This video was supposed to be about mountain biking, but I only have a limited amount of
footage concerning that topic.
Over the last few days all I did was drive, and sleep in the back seat while my wife drove.
The plan was to attend an expo in Utah called Outbike.
Rather than fly there and stay at a hotel, we decided to take a trailer out West for
3 weeks.
The trailer was a rental that I found online on what amounts to an Airbnb for campers.
The length, weight, and price of this trailer met all our criteria, and we’d be able to
pick it up in Tennessee on our way out West.
So on Thursday night I loaded up the car with my bikes and a bunch of bins containing everything
we’d need for three weeks.
My sister would be joining us, as well as this ridiculous animal.
Therein lies the reason why we really needed a trailer.
Not only are pet friendly hotels expensive and hard to come by, but Drama isn’t very
sporting.
So he’ll need a secure and familiar place to stay while we’re out doing stuff.
A place with climate control, that smells like his humans.
We picked up the trailer and drove throughout the night to Bentonville Arkansas.
Including the time it took to pick up the trailer we were on the road for about 18 hours,
during which time we had to stop for gas a lot.
The trailer cut our fuel economy to under 15 miles per gallon, and from what I hear
that’s not so bad.
In any case, you can’t rely on Google’s arrival times when you’re towing.
We eventually made it to Bentonville, and set up at a pretty nice campsite in Rogers.
One of the nice things about the trailer is being able to disconnect it from the car.
The not so nice part is actually doing that.
Bentonville is one of my favorite cities because there’s so much to do in such a small area.
I also have a ton of subscribers there.
As a stop on our way to Utah, it was a no brainer.
This is the part of the video where I actually get to ride my bike, as I had scheduled a
Patron meet up in Slaughter pen.
Slaughter Pen is a trail system accessible from downtown Bentonville.
There’s everything from singletrack, to jumps, to random features scattered about.
With all the stuff to ride in Slaughter pen, you’d think we’d be content to lay down
some miles.
But of course we chose to session the grassy side of this landing.
I never did land this 270, by the way.
After some riding, some loitering, some pictures with Drama, and of course a trip to pedaler’s
pub, our day in Bentonville was in the books.
It was time to set out to Buena Vista Colorado.
We’d start by driving through Missouri, and then Kansas.
Now I’m sure there’s a lot of cool stuff in Kansas, and in fact there’s an IMBA Epic
out there, but if you’re driving through Kansas on Route 70, you won’t get to see
any of that because it’s nothing but this.
And this, and some of this—for 424 miles.
You’ll also find out that Kansas is not totally flat.
From East to West it actually increases in elevation gradually by a few thousand feet.
It’s also windy as fuck.
With all that wind and the trailer, we barely broke 60 mph, but we did eventually reach
Colorado.
I guess we were expecting the Rocky Mountains to rise dramatically upon passing that sign,
but they didn’t.
We just got more of this for hours.
There is this cool diner though.
After driving into the afternoon and approaching Denver, the scenery did change, but so too
did the weather.
[[phone call with alex]]
Less than two hours from our campsite in Buena Vista, we made the gametime decision to go
all the way to Grand Junction.
It would add another 7 hours to our drive, but we’d be warm, dry, and with no shortage
of trails.
And, if we died on the way there it would be completely Alex’s fault.
We had been on the road for 24 hours, through Missouri, Kansas, the part of Colorado that’s
exactly like Kansas, and finally the the Rocky Mountains.
We were over it.
During the most exciting part of the drive, we were just ready to set up the trailer and
go to sleep.
And we did.
The next morning we woke up in Grand Junction,
to more rain.
Alex came by to get some editing done with me and
check out
the trailer.
The trailer really is everything we hoped.
It lets us sleep, cook, and work in a familiar space.
It really is our home away from home.
While I’m working and editing, my wife and sister can take the car out to go hiking.
Although our brutal drive is now over, this trip has just begun.
We’re in a great mountain biking destination, surrounded by awesome scenery.
So I promise that the next video won’t have much to do with driving, or sleeping, because
now I can focus on the reason we came here in the first place.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.