1-1 between Will and I

After a great days rest in bryce canyon, yesterday turned a bit sower. It has been amazing how the temperature has shifted so dramatically. Less that a week ago we were battling against the raging heat, yesterday morning we awoke to the bitter cold, after a night of rain. We set out into the rain, which was reminiscent of our trip in England. Battling through the rain and cold we covered 35 miles in the morning, but then disaster! I am now even with Will. I had left my iPhone plugged in at the campsite 30 odd miles back. So leaving Will in a gas station, i began my adventure back to the campsite. I managed to hitch a lift fairly easily back to Bryce, just by simply asking a couple at the gas station. They happened to be heading straight back to the canyon, so that worked out quite nicely. I collected my phone and began the 'harder stretch' back to the gas station. I walked about a mile back up to the intersection, all the while trying to catch a lift. Two guys from Moldova eventually picked me up and took me 15 miles of the stretch. Then however their car broke down about 6 times, the rain was affecting the car battery. Anyway they eventually got it going but had to leave me whilst they headed home. So yet again i stuck out my thumb and waited. By this time it was raining hard and it was SO COLD! I was only with my rain jacket, still in my cycling shorts. After a hour of no joy, i was soaked and very cold. enough was enough so i started walking to a motel nearby, perhaps even book into a room for the night as it was getting late as well. Luckily a woman kindly picked me up. She was not even going in my direction, but obviously took pity on me as i set shivering in her car, and took me over 20 miles out of her way back to the gas station. All in all i would describe my journey, which took me over 4 and a half hours, 'absolute crap'. As Will sat in the gas station all that time we got a offer to stay the night by someone who worked at the gas station, Carroll. Carroll was so kind to invite us into her home, and it was great meeting and chatting with her and her husband Mike.

This morning we only set out to do 40 miles, to Cedar city. The day started with a 25 mile gradual climb, which took us to over 10000 ft. It was very cold. We did 7 miles and then ducked into a cafe for a hot chocolate. It felt like we were skiing and had nipped into a slope side restaurant for a break, rather than cycling in Mid June in one of the hottest states in America. After that we put on lots of layers and finished off the last 20 miles or so up to the top. We thought we waved good by to the snow when we left Colorado, but no, there was an abundance of snow at the top(a couple of snowballs were thrown, to mark the occasion). A quick decent into cedar city, was followed by a large pizza and a we booked into a motel for the night. We used the unusual free time and went to watch a film, 'shreck'. We have had two half rest days so tomorrow we will try and hammer out a big day, only after we visit our last bike shop for the next 400 miles.