Days 52-54: Journey's end (for now...)
Hello, most excellent readers—it has been a while since we last checked in. In fact, yesterday made one year since we returned to Atlanta following our tour on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route last summer/fall. Since then, we have been back in Atlanta working and living on more regular schedules again. While we don't have any new long-distance bicycle tours to fill you in on at the moment, we have been on a few other exciting adventures recently, including expecting a baby at the end of October! We also just bought a house! It is actually a duplex, so we are now both homeowners and landlords, which will be a new adventure in and of itself.
This will probably be our last blog post about our trip on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (unless we continue the route some day in the future!), but we wanted to take this opportunity to share a few more things with you.
In addition to photos, we also recorded hours of video footage along the way. After the trip, we pieced together all our favorite clips to give you a glimpse of what we saw while we were riding! This video gives you a handlebar view of the entire trip in less than 15 minutes. We hope you enjoy it!
In addition to the video, we added a few other new features to the blog site, including:
Next, we caught a train at Union Station bound for the Denver airport. We found that the trains were very bike-friendly.
Once we got to the airport, we casually walked our bikes through the terminal and located the car rental place where we rented the Man Van.
We loaded all our bikes and trailers and other paraphernalia into the van and headed toward Atlanta.
But before we got far from the airport, we made a very important stop...
The first Chick-Fil-A we had seen since leaving Atlanta! The staff there treated us like rock stars when we told them we had just biked all the way to Denver from Banff, Alberta with our plush Chick-Fil-A cow (named "Cow"). They even gave us some free food!
After our nostalgic Atlanta snack, we spent the rest of the day on Interstate 70 heading east. We drove into the night and experienced an interesting phenomenon. At first, the Kansas sky was very dark. But we found ourselves driving into a constellation of hundreds of synchronized blinking red lights about 200 feet off the ground in all directions as far as the eye could see. After gradually approaching this eerie sea of blinking red dots, it was not until after we were surrounded by them that we figured out that they part of a seemingly endless field of wind turbines.
That night we camped in the van at a free campsite beside State Fishing Lake #2 outside Manhattan, Kansas.
Day 53
The next day, we drove from Manhattan, Kansas to Versailles, Kentucky where we got to see our friends James and Amy and their new baby who was only three days old!
On the way, we stopped in Williamsburg, Missouri at Crane's Country Store and feasted on some $2 deli sandwiches for lunch. This sprawling gas station store prides itself in being, "Since 1899, your one stop shop for boots, bullets, britches and bologna."
We also stopped and walked around for a little while in St. Louis.
Day 54
After leaving Versailles, Kentucky, we headed south toward Atlanta. On the way, stopped off for a hike at the Natural Arch Scenic Area in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We stopped at a small natural food store in a small town on the way to buy a picnic lunch.
At the end of the day, we finally made it back to Atlanta, where we returned the van at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Katelyn's parents met us there and welcomed us and took us home.
This marked our journey's end... for now!
This will probably be our last blog post about our trip on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (unless we continue the route some day in the future!), but we wanted to take this opportunity to share a few more things with you.
In addition to photos, we also recorded hours of video footage along the way. After the trip, we pieced together all our favorite clips to give you a glimpse of what we saw while we were riding! This video gives you a handlebar view of the entire trip in less than 15 minutes. We hope you enjoy it!
In addition to the video, we added a few other new features to the blog site, including:
- A map showing exactly where we rode and where we stayed along the way
- All blog posts from the GDMBR on one page in chronological order
- Gear list
- Reading list
- Contact form
Now for those of you who have been on the edges of your seats for the last year waiting to hear how the trip concluded and how we got back to Atlanta, read on...
Day 52
After waking up in Denver at the home of our gracious Warm Showers host, we set off on bikes toward downtown to catch a train to the airport. We hadn't gotten far from our host's house when we found ourselves traveling alongside a bike commuter named Mike who was on his way to work. Mike took us along the most bike-friendly city streets and across some cool parks and pedestrian bridges to get us downtown where we needed to be.
After we got downtown, we had some time to kill before catching our train, so we explored the 16th Street Pedestrian/Transit Mall and enjoyed some delicious muffins and coffee at My Favorite Muffin.
Next, we caught a train at Union Station bound for the Denver airport. We found that the trains were very bike-friendly.
Once we got to the airport, we casually walked our bikes through the terminal and located the car rental place where we rented the Man Van.
We loaded all our bikes and trailers and other paraphernalia into the van and headed toward Atlanta.
But before we got far from the airport, we made a very important stop...
The first Chick-Fil-A we had seen since leaving Atlanta! The staff there treated us like rock stars when we told them we had just biked all the way to Denver from Banff, Alberta with our plush Chick-Fil-A cow (named "Cow"). They even gave us some free food!
After our nostalgic Atlanta snack, we spent the rest of the day on Interstate 70 heading east. We drove into the night and experienced an interesting phenomenon. At first, the Kansas sky was very dark. But we found ourselves driving into a constellation of hundreds of synchronized blinking red lights about 200 feet off the ground in all directions as far as the eye could see. After gradually approaching this eerie sea of blinking red dots, it was not until after we were surrounded by them that we figured out that they part of a seemingly endless field of wind turbines.
That night we camped in the van at a free campsite beside State Fishing Lake #2 outside Manhattan, Kansas.
Day 53
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| The Man Van at sunrise on State Fishing Lake #2 |
The next day, we drove from Manhattan, Kansas to Versailles, Kentucky where we got to see our friends James and Amy and their new baby who was only three days old!
On the way, we stopped in Williamsburg, Missouri at Crane's Country Store and feasted on some $2 deli sandwiches for lunch. This sprawling gas station store prides itself in being, "Since 1899, your one stop shop for boots, bullets, britches and bologna."
We also stopped and walked around for a little while in St. Louis.
Day 54
After leaving Versailles, Kentucky, we headed south toward Atlanta. On the way, stopped off for a hike at the Natural Arch Scenic Area in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We stopped at a small natural food store in a small town on the way to buy a picnic lunch.
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