So like I said we stayed with Heidi and Paul last night (pictured above), and they got us to meet up with some people from their church, The Scum of the Earth, yesterday morning.  It is a very cool church designed to reach the outcast of the Denver area.  We got to meet with Joshua and Liann Dylan (pictured below), who both work and live at the church.  The building is very unique and worth a visit on its own, so it fits the artsy culture of Scum well.  Check out the podcast to hear about how God continues to move through the youth, the punks, the crusties, the homeless and every other people group of Denver CO.

 

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So we left our hotel room this morning, and headed to my friend Heidi’s house here in Denver.  Heidi and her husband Paul got to Scum of the Earth Church here in Denver, and so we went over their to meet with some of the people there.  Very cool church with a lot of neat things going on.  The podcast should be up soon.

Paul has lived in the downtown Denver area for quite a while, and so last night he gave me a quick tour of the city.  So today Ryan and I took the light rail back down to the city.  We went to the REI there, and it was huge.  We also just walked around the 16th st mall.  It is a very pretty city, very clean, and lots of neat artsy stuff, everywhere you look there is something new and interesting.  So far it is definitely one of my favorite cities.

Total Miles Today: 20

(We didn’t go very far)

So we headed up to the shop in Grand Junction yesterday around 4 in the afternoon.  When we got their, the mechanics had still not heard anything back from the Warranty company, but my bike was ready to go.  I decided to pay for the work, and the Honda Dealership agreed to refund me the money as soon as the claim was approved by the warranty people.  So I got my bike, we said good bye to Ty and Meghan, and then headed to Rifle Falls.  Here are some pictures:

We camped at Rifle Falls, and then headed to Denver this morning.  It was about a 200 mile ride, but probably the prettiest freeway ride we have had yet.  The Goldsworthy’s got us a hotel room here in Denver so we are relaxing for a little bit.  Tonight I’m going to go hang out with my friend Heidi, from College, and her husband.

Miles Today: 200

Total Miles: 9700

Ok so a lot has happened in the last couple days.  For one, we had some sick weather yesterday on our way to Green River UT.  The whole way there we were watching lightning storms right in front of us, and mean looking clouds all around us.  It was pretty scary looking, and neither of us were sure how the whole lightning on a motorcycle thing worked.  We have both heard that you are protected in a car, cause of the rubber tires, but on a bike you are completely exposed, so we are not real sure on the science behind that, and whether we were susceptable to lightning or not.  Either way we were scared.

We ended up at a campsite in Green River, and literally with in minutes of us getting there, it started to rain.  I put my tarp up over the bench at our site real quick so that we would at least have a dry place to hang out in.  It ended up being quite the lifesaver since it rained for a couple hours.

The above picture wasn’t taken until the rain was almost over, thats how we were able to get a fire going.

This morning we woke up and headed to Grand Junction.  It was about time for me to get a new rear tire so I took it into a local Honda shop.  While they were working on the bike Ryan and I got some lunch, and then we bought a cheap fishing pole that we could fit on our bike.  There have been lots of places where we have camped that I have wanted to fish, especially when there is nothing else to do.  When we got back to the dealership, the mechanics showed me how the splines in my drive shaft have been worn down, basically my bike isn’t working right.  They said that it happened because the last mechanic who replaced my tire back there neglected to apply the proper lubrication before reassembling.  That was at Mid Cities Honda in Lakewood CA.  Basically my bike is broke because people at Mid Cities didn’t do their job right.  Fortunately it all should be covered underneath my warranty, and as of right now it should be ready in time for when we head out to Denver on Thursday.

The cool part of this story is that since we are now waiting at a nearby starbucks to get picked up by our new friend in Delta, Amanda, we ran into two fellow riders, who are also stranded due to bike issues.  They are our same age, also Christians, and also traveling cross country.  It was so fun to meet them and just get to hang out and swap stories.

Here is a picture of us with them, that is Evan on the left, and then Andy.

They actually needed a ride to their campsite, and so Amanda was able to help them too.  Evan even thinks he stumbled on our site before he left, so it was pretty funny to meet them.

Tonight we are staying at Ty and Meghan’s house, and hopefully my bike will be ready in time to be back on schedule.

We have been so priveleged to hang out with the people of Calvary Chapel here in Salt Lake.  We went to their 10am service this morning, and right afterwards we were invited to participate in some recordings for their local radio show, Homeward Bound.  We don’t know yet when it will air, but we will certainly post when it does.  After that we did our interview with Terry Long, their senior pastor, and he had a lot of good things to say about what it is like to be a church in the Mormon capitol of the world.

This is us with Pastor Jim Harris

And this is us with Pastor Terry Long

 

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For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Mike Goldsworthy interviewed us for a change on his blog.  Click here to check it out.

So a lot happened today.  First off we owe a huge thanks to Calvary Chapel Salt Lake for putting us up in this nice hotel room here.  They got us each our own room which is a luxury we have not experienced nor one we deserve.  Jim from the church came by the hotel around 3pm, we thought he was going to pick us up, but he showed up on his Harley.  We were both not dressed to ride, but it wasn’t far to the park, so we thought we would just go as is, seeing how it is a no helmet state here in Utah, and it was just a couple miles down the road.  I went up to my room and grabbed my helmet and jacket just to bring along, Ryan did not.

We got to the park, and it turns out, they decided to have a BBQ there with people from the local chapter of Bikers for Christ mainly just cause we were coming by.  It was pretty cool, and all the people there were real nice, and fun to talk with.  After the BBQ, Jim rounded up some of the people at the BBQ to go to a ride up the canyon.  I decided to put on my helmet, Ryan of course could not.  However it did not seem like a big deal cause most of them were still not wearing there helmets.  We got to the mouth of the canyon, and pulled into a gas station, filled up, and then Ryan noticed that everyone who was not wearing a helmet, pulled one out of their luggage and put it on.  It is never a good sign when people who normally don’t wear helmets decide to start wearing them.  That usually means things are going to get a little hairy.  Ryan looked over at me and said, well I guess I am the only one without a helmet now.  I could not help but laugh.

We rode up the canyon, and it was beautiful.  There was a white water river flowing right alongside the road, snow cap mountains all around us, and trees all over the place.  We got up to the Brighton Ski resort, and there was snow all around us.  It wasn’t freezing out, but I am sure Ryan was pretty cold in just his tshirt.

Here are some pictures from up there: