hollerin’ trail. It had several short ups and steep downs—just enough to make it fun. The lower portion of the trail was in the valley and had lots of tight turns and “pumpers”. It was a blast. Unfortunately, the trails here are all pretty short, about 2-3 miles, then you have to ride the road back up to trailheads. We had a equally fun ride on Kessel Run Trail after Joe’s Ridge. Then the clouds were rolling in and we headed back to camp. Then the rain came! The views are gorgeous all around. It’s high desert landscape with more rocks, resembling the Colorado Plateau Red Rocks.

We ate dinner, read books and turned in early. Pretty typical camping night in the winter. It did rain and it was a sticky mess. That night we got some snow, some grapple and light rain to encrust the ground by morning. We could hear a nearby pack of coyotes yipping and hunting in the night.

The next morning after breakfast and coffee, we geared up and rode Prime Cut which was a lot of fun too..but short again. Jason wanted more and rode a really fun trail called Zippity Do-Da. He said it was more technical and had more steep downihills that he shot down at speeds that make Sonia uneasy. (she was glad she was safely back at camp loading up the van). Sonia picked up Jason down at the trail end. The bikes were heavy with mud--those guys weren’t kidding. Globs of clay-mud were caked all over us too. Yeah getting dirty!! We stopped in for a car wash and hosed the bikes down and then took off for Arches National Park and Moab, UT. What a great way to start the day!

Uncle Dave told us about a scenic byway to take into Arches NP that follows along the Colorado River Valley. It was a great alternate route, UT 128 from Cisco, UT. It was a gorgeous day outside—high, fluffy clouds, blue skies amongst the contrast of the red rocks....just gorgeous! We cruised along with just a few other vehicles to share the road with and took in the beauty. We stopped in at Fisher Towers, a land feature that is spires and buttes of red rocks. Driving thru Castle Valley along the Colorado River to access Arches NP was really awesome too. 2000-3000 ft solid, sheer red rock walls with the milky green Colorado River deeply cut into the canyon---amazing what the forces of nature can do. We decided to check out Arches NP that afternoon for a while, then find camp. There were lots of visitors—of course it was also a Saturday afternoon and the weather was lovely.

Arches NP was part of the uplift of the Colorado Plateau some million years ago. But no place else on the Plateau are there as many arches as there are here, appropriately named, at Arches National Park. We made sandwiches at a beautiful vista overlooking petrified sand dunes, North and South Windows, Balanced Rock and the distant and impressive snowy La Sal Mountains. Pretty Sweet!

We hiked up to the famous Delicate Arch. If you’ve ever seen a red arch from Utah in a picture, it’s most likely the Delicate Arch-it’s even on the UT license plates. It was a nice uphill climb on slickrock to get there. The size of these rocks is tremendous. You can’t quite appreciate it until you’re standing on it-surrounded by rocks and usually it is one GIANT rock that you’re standing on. Instead of being called slickrock it should be called sticky rock because the gription on this rock is incredible. It’s grabby and offers plenty of security when climbing up or down on it. It may be a different story when it’s wet—we didn’t get to experience wet slickrock. Anyway, we arrived at Delicate Arch and what a marvel. Hundreds of people around, so that kinda sucked but what do you expect. It was cold and windy up there so we only lingered a short while. It is quite a sight. A huge arch that’s free standing from any other rocks—how many years did it take to form?? Even though every day it gets eroded little by little, it ought to be there a while longer.

We drove out of the park and back to Castle Valley to find camp along the river. We stopped to fill our water tank and water bottles from the natural spring one mile in the canyon. That’s very convenient—having a natural spring to supply water in the desert. The water is so good too! We didn’t see any signs that we couldn’t camp in pulloffs—so we set up camp in a pullout along the river. We had a lovely view of the river while being surrounding by massive sheer red walls of rocks. We made dinner and bedded down to read. Just as we’re drifting off to sleepytime, we hear a car and see headlights…damn it! Apparently, we can’t camp here and the Ranger has been writing citations to violators. Damn it…we decided to drive to Slickrock Campground because we’re going to ride the trail tomorrow anyway. So, we quickly drop the top, rearrange our stuff and drive 10 miles up to the other CG. We pull in and go right to sleep---how exciting. We’ll get to see what it looks like in the AM. Supposedly this area has the darkest night sky for stargazing---it was cloudy every night, so we didn’t get to appreciate the night sky.

