Can't predict it all..

but we should have followed our guts...

maybe...

Our plans have changed quite a bit since we first arrived in Superior, AZ. We were going to spend a day off here in little Superior and hit the road again. Unfortunately it seems funky/bad weather is following us around, and Superior sucked us in and got us waiting out the storm instead of rushing out and beating it. We would have been one step ahead of it each day we were on the road, and by today we were projected to be in New Mexico (which is seeing some storms as well, not to mention Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas - all places on our route). Hindsight is 20/20, and now even though the worst of the storm is ending we are sitting, with our face in our hands, stuck between two snow covered mountains. Not ideal. Plus the threat of having the same storm get pushed back around and give Superior a second dose and us more off days, is even more disheartening.

So instead we are going to make a jump up north - out of the storms for now. Hopefully for good. That way we will be able to ride again, as well as make up for all these days off due to weather.

Chris and I have had to adjust to things we would never have perceived, that is part of the appeal to what we are doing and where we are going. However we do have kids and even though Chris and I would LOVE to bike through the storm, and roll on our intended path - its not so practical with the babies.

SO this is how it is...

We are hopping up north to Colorado Springs (via Avis) and rerouting to Omaha and back on our original track. Omaha is where we are going to see my AWESOME brother Zach (ONE of the greatest uncles of all time). That way we can slip out of this southern storm frenzy, and most importantly get back on our bikes!!! We have had a bunch of ups and downs here in Superior, but we are hoping the wind will be at our back in Colorado Springs and the rest of our trip will be 'crazy weather' free!!!

BTW

I totally have awesome Superior Arizona hail footage, and adorable pictures of the little ones to upload so keep checking back!!!!!! In the meantime here is a picture of Soeren-Raedek having some dessert!

Gulp gulp

Huh...you are taking a picture...what...

 

lazy

Note to self;

blog...more.

So much to say, not enough energy.

74.6 day! Wow! As insane as that was, we like 45 better lol.
I am going to update with a bunch of pictures today to get you up to speed. We have been to quite a few places since my last real blog post. We have ridden over 400 miles now!!! I was going to be all cool and figure out a percentage of the trip that we have covered thus far - but the internet we are using is SO slow and I am on the verge of just trashing all the pictures I am attempting to upload right now.

Make sure to read the captions, it will get you updated on what I haven't been able to post.
Well we are off to bed after today and the pounding our rumps took :D

Here are the pictures.

We've had...

Orange groves, and beautiful desert mountains.

Crazy hills, and wonderful weather.

Great people, and not so great people.

Missing roads, and amazing downhills.

Lakes, camping, old schoolhouses, and lots of trains!

More info coming soon...

Of course lots of awesome pictures too...

Sunny California

So I was going to write out a whole detailed and elaborate blog about the last week and the last couple days, but instead I will do a short recap.
Our family had quite the hectic last week in Seattle, getting ready, fine tuning our bags, and what we were taking, boxing up our bikes, planning out our riding, and so on. That aside, we are off on the road now!! We flew from Seatac to Long Beach Airport on March first, the plane ride went really well. It was just a short 2 hour flight, Soeren-Raedek and Ave did great. The LBA is just a tiny airport, so we walked around a corner or two and were outside at baggage claim in sunny beautiful Cali, where I organized our panniers, Chris assembled our bikes, Soeren ran around in the sun and made friends with security guards, and Ave slept like a little angel. We of course were full of the excitement of the day!
Once we got everything assembled and ready, we headed out to our first destination, in Orange. The weather was perfect and we made a few stops along the way for the kids, and map checking to make sure we were on the right track, (we found out later that evening we could have taken a quicker much simpler route, haha..oh well). As for how we rode it was a mix of both bike lane riding, bike/jogging trail riding, and back roads.
We stayed the evening with a beautiful, and incredible couple, David and Maria. We ate, ate, and drank, drank, and went to bed early! The next day we were lucky enough to be accompanied by David most of the way on our day number two. He is one tough rider, he has a huge kind heart that shows in his face!! We certainly enjoyed our time together, Dave even asked to carry some of our weight for us. We were spoiled by him from the first minute to the last, he even pointed out the sites and gave us some history facts!!
The second day of riding was not quite as easy breezy as the first day, it was a windy windy ride!! Head wind the entire way, (there was even a high wind report for the Santa Ana area). The route on day two was mostly on the Santa Ana River Trail, with the last couple miles on a road bike lane. The trail was nice and smooth riding -minus the pushy winds.
Here is the route we've taken so far:


View Larger Map

And here are some pictures of the journey the past couple days:

The last days, whittling down the stuff

Packing bikes

Long Beach Airport getting ready

Adorable lady waiting and watching us clean

Look! ducks!

Awesome Dave on his tandum bike

Snacking and changing diapers

Hi!!

Look at those shoes!

We arrived, and they are OUT!