Our streak of “bringing the heat” continued during our most recent trip from southern California to southern Utah and Nevada. Our research showed that early May would/should be pleasant enough with overnight temps dropping to the 60’s and highs in the upper 80’s. Ha!

The motivation for this trip (and one scheduled for July) is to complete the project of riding our tandem in each of the “lower 48” states. For those who need a refresher, let’s review where we stand before this trip, with five states to go:

Spoiler alert: we now have three states to go, but our five days were fraught with obstacles and we were glad to get back to MUCH cooler Southern California.

First we had to deal with the heat. Roger had prepared a 35-mile loop ride in St. George, Utah with some climbing and a pie stop along the way. With temperatures predicted to break 100 degrees, we knew it would take too long and we would be out on the route broiling, so the decision was made to do an out and back route along the much tamer (and very beautiful) Virgin River Trail. We needed to start riding early, and finish before 11AM.

And then the doo-doo hit the fan. During dinner Roger wasn’t feeling well, and by 9pm he was hit with his first wave of extreme distress and what we unofficially diagnosed as food poisoning. Neither of us got much sleep as he was up every hour and a half spewing as his body rejected whatever he ate that was tainted. Oddly, we ate almost the same thing most of the day and I was fine. 🤷‍♀️

Zion National Park was on the agenda for the next day. With Roger so dehydrated and weak, it was impossible to do the 3.5 mile hike that was planned. So we modified expectations and were still able to see some of the spectacular scenery at this incredible park.

Last year, I did a jigsaw puzzle with this view. It is WAY BETTER in person!

After the abbreviated visit to Zion, we drove a few hours to Henderson, Nevada. It’s a southeastern suburb of Vegas and we were able to find some “Jewish Penicillin” to try to get some food into Roger.

We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express that shared a parking lot with a bike trail called the River Mountains Loop. It’s hilly and it has NO shade, and we were planning to ride the entire loop but my captain was too weak and surely too dehydrated to attempt it. We did just 11 tough miles, enough to get that check mark for Nevada – yay!

We have had better road trips, but mission accomplished. Utah and Nevada are now “done”. Or with these temperatures, are they “well-done”?

Could the last three states on the list fall this summer? After a few more weeks in California, we’ve got a busy travel schedule ahead once we get back to the east coast. Stay tuned for updates!

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