105 degrees is not fun.....

This morning was an early one. We left our campsite about 4am.. It was nice because it was cooler out but it was very scary. It was so dark I could barely see Chance in front of me. We were in the middle of the desert and all you could hear was coyotes and other animals. The morning ride was good for the first couple hours. Then the terrain changed and we had one huge climb that pretty much killed us. With the climb the temps grew. Now when you read the rest of this blog, remember it was 105 degrees and Utah is not the place to be in July. So we started to head towards our destination which was an 80 mile ride with absolutely no services. It was extremely hot and it was getting harder to breath with the stale air along with I was not feeling well. The night before I got sick from the heat and was not feeling well. So as we were riding we were desperately hoping for a truck to come by and help us out by giving us a ride. It took awhile, but eventually two really nice people came along. We would like to apologize to all the purist out there reading this that believe you truly don't complete the Trans Am if you don't peddle every stroke across the US, obviously they have never been in Utah in July on a bike and in fact we don't feel as if we cheated, we consider it improvising and it is our journey and we see it as a supplement to our adventure, a little of our own spice. Plus we get to met a lot of really cool people this way, like Todd and Jerry were so nice. They had a loaded truck but they said we could make it work. So we strapped our bikes to the 4-wheeler in the back of their truck and road a few miles where we met their dad and brother. They were all headed out towards where we were going to get a car unstuck. So we got in the other car with more room and AC which was awesome. I fell asleep because I was not feeling well while Chance chatted. So they ended up dropping us 26 miles from Hanksville which would have taken us two days. So we got a jump ahead. Then we started biking again. The environment around us was all sand so it made the ride that much hotter. About 18 miles from Hanksville, we were lucky enough to get another ride the rest of the way. That is when they told us it was 105 degrees out. Good thing we got a ride because not long after there was a wild sand storm. So we got into Hanksville and sat and ate at Stan's Burger Stand for awhile. Then we decided to head to our camp ground that we got for free! It was still super hot. The bathroom was much cooler so as crazy as it sounds I went and sat on the bench in the bathroom for a bit while Chance changed his flat tire. Eventually we both showered and went in the nearby restaurant to get something cold to drink, really it was just to sit in the air conditioning. Later that night a guy name Lucas from Calgary came in on his motorcycle and so we chatted with him for a bit. He was riding his motorcycle from Calgary all around the states for 3 weeks. The sun finally went down and we headed to our tent to get some much needed sleep. So again, with getting rides, like other cyclist have told us especially through Utah and Nevada it is a must to get a ride if you need one, it is not enjoyable to have a massive sufferfest, this is a voluntary adventure not a prison sentence, so don't kill yourself. We see it as part of our adventure and have met some great people along the way!