View from the road 

Home sweet home 

Say "cheese!" 

Feelin good karma inside 

A tepee is born 

Peek a boo! 

The tightening continues 

Tacking it down 

Sewing it up 

Adjusting it just right 

Dressing it up. 

Keep on going! 

Ring around the tepee 

Swingin from the tripod 

Set up 

Laying down on the job 

May 30, 2006

Oh my gosh! Where has the time gone! I can’t believe it’s already the beginning of June. Kirk and I have not updated our blog in quite some time. Towards the end of our cycling journey we were pretty pooped and occupied with thoughts of home. So I'm sure you can see why we failed to keep up with our blog during that time. Our last entry was from Thailand on our way back to Bangkok which was towards the end of March. That seems like so long ago! I’ll do a quick blurb just to catch everyone up from where we left off.

After arriving in Bangkok, we spent 5 days in the city shopping, seeing sights, sweating profusely and getting ready to leave SE Asia. We were feeling pretty weary after 5 months of packing up daily and riding our bikes to our next destination. We were both ready to be off the bikes for awhile and go to a cooler climate. Our next stop would be London and our flight left on March 23rd.

We had a 12 hour flight to London which was long and uncomfortable as most flights of that duration can be. We were greeted at the airport by my sister Shelly and her best friend Liz. Liz and her family live outside of London and volunteered to be our hosts for the week. My sister had flown in just a few hours earlier so it was a great reunion. Kirk and I felt welcomed by the chilly temperatures in the airport parking garage and loved every minute of it. Liz drove us to her beautiful home via a speedy highway and several windy and narrow roads. I ended up feeling a little carsick since that was the fastest I’ve moved in the last 2-1/2 years. We adjusted to the time difference after a day or so and Liz kept us busy going for drives, visiting Oxford, taking several hikes, visiting a gem mining cave, booking indoor tobogganing at the nearest mall, and feeding us wonderful meals. Liz is quite the woman juggling 3 guests and all the while still keeping her home business going and taking care of her kids. Very impressive! On our drives around Liz’s house, both Kirk and I were amazed at the open space that is not far from London. It rained on us quite a bit while we were there especially the days we hiked, but it was a nice change from the heat and we didn’t mind it one bit.

The 8 day stopover in the UK flew by and before we knew it, it was time to leave. The day before we flew out, we went to London for the day and stayed in a hotel near the airport to catch our flight the next morning. While in London, Kirk and I took the tube to all the sights including Westminster Abbey, the London Bridge, the Tower of London, the Lloyds of London building, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Picadilly Circus. We didn’t go in any of the buildings except for the Cathedral because we were enjoying the walking tour outdoors so much. We were happy that we chose to enter the Cathedral as it was breathtaking! I just don’t have the words to describe the beauty and artistic nature of an old European church like that (Oops! I originally posted that St. Paul's is a Catholic church and I had a few folks nice enough to let me know I made a mistake. I think I associated it with seeing St. Peter's in Rome and wrote "Catholic" without thinking. Thanks for correcting me!). We were both amazed and sat down for awhile to take it all in. We enjoyed our day in London and ended it by having a yummy beer in a local pub.

The next day we flew to Washington DC to visit a childhood friend of mine. I haven’t seen my friend or her kids in several years and she had never met Kirk so this trip was long overdue. We were only staying for the weekend so we spent the time catching up, going to her kid’s soccer games and we even managed to find time to spend a few hours at the National Mall. The annual Cherry Blossom Festival was going on that weekend so all the cherry trees were in full bloom along the Potomac River. It was beautiful, but I’m not sure I would have flown in just for that event as so many people did. It was pretty crowded! We walked the length of the Mall and visited several monuments including the WWII Monument, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. We walked over to see the White House and were told by a woman handing out free tickets on the street that we could go for a tour of the lawns. So we took the tickets from her and stood in line to get shaken down by security before entering the lawns. We were able to walk right up to the front of the White House. It was an interesting little surprise since we didn’t know that would have even been a possibility.

The morning of April 3rd Holli drove us to the Metro which we took to the airport. We lugged our bike boxes with us down the long airport corridor to find our check in all the way at the end. We were finally heading back to Colorado and were surprised and bummed to find out hat we had to pay $50 per bike on a domestic flight. We hadn’t paid an extra cent to carry our bikes all over the world… so this was a shock for us. Welcome back to the good ol’ US of A! Oh well.

After a short flight we flew into Denver International Airport. Kirk’s parents were anxiously awaiting our arrival and offered to pick us up. They were so happy to see us…it was a tearful reunion. Then we went to meet my family for lunch. It was so great to see everyone and talk face to face! We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed out on the road to go to Buena Vista. Kirk’s parents have been nice enough to let us crash in their house until we could get temporary housing set up on our property. The original plan was that we would probably stay with them for about a month or so just to get ourselves organized, adjusted and settled enough to start building our house. Well, 2 months have gone by and we’re just now finding ourselves adjusting and finally able to leave the parental nest.

Good news arrived several weeks ago when Kirk’s friend Willy decided to lend us his tepee. We had some repairs done to it and set it up on our land this past weekend. It was the first time any of us have ever set up a tepee and it was really fun! It took us several hours, but it went as well as can be expected. We need to get a camp toilet set up and dig out all of our camping stuff and then we’ll be ready to move in. We’re really excited about living on our land in the tepee for the summer especially after being cooped up for 2 years at the South Pole. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to be living in Buena Vista among the vast and spectacular views of all the fourteeners. The temperatures here are cool and perfect as can be. I think I’m going to like living here.

We’ve had so many folks in town here follow our long journey from the South Pole, biking through SE Asia and now back to Buena Vista. We are often asked, “What is your next big adventure?”. Our response is, “Building a house together”. And not just any house….a strawbale house that we’re going to build with our own blood, sweat and tears. Sounds like an adventure doesn’t it? Or perhaps just another serious test of our marriage. Regardless, we’re going forward with our plans and hoping to have at least a garage built by the end of the summer. If not, we’ll have the tepee as a back up plan! Hey..the Indians did it….so we can too! Crazy you say? Would you expect any less!!!

We’ll be posting pictures and stories of our summer adventures up here in Buena Vista. If you happen to come out this way, look us up. We’d love to see you.

Jodi