Hold onto your helmets!!

October 18, 2021

Hurricane loop, take 1

It was a little breezy when we got up this morning, but sunny out and warm compared to Kanab. It was in the 50's!

Don put together a route for us and by late morning, we were on the bike and heading south from the campground. The "breeze" had now become much stronger - blowing right out of the south into our faces. Wonderful, just wonderful!

We followed residential roads past very nice homes and small farms. There was a you-pick peach orchard - out of season, unfortunately, pecan trees and bushes laden with pomegranates. People must not eat the fruit or maybe they weren't ripe?

It was pleasant riding on lightly traveled roads, but as we went along, the wind got worse and was now gusting to over 20 mph. Our route was slightly uphill and normally wouldn't have been a problem, but with the very strong wind, we were struggling to make any headway. I felt like the town of Hurricane was living up to its name!

The route should have taken us south to Sand Hollow SP, but with this wind, we finally admitted that there was no way we would make it today. Normally I would have just gone out on my bike but this wind would have defeated even me.

So we turned around and let the wind push us back to camp with only a pathetic 6 miles ridden. Don said maybe we could practice some dancing later if the wind died down.

After lunch, we hopped in the truck and drove into St. George as Don wanted to do some shopping for a new shirt at the Desert Industries thrift store. It was a large store with merchandise displayed nicely but it didn't have nearly the amount of clothing or variety than we find in the ARC thrift stores at home.

He did find a shirt that would work and I even bought a cute dance dress.

From here we continued driving toward Springdale to check out a couple of bike routes and where we could park if we want to bike in the national park. There is quite a long steep climb to do right out of Hurricane that we really don't want to bike. So we would need to drive to the start of any rides in this area.

We found a couple of spots that would work for parking if we want to ride into Zion NP, although we will have to pay even if we park on the highway. There was also a road going to the Kolob Reservoir that would also work and take us to the western portion of the Zion.

All this running around had eaten up the rest of the afternoon so it was nearly 5 pm when we returned to camp. Don threw in a few more loads of laundry and then got to work on dinner.

It was still really windy outside and now the temperature was dropping. We never ended up doing any dancing tonight but did catch an episode of Dancing with the Stars on TV.

This front is supposed to finish moving through the area by tomorrow with improving weather the rest of the week. I sure hope so as I'm ready to ride!

This picture depicts our day! Obviously the winds are often from the south around here - unfortunately the direction we were headed!

Today was a day full of creative Halloween decorations. These guys must have been picking a little too long!

This basalt outcropping to the south of Hurricane was called Mollies Nipple. I found 2 histories of the name's origin. One is that a pioneer that settled in the area named this mountain after his wife, Molly. The other story is that Mollie or Molly was another name for a harlot/prostitute. Either story was interesting and just another fun fact of Utah.

This massive home on our route had everything you needed and more - 4 car garage AND an RV garage! Even the living quarters were huge.

And the spooky decorations continued into our RV park.

Today's ride: 6 miles (10 km)
Total: 493 miles (793 km)

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Kelly Iniguezhttps://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1349-Teller-St-Loma-CO-81524/13941715_zpid/

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