Sunday morning, March 27, 2010, we woke up to high clouds, very light rain and mild temps—a great day to mountain bike. We are going to ride the quintessential mountain bike trail, Slick Rock Trail. It’s a 10.5 mile loop on big rocks aka slickrock. It was pretty cool. Sonia was definitely nervous being new to mountain biking and all. Jason has rode it before with his buddies and he is definitely way more daring then Sonia. But we did it. We will take our time and enjoy the ride. It was a blast. It was challenging in places, but you could always get off and walk. Sonia did plenty of walking on some of these steep uphills and equally steep downhills. Fearing a head injury or broken bone—walking seemed like a safer alternative.

The views from up above were outstanding and certainly worth the blood and sweat, not tears that day. Sonia only fell off her bike once. She rode down this steep, technical downhill portion and looked to Jason for a thumbs up and ran right into a big rock and did an endo—right over her handlebars and landed on her elbows because she couldn’t get her hands down in time…How STUPID. It was actually pretty funny but stupid indeed. All the confidence she’d mustered up was gone in an instant. After that, she rode cautiously and more conservatively. We had lunch on Shrimp Rock overlooking Castle Valley and the Co. River 3000 ft below. It was a great ride and we were both glad to see the Loaf awaiting us in the parking lot by the time we finished.

We were tired and ready for a cold beer. We bought some red beers, filled up the solar shower and found camp in a legal campsite along the river tonight. The sun was shining. It was about 60 degrees. We set up a tarped shower wall and took a well-deserved solar shower….brrr that wind coming up canyon was COLD! We felt 100x’s better. Now we can go eat large quantities of food at Fiesta Mexicana—famous for their Fiesta Margaritas made with fresh squeezed limes and silver tequila---and they were delicious and strong. We ate and ate til we were too full and lightly buzzed. We strolled through Moab for a while hoping to digest some food we just scarfed down. Then we went back to camp. It was getting late, we made our bed, read 2-3 minutes and were tuckered out. What a great day!

Monday, we were hoping the crowds would thin out in Arches NP, but that wasn’t really the case—oh well. We drove to Devils Garden and hiked the longest designated trail in the park, about 5 miles RT. Sonia was moving rather slowly today but made it the 5 miles roundtrip. She was taking in the beauty by walking slowly—that’s it…haha! Panarama Arch, Landscape Arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Double O Arch those were the main 6 arches…but there are others nearby and more that are forming. Wall Arch was right alongside the trail but collapsed in 1999 and is now a pile of huge boulders. That must’ve been a loud rumble. Sonia’s favorite was Partition Arch because it had this amazing view of the valley through the arch—a perfectly framed in view.

Jason’s favorite was Double Arch-which was in the Garden of Eden in another part of the park. Double Arch is the largest arch in the park. We felt good about our visit to Arches NP and Moab and decided to drive to Canyonlands National Park just 33 miles Southwest of Moab this afternoon. Somehow we both spaced out and missed our turnoff to Canyonlands NP on 313 West and ran into I-70 and thought “this is wrong!” We’d overshot it by 20 miles, not too bad. We had a useless little map from the Moab visitors center and were hoping to get a better map of the park on arrival.

Canyonlands is a NP that’s divided into districts by the Green River to the West and the Colorado River to the East. The confluence is right in the middle of Canyonlands National Park—which is where we were-- called Island in the Sky.
300 million years ago, SE Utah was flooded by oceans, crisscrossed by rivers, covered by mudflats and buried by sand. The climate has varied from tropical coast to an interior desert and everything in between. Layers of sedimentary rock were formed. Fossils and patterns within these layers clue us in to its depositional history. Most of the canyonlands were near sea level until about 15 million years ago. Local uplifts and volcanic activity created the La Sal Mtns near Moab and other land features nearby. Movements in the earth’s crust caused the whole area to rise to its current average elevation of 5000 ft above sea level. The Colorado Plateau is the uplifting of this region and marks the shift from a depositional environment to an erosional (is that even a word??) environment. The Colorado and Green Rivers began to down cut and are now entrenched 2000+ ft below. Storms would create massive sediment-filled run-offs into the rivers which would scour the landscape into tributary canyons, pour-offs and washes. sorry…getting carried away. This whole Colorado Plateau Region is so fascinating. We could spend weeks exploring here and still want to see more. It was pioneered by a one-armed man named Powell and his crew of 14 men. They had some obstacles to negotiate but made their way and mapped out a path from the Green River to the Colorado River to the Virgin River, which is in Zion National Park.

We watched a great sunset from the Green River Overlook that night. On our way back to the Loaf, we fell in lust with this burly, Sportsmobile. Oh it was awesome!! Loafy is such a wimpy lil’ thing compared to this beast. It had a pop-top that went straight up vs. the angled pop top like ours. A grill with a winch on the front end that seemed like it was designed to handle hitting a buffalo then dragging it away. It had a lift kit and 4 WD….so you could go 4x4ing all over the place!! Full kitchen. It was pretty sweet…we were in lust. Faithfully, we returned back to our trusty Loaf. “ Maybe someday, Loafy can have a big brother”, Jason said. That which you manifest is before you.
The next morning, we took a nice hike along the rim of Island in the Sky. What a glorious view. It’s massive. There are mountains all around. In the canyons below there are “Standing rocks” which are the result of an erosion-resistant caprock (made of sandstone) over a weaker shale layer that erodes much faster, leaving behind the “standing rocks”. They reminded us of hoodoos from Bryce Canyon. Cool place, wished we had more time, but we gotta get moving. We are still about 8-900 miles from home. Another time….
　
　

We Made It Home!!!

We have arrived safely back in beautiful Leavenworth on Friday, April 1, 2011. The snow has all melted and much rain in the forecast.  Jason is going back to work tomorrow, April 4, 2011, and Sonia will continue to be off work...little role reversal.  She will be working on all the house chores and honey-do lists. We worked out in the yard this wknd prepping our garden, raking, starting seeds inside, etc...having a great time.
We will blog about the last week of our travels...but it just may take a week or so to get it all done. So please check back. 
We're happy to be home again...

March 23-25, 2011 Glenwood Springs, CO with Dave and Ellen

We made it over I-70 West with good weather conditions—light patchy rain but mostly roads were bare and dry. Loafy climbed the highest pass yet, Loveland Pass at 11, 350 ft! Loafy was cruising along in 3^rd gear at a whopping 35 mph and had to drop into 2^nd gear to make it over the last 1/10^th of a mile at 25-30 mph!! Let’s just say we got to really take in the beautiful scenery. The layers of huge, rectangular rocks in the grand and steep canyon walls with the milky green Colorado River at the valley bottom was lovely to look at. Sadly, the spruce budworm is decimating a large number of trees here in Colorado as well. Once over the top, we cruised right along a gradual grade into Glenwood Springs to visit Jason’s Aunt Ellen and Uncle Dave. A fruitful stop in at the Gear Exchange for bike wheels for Sonia’s bike and lots of information on great Mtn Biking in Fruita, CO. These guys at the bike shop were hilarious and extremely helpful. They get an A++ for customer service in our books. We got a used rim for Sonia’s bike(it doesn’t match her bike but it’ll have to work. She doesn’t like it b/c the rim is silver and her bike is gold—she’s got this thing with gold/silver not matching…too bad) but it’s the same rim as the back tire. They even hooked us up with discounts after hearing the story of our wheels getting ripped off in Chicago. They gave us some valuable information about Fruita, CO-the up and coming new Mtn Biking mecca-free-camping, names of a few great rides and the name of the local bike shop to buy trail maps. Sweet. We can go to Dave and Ellen’s and put our bikes back together finally. What a hassle it has been to track down wheels, tires and rotors without spending a fortune. Damn thieves…they’re gonna get what’s coming to them-the hex is on them! If its not yours, DON’T TOUCH IT! Countless hours were spent on craigslist searching and making calls, sending emails, etc. Alas, the bikes are functional again.

We arrived at Dave and Ellen’s beautiful mountain home just 3 miles outside of the cute little town of Glenwood Springs. GS is famous for the Hot Springs outdoor pool (which is huge) and the Colorado Hotel where famous people have passed through-Al Copone, Teddy Roosevelt and some others. Doc Holiday is buried on one of the hills in town. It is also the gateway to Aspen, CO—where the rich and famous ski and vacation. We caught up with Ellen and Dave on travel stories and such over the next couple days. Dave and Ellen are well-traveled and have had lots of cool adventures and stories to share. They sailed for 1 year on the East Coast from the BVIs to Maine. Motorhome travelled all through Europe and have travelled a lot in the US as well. It was a lot of fun to swap stories about travel with them.

Ellen scored free passes to Snowmass Valley Ski area for Thursday—which was also Dave’s B-Day. We convinced Dave to take the day off work and go skiing instead…a hard sell. Like the bumper sticker says, “Ski Today Work Tommorrow “. Thursday morning we packed up and headed out for what turned out to be a great day of skiing. It was cloudy and snowing on the mountain. Colorado and its big mountains offered lots of great terrain to entertain all levels of skiers. We skied the morning together and had a blast. Good carving snow, a few stashes of powder here and there. After lunch, Jason and Sonia headed out to explore different parts of the mountain. The winds were staring to pick up and the visibility was poor. We were riding up the chair when it stopped several times due to high winds—it was nasty…is it too far to jump down if we have to?? We made it to the top around 11, 300 ft. It was cold, windy and no reason to linger.

We headed down different runs. Jason intending to ski the double black diamond runs and Sonia not….but ended up on Black Diamond mogul runs anyway. She made it down with her confidence up to ski more diamond runs to challenge herself. We skied a few more steep and SUPER fun runs before getting tired and cold. We headed in to meet Ellen and Dave for happy hour beers. A great day of skiing was had by all. Thanks for the tickets, Ellen!!

We left Snowmass and took a drive up valley to Aspen. We’ve never seen a big mountain ski area like Aspen and probably won’t ever ski there. Lift tickets at $105/day!!! It’s a huge mountain with very steep terrain-its known for its steepness. There were runs that were all tight mogul fields and would suck to ski down. Dave took us on the driving tour while it was snowing and cloudy. Crowded neighborhoods of old Victorain homes that have kept the original shell of the house but have added on monster additions—some were nice, others were just ugly. These are $2-3 million dollar homes. Then we drove up the hill to where the monstrosities are built. 10-20, 000 square foot homes—where the billionaires live. OMG—these houses are outrageous!! It would be great to visit or party there but not to actually own one! The weather broke-the sun was shining and we walked around Aspen Village. Plenty of art galleries, fur retailers, gear shops, eateries and bars. We went to the consignment and thrift stores—we know our limitations. Stopped in an Irish Pub for happy hour and apps then headed out of Aspen. We stopped for Tapas at a cute restaurant in Basalt, CO-just 15 miles from GS. An excellent day of skiing and checking out how the other side lives. We’re pretty happy with our simple little life in the Loaf and Leavenworth. If we hit the lottery—we’d be ok with that too.

Friday morning, we had Chocolate chip and walnut waffles and fruit for breakfast before packing up and heading out to Fruita, CO to Mtn Bike. We are excited for the last week of the Loaf Love Tour. We’ll be camping, biking and hiking again before heading north to home. It’s been a great trip so far and even though we are sad to end the road trip we look forward to the next chapter of our life.

Marc h 18-23, 2011 Drive to Littleton, CO via Nebraska

We are certainly anxious to see the mountains again as we cross the very wide and uneventful state of Nebraska. We did see a lovely sunset as we drove West on I-80 across the state. It was a huge orange glowing circle on the horizon—beautiful. We also got very lucky with mild weather in NE.  Apparently, the interstate closes frequently due to inclement weather. To be stuck in Nebraska any longer than necessary could be a real bummer.  We did camp at another superb Wal-Mart in North Platt, NE that night.  It was a lovely experience. ..words cannot explain how lovely!! Haha!!

