Day 50, The things they were given

We have amassed quite the list of items that we have been offered, and in almost all cases have accepted, on this trip by various kind people in every state: pears from an orchard, homemade cherry pie, peaches, tomatoes out of the garden (normal), a tomato out of a purse (not normal), grilled chicken for breakfast, coffee, cookies, protein bars, water, Gatorade, beