Grant to Pie Town 8/19 58 miles

After a nice evening at the KOA(I can't believe I'm rating rv camps!) in an otherwise dilapidated run down town, we decided to split up the ride to Pie Town.  We all wanted to ride to get pie, so this was the best way.  Daren rode first, heading out on pavement to an area about 25 miles out of Grants on Hwy 117.  He had a flat part way through, but otherwise a beautiful fast ride by incredible rock formations in the Cebolla Wilderness.  We stopped for a few moments at La Ventana or The Window, to admire the incredible rock structure forming an arch.  Just down the road a few miles, was the start of the dirt road, Sarah and my turn to earn pie!  The dirt road started out rough with washboard and thick sand.  It looked like a long but well deserved 33 miles to pie.  Eventually the washboard smoothed out, and we had a fast pleasant ride through Pinon pines and the Sawtooth Mountains to the east.  About 20 miles in, the dirt bike riders from Vancouver Island came up on us.  They noticed our squirrely bike tracks through the sand and washboard, and were quite impressed with our progress.  I noticed that Mike's front tire was low, which he said explained why his ride felt so precarious!  They pumped up the tire, then made quick work to Pie Town.  They saw Daren and said we would be along soon, not realizing that it takes 10 times as long to ride a bike!  Daren started getting concerned about how long it was taking because of their report, but we were making good time by bike standards!

One incident did slow us down a bit.  There was a dust spout(like a water spout/tornado) on the left side of the road.  It was spinning there for several seconds, and since it was on a downhill, I decided to ride past it.  Well at this point, it decided to move across the trail into me!  I felt like I was in a real tornado!  It was pulling my legs off my pedals, and sandblasting me.  It slowed me from 15 miles an hour to standing still, but did not push me over.  It was the strangest sensation.  Once it passed, I needed a few moments to regroup.  Sarah had watched the whole thing from behind.  She couldn't believe I even attempted to go, but then just watched, shocked, as the dust spout consumed me.  A short time later, Daren called.  Silas was going ride with us into town so he could get pie.  We met up with him toward the end of the road, and rode the last 5 miles or so up and down the hilliest hottest section to Pie Town.  Daren had checked out the town before we got there.  Two restaurants selling pie and a post office.  What more could you want?  Apparently the first pie restaurant(at the bottom of a hill) was not friendly.  The PIE-O-NEER restaurant(at the top of a hill) was much friendlier, so we went there(one more hill!).  After a small lunch, we started in.  They had the best pie!  Banana creme, apple-cranberry al la mode, lemon meringue.  All the pies freshly made, fantastic!  We ended up staying at a small rv camp in Pie Town.  No dinner that night.

More pics here