The next morning we woke up and hit the road early to get to Littleton, CO where Sonia’s college friend, Kristen and her family live. Littleton is about 30 min SW of Denver. We made great time and arrived around 1 pm on Saturday.  Little Addy, Kristen’s 1 year old daughter, was asleep. We all got to catch up over sandwiches.  It was a glorious day-sunny, 65 degrees!!  Addy woke up just as cute as can be (Sonia wanted to punch her she’s so cute J ).  We all went to the playground and we all had fun.  We came back in time for cocktail hour in the sunny front yard. Living the life.

We shared plenty of good food, drink and conversation over the next few days. Sonia and Kristen had ample time catching up and visiting. Sonia enjoyed seeing Kristen in her new role as a “Mom”. She and Chris are doing an excellent job at raising a well-adjusted and happy child.

Sunday we all geared up and headed South on I-25 to Colorado Springs to Garden of the Gods State Park.  It’s a whole other experience traveling with a small child. It was another good lesson for us in pseudo-parenting. Addy is an easy-going happy kid so that makes it easy and enjoyable to tote her along. The park was stunning. Huge red rocks, evergreen junipers with a backdrop of snowy Pike’s Peak, one of Colorado’s 14,000 ft mountains.  It was crowded but we still wandered around on a few shorter hikes to be amongst the rocks and landscape. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. Everybody was happy.

Monday after Kristen and Chris went off to begin the work week, we stayed home with Laura, Kristen’s sister, and Addy to hang out and play.  We spent most of the morning making phone calls, checking Craigslist to replace our stolen bike tires.  What a hassle this has become. We headed into Denver to follow up on a few leads on Craigslist which took us into a “not-so-friendly” part of town, E. Colfax Ave, to Walgreen’s.  It already sounds bad. We met this super duper sketch case, Dennis, who was this greasy, smelly, shady character with a 26” Bontrager wheel  for $60. Let’s just say, he didn’t fit the picture of health and most likely this wheel was hot(=stolen).  It wasn’t what we were looking for and we left. No harm done. Loafy was acting kinda funny when we started it up to leave. This high elevation is certainly taking its toll on the ol’ boy. So we’re on our way. We pull up to a stop light. There’s a homeless dude on the corner. Sonia reaches into her pocket to give the fellow a dollar. Jason says “why?” Sonia says, “just give him the buck, maybe he really needs it”. Then the light turns green and Loafy is dead. WHAATTT??  It’s 3:30pm, rush hour traffic in Denver and we’re broken down—SWEET!  Flashers are on. We are trying to start the van and its not turning over. People behind us are honking and getting impatient.  Jason in his frustration, as his switch is flipped, jumps out and throws his hands up  in the air!  “Don’t you see my flashers on??!! I’m dead in the water!”  Sonia tells him “shut up and get in the van!” (before we get shot or something). The homeless dude is standing there, “are you out of gas?” Bless his heart, he offers to help push us across the street and folds up his little homeless person sign.  Luckily (if there is any luck in the matter) , there’s nobody going  through the light in the N-S  direction. We can quickly push the van across the intersection while the light is red. The van is so lightweight it’s an easy push out of the flow of traffic. Well, now what? Jason thinks it could be the fuel pump or fuel injector. So we have to take everything out of the van to get to the motor in back, including taking the bike rack off the back end. Just a bit inconvenient. Now we have all our crap spread out on the church lawn and are  trying to diagnose and fix the problem. Jason taps the fuel pump with a screwdriver and voila It worked!! What the hell is that all about???  We load everything up again and decide to head for home and deal with it there.  It’s now about 5pm and in the middle of rush hour on CO Hwy 285…and Loafy’s dead again. We limp to the edge of the road and unload all of our crap again and figure out what’s really going on. Jason is under the van on the side of the highway-its disgusting. Garbage, petrified dog turds, plastic bottles. Sonia’s Yoga mat was sacrificed so Jason could have a barrier between his clean white shirt and the roadside disgustingness.  This time the VW tap didn’t quite work.  Jason had the fuel line disconnected in 4 different places and the fuel injectors to see if there was a blockage without any success.  There was gasoline spraying all over the place.  The highway courtesy patrol guy stopped to see if he could help. He drove Jason to a nearby auto parts store. Sonia stayed behind guarding the van and belongings while reading the Onion. Atleast, she had the Onion.  They came back and voila the van  started up. The mechanic said it may have had an airlock in the fuel line and needed to sit for 30 min then it should be fine. Kind of like a baby that needed to burp or fart??  We decided to stay off the highway and stick to the backroads home to avoid creating any potential traffic jams.  We did make it back to Kristen and Chris’s safely—hungry and pissed off but home at last. Jason called in a parts list to a local auto parts store that will come in the next day. So, the day was totally useless. We went into Denver for bike tires, wheels and/or rotors and came back with a broken Loaf and no bike parts!!  It was time for a beer.

