Later at the KOA, after a swim and some reading in the shade, I brought my inflatable sleeping pad over to the pool to find its leak. A jolly couple came into the pool area and engaged me immediately in spirited and entertaining conversation--starting with the leak-finding mission and leading into our respective recent and longterm life histories. Cyrus and Azi are from Iran and both are US citizens. Cyrus started out as a merchant mariner (chief engineer on oil tankers--I forgot to tell him my grandfather Howard Denton was a chief engineer) and he gradually got the message post-Shah that Iran was not the place for a progressive thinker like him to be. Now, a decade or two later he works as an engineer for an energy company, consulting with industrial customers to facilitate measures to reduce their energy consumption: the cheapest way to increase energy capacity is conservation as has been known for some time. Azi, who is trained as a college level instructor in medical records management in Iran, came into Cyrus's life fairly recently. They fell in love and got married. They live in California and they love to travel and camp together. They were heading toward Vernal the next day and graciously offered to take me and Rustinante to Vernal. If you look carefully at their picture you will see the bike on top of their truck. The white box over the back part of the truck is a pop-up camper--actually used by climbing up to the roof of the truck. Never seen anything like it, but they love it. It's obviously a great use of space.

I was a little sorry not to have the ride to Vernal since it involved some amazing descents through dramatic desert landscapes. But, in the truck, we were able to add a loop, through Sheep Creek Canyon, that I would not otherwise have experienced. It was magnificent, with red rock studded with green pinyons, and several towering rock formations.

The people at the bike shop in Vernal, Attitude Cycles, were just great--one of the mechanics offered his yard for me to camp in--but I wanted to keep going since it was still fairly early when I finished the tire repair. I made another 35 miles, just across the Colorado border to Dinosaur, Colorado. This northwestern corner of Colo., Moffat County, is terribly forbidding sage grassland and chapparal. The key as usual was to start early and expect to suffer a bit after 11 am. Around 1 pm the next day I got to Maybell, Colorado which has a nice town park with camping facilities. Again, an early start, and I enjoyed a fairly easy final day on this leg today. I was in the town of Craig by 11 where I hung out at the MacDonalds for an hour or two catching up on emails, etc. Right after noon I started out on the final 20 miles to Hayden, Colo.and I got there about 2. I picked up the rent-a-car I had reserved at the Hayden (Steamboat Springs) airport and drove to the campground in Steamboat Springs to set things up. Jill arrives at that same airport tonight at 10:30 tonight--hence the need for a rent-a-car..

In retrospect it was a bit mad to plan this rendezvous 10 days ago with more than 500 miles through mountain and desert to bicycle to make it happen. But it has all worked out as planned (with the few little glitches described). I must say my timely arrival this afternoon was one of the little high points of my life. Now three weeks of relaxed camping and biking. Probably not much to blog until the rest of the ride across America begins for me early in August. Thanks for following me on this first glorious leg.