Cycling, Misadventures, & Our Last Trip with Das Bus Part 2

This post may contain affiliate links.

When I read other people’s blogs about their wonderful RV trips, and how poetically perfect they transpire, I’m always in awe. Because when James and I travel, it’s more like a sitcom than a magical journey. Sure we have wonderful RV trips and tons of fun on the road, but that’s ALWAYS mixed in with a challenge or two (thousand) along the way. It’s just expected.

Take the air conditioner. Das Bus’ air conditioner works way too well. Whoever designed it must have been some sort of over-achieving meat locker maintenance man in another life. Because why, WHY, I ask you, must an air conditioner cool so well your RV gets to 40 degrees (below zero) on the LOW setting? And since James was an Eskimo in his past life, he loves it.

We took our RV “Das Bus” out for one last hurrah this past weekend before we sell her and head to Iowa to pick up our new one. We started our weekend adventures with some super cool sailing on Utah Lake, which I already covered HERE in this blog post. It was over 100 degrees out all weekend….so we looked forward to the air conditioning in the RV after sailing.

This pic is so weird. We look like we’re singing, don’t we?

As I opened the RV door, I was instantly hit with nose-freezing temperatures.

James: Ahhh, this feels so good.

Me: If you’re a penguin, perhaps.

You’d think after all these years I’d learn to always, ALWAYS travel with a sweatshirt, even in triple digit temps.  But no, I tore through every cabinet, nook, and yes folks even the crannies, and there wasn’t one warm piece of clothing anywhere in the RV. The rest of the evening, I walked around covered in blankets and grumbling about how my husband pretty much sucked.

But that’s okay, because the next morning’s adventure redeemed James’ status as best RVing buddy ever as we headed out on the bikes with no specific plan in mind.

“Where should we go, honey?” “Who cares, let’s just go!”

It’s unusual for us to have no plan. We both like plans (James especially), and they’ve always served us well. But we were just way too swept up in that thing called “life” before we hurried off on this trip. There wasn’t time to plan our biking route. We had heard there was a bike trail near the campground somewhere. And when our first attempt to locate it failed (rather abruptly), we almost gave up. Luckily, we didn’t.

The trail started out rather picturesque. Flat, shaded, and running along the edge of a pretty river.

Aww, see how pretty it all is?

But let me remind you of the style of cycling we do. Those are ROAD bikes, you see. Made for speed, and only happy on smooth pavement. There’s about one square inch of tread that contacts the ground, and that’s it. This is a very different type of biking than mountain bikes, or even commuters. Road bikes are unforgiving when it comes to road surfaces. So, when about a mile into the trail, we started dodging huge ruts in the asphalt, we were quickly reminded that no RV adventure of ours ever will go off without a hitch. Or pothole. I consoled myself by thinking, at least the scenery makes it all worth it.

And then the scenery ended.

We were suddenly inner-city biking. And not just any inner-city biking. We had to contend with some very strange bicycle luges that crossed under city roads.

This one was pretty tame, and I’ll admit some of the chutes were fun. But some of them began and ended with 90 degree blind turns into the chute, so low you’d have to duck, and about a 30% grade steep exit that took every ounce of my muscle power to climb. And I’m pretty freaking strong. Now add that with pedestrians that may or may not be lurking around the bend, darkness that your eyes don’t have time to adjust to, and did we already establish it was over 100 degrees? Ahhh, RV adventures!

Just when I was about to tell James I was ready to turn around, we were out of the city again, and gradually climbing. We could see gorgeous mountains ahead, and the more we climbed the cooler the temperature got. And then just like that, out of nowhere, we rolled up onto this:

Bridal Veil Falls, Utah

But wait! That’s just the very top! Here’s the whole thing from the bike trail:

I like to call this one, “Where in the World is Stefany?”

There was no hesitation from bike to water. The moment I spotted this waterfall, I was pulling my bike shoes off before the bike even stopped.

And just like that, the crazy chutes, bumpy surface, and blazing heat was forgotten. Now THAT’S a nice surprise, right?!?

As we headed back to the campground, pretty excited about our unplanned waterfall scramble mid-bike ride, we still had one more surprise waiting for us.

Yup. A flat tire.

Of course. SOMETHING had to balance out the immense fun we just had at the waterfall. The whole yin and yang thing at work. The waterfall and the flat tire.

So, let’s see. It’s over a hundred degrees. We’ve been biking about 25 miles now, outside for hours and hours. I’m out of water. James is grumpy. Oh what the heck. Let’s take some selfies.

Let’s try again. James, look like we’re having fun, please.

One of us is good at this. The other, not so much.

Wait, I have no make-up on, scrap all those. Let’s try with sunglasses…

By this time, James started his countdown. “You have 10 seconds before I throw your phone in the river…10, 9,…” So I switched gears.

Inverted bike shoe selfies!!!

Okay, sorry guys, I think I’m still hallucinating from the heat and dehydration. Back to the recap.

James fixed the flat (a good reminder to always carry spare tubes and inflators!), and we uneventfully biked back to the refrigerator…I mean the RV. Yet another Fit RV weekend adventure in the bag.

Next week, we PICK UP THE NEW RV IN IOWA!!! I can’t WAIT for our first adventures AND misadventures in the new Travato. You can be sure I’ll keep you posted on both, because let’s face it. All those little challenges along the way are inevitable. RVing, like life, is packed full of ups and downs, and that’s totally okay.

Like Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”