Thankfully, there was a positive note to this day. Lance, a guy Jason had been emailing with from Craigslist had some 29” wheels, tires and rotors for sale and conveniently lived 2 miles away!!  We drove over in Chris’s car and Jason got hooked up by this guy who was a total bike junkie-road, downhill, and cross bikes, etc.  We bought rims, tires and a rotor from him. He told us about Fruita, CO—a great place to Mtn bike on our way to Moab, UT that’s up and coming in the mtn bike circuit.

Oh yeah--there was another positive note about this day. When we came home all pissed off and disgruntled, Addy woke up from her nap and was all smiles when she saw us…it made everything better. She’s such a lil’ cutie…and she just loved Sonia. We had fun playing with her.

Another night spent in good company with Kristen, Chris, Laura and Addy. Mel, another college friend of Sonia and Kristen’s, stopped by to have pizza with us that night. We sat around reminiscing about college days and got caught up. A good evening to a reasonably crappy day.

Tuesday was spent at home fixing bikes and the van….why is everything breaking all of a sudden???  What did we do that was so bad??? We’re still wondering….. Let’s just be so grateful the Jason is so mechanically gifted and can fix the Loaf. He replaced the fuel filter, fuel injector and replaced the sparkplugs. $200 something  and an entire day later, Loafy was running really good. He (the van and Jason too)  just sounded so much better and less stressed.  Just in time—because tomorrow he’s got the biggest pass to climb at 11,000 ft and we can’t be having any issues.

Sonia stayed in and babysat Addy while Laura had to take care of some business.  Addy and Sonia had a good ol’ time. Sonia was trying to teach Addy “in/out”  and the shapes sorter toy. She’s got the hang of “out” as she pulls all her toys “out” of the toybox and all her clothes “out “ of the drawer. She’s pretty funny.  Kids--always making a mess and creating more work. Now Sonia understands what her Mom meant when she said that kids are a lot of work!  It is amazing how a 20 lb houseguest  can create such a mess in such a short time!! And it’s not just this kid. It’s any kid. It’s all part of it. We are certainly getting our fill of “kid-time” on the Loaf Love Tour.

We had a great time with Kristen, Chris, Laura and Addy. Thanks for letting us move in for a few days. Hopefully, we earned our keep by cooking and cleaning along the way. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you all soon. Take Care.

March 15-18, 2011 Chicago, IL to Ames, IA through Dubuque, IA

Our stay in Chicago, IL was short but enjoyable. We managed to time our arrival into downtown Chicago at 5pm rush hour. Driving the Loaf through the crowed downtown streets to check out the 3^rd largest city in the US was interesting.  It was kind of like driving in India-nobody is really in their own lane and people are all over…it’s not nearly as bad as India of course but certainly a bit chaotic. Oh yeah and to make it more interesting—the passenger side view mirror is not functional now. The spring in the mirror mount rusted out in OH and is useless  now…the joys of a 1985 Westy!  We drove by Sears Tower (formally named Willis Tower)  the world’s tallest building from 1974 to 1998. It was preceded by the World Trade Center Towers in NY–which was the tallest building for 25 years. Modern day the Sears Tower has been surpassed by the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. Sears Tower is a 108 story skyscraper in Chicago, IL and is the tallest building in the US. It’s still impressive.

We weaved our way around Chicago towards Wrigley Field—home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It is the oldest active major league ballpark (after Fenway Park on April 20, 1912).  Wrigley Field has a hand turned scoreboard. William Wrigley, Jr was the owner of Chicago Cubs team and the formerly named Cubs Park was renamed Wrigley Field in honor him in 1926. Jason’s Great Grandfather Tidholm was a traveling salesman for Wrigley’s chewing gum.  Like all those random bits of info??

After taking a walk around Wrigleyville, we headed over to Greg’s condo where we were staying that night. We just barely fit in the 8 foot tall underground garage and parked Loaf for the night. That night, we had Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza at Pequod’s-Greg’s choice. It was pretty good—Sonia is a thin crust East Coast pizza lover but it was still pretty good. The best part is the burnt cheese on the edges of the crust. We talked with Greg, who’s a Chicago Police Officer, about crazy stories he encounters working for the CPD. Sonia spent much time trying to convince Greg to quit his job and move to Leavenworth to a happier, healthier and safer lifestyle...we’ll see. He didn’t flat out say “no”. After dinner, we went to a local watering hole of Greg’s near his house. A few too many Dirty Martini’s and Sonia was tossed. We haven’t been drinking much on this trip and those Martini’s were a bit excessive. 

Surpirisingly, the next morning, Sonia was chipper and feeling pretty good—a bit dehydrated, tired and a bit hazy but she was laughing and functioning pretty well. We had coffee talk with Greg and his roommate, Phil, before we set out for Dubuque, IA to visit Lightbulb’s parents for lunch.

After leaving, this day kind of sucked and we’ll tell you why….

Last night, Jason put our wrapped up bicycle tires on the roof of the van so they’d be out of the way while we slept. They would be visible in the morning when we repacked and headed out. Yeah—you all know where this is heading….After a hazy morning, we organized the van and went upstairs to Greg’s place to wash up and say Bye. We came back down and pulled out of the garage. Sonia stood alongside the garage door to be sure the rocketbox on top of Loaf wasn’t going to hit anything. Got in and hit the road. About 45min later on I-90 West, Jason realizes that we never packed the tires—oh S**T!  We pull over, hoping by some act of aeronautic force they would still be on top of the van…wishful thinking for sure!  They weren’t—so we backtracked an hour’s drive in hopes of finding them along the roadside and perhaps we could salvage something of them…they are expensive mountain bike tires with 7 and 8 inch rotors for disc brakes and not to mention the bikes are out of commission without front wheels. (we have to take the wheels off because they cover the brake lights, its unsafe and illegal). So we drive back, praying to St Anthony the Patron St of Lost things (“Tony, Tony turn around, something’s lost, it must be found”).  No such luck.  So we deduce that they must’ve been stolen. Sonia would definitely have noticed them on the rooftop when pulling out of the garage this morning. Or we would’ve have heard or seen them fall when picking up speed on the Interstate. And if they did fall off, we should’ve seen them on the highway because they were in a big maroon, rubber bag-hard to miss. 

The City of Chicago has been condemning some of the project housing and relocating those residents to various locations around the city. They are also requiring new construction building to subsidize 10-15%of its units for these low income people. Greg lives in a decent neighborhood and certainly a nice, respectable condo where he pays full rent and the next door drug dealer or crackhead pays $150!  Not only are these people crappy neighbors, but they also make it unsafe as they may be dealing drugs, carrying weapons, etc…an overall not so good situation. So anyway, we think maybe somebody stole our tires in the locked, underground garage sometime. “ If it’s not yours, Don’t touch it!”.   Bummer…oh well atleast they didn’t try to take the bikes---that’s a major hassle.  They’d have to work for it. 

So that backtrack delayed our entire day by 2 hours. So, now we’re back on I-90 West going to Lightbulb’s parents house in Dubuque, IA. Sonia gets a call with bad news of a local Leavenworth guy who was tragically killed in an avalanche last week. Sonia calls Claudia to get the story. Our hearts break for Danny’s family and friends. Danny was a good ol’ boy . He lived a good life and lived it fully. He will certainly be missed and never forgotten.

So….now we’re both feeling like bike tires or death….we can replace our tires. Death certainly puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? 

Dubuque, IA—we finally arrive to Lightbulb’s boyhood home around 4:30pm—welcomed by Jacquee and Eugene.  These 2 are incredible. Jacquee is 85-86 and Eugene is 90 years old. They appeared to be in good health with sharp, active minds. We shared a meal together-lasagna, bread, asparagus and salad.  Dessert was coffee and poundcake. We had a great visit with them and got a tour of Lightbulb’s childhood home. For those of you who don’t know Lightbulb—he’s a eccentric and unique individual. A talented pianist, a linguist fluent in 5 languages,  a world traveler and just an all-around-great human. We are fortunate to call him our friend. He also officiated our wedding in Sanskrit and Hindi…and did an incredible job. We love Lightbulb—he’s family. After a short but lovely visit, we headed out to Ames., IA to see Sonia’s cousin, Hina, and Gurav. 

A 10 pm arrival into Ames, IA-we were greeted by more smiles and hugs. As usual, we stayed up late into the night-talking and visiting. We’re on vacation, Hina’s off tomorrow, but sorry Gurav you have to work. He’s got a good work ethic and worked all day while we played all day on Thursday, St Patrick’s Day. After breakfast, we met Gurav for Lunch at an Irish Pub and Restaurant. Black and Tans with lunch then headed out for a walk to enjoy the 60 degree weather in Iowa in March!!  

Hina was really wanting to go ice skating, so we went for an hour. It had been decades since, Sonia and Jason had been on ice skates but we actually did pretty well. Sonia was trying to teach Hina (b/c suddenly Sonia’s an expert) and get her off the wall. Hina was starting to get it, but was satisfied with her attempt and called it a day. Jason and Sonia did take Hina arm in arm around the rink a couple times. We all managed to stay upright and not take any falls---so that was good. It was fun to try something new.  Don’t think we’ll be trying out for the Olympic Speed Skating team.

Back to the apartment to get ready for the next thing….community service at the First Methodist Church. We volunteered to serve and clean up after a St. Patrick’s Day meal to those in need around the community. It was an enjoyable experience.  Jason and Sonia really gained some good karma points—we had the 2 dirtiest jobs—Jason scrubbed the inside of the oven after 6 trays of pork chops were cooked in it all day-grosse! Whlle, Sonia scrubbed the pans the food was cooked in-Yuck!  But we did it without complaining. Back home to change and go out to Des Moines for St Patrick’s Day celebration. We met another couple at Django’s a French-American restaurant—how Irish of us. We ate a fabulous meal, drank nice wine and had great conversation…what more is there??  Then we headed out into the absolute chaos of Des Moines on St. Patty’s night. Inebriated, sloppy drunks were abundant. Lots of police presence—we saw one guy get arrested---he’ll be asking himself “was it really worth it?” in the morning. We actually went to a German bar to have a round of drinks to be able to have a conversation without shouting. Then . we got drug into a place called Liars Club where Sonia was forced on the dance floor to dance to crappy music. She weaseled her way to the edge to be a wallflower and take in the sights. Lots more wasted people dancing shamelessly with friends and/or strangers.  Alcohol certainly does curb those inhibitons. It was entertaining nonetheless.  We stopped at a local sidewalk grill for hummus and veggie gyros before going home.  It was a cultural experience in Downtown Des Moines.

Back home to stay up way too late talking…again. Gurav woke up and worked while the rest of us slept in…what a guy!  We went out for lunch at a good Thai restaurant then procrastinated leaving but made ourselves go. 

We had a great visit with Hina and Gurav.  They are so gracious and showed us many of the niceities that Ames and Des Moines has to offer. Thanks again Hinki and Gurav….we’ll see you in Leavenworth this summer to go camping. Hina and camping—don’t really go together…but she’s willing to go for one night!! 

We are heading to Denver, CO and the surrounding area to visit more friends and family. It’s a long drive that we’ll break up over 2 days—hoping to arrive Saturday night.  Goodbye to the East and Midwest and Hello to the Mountains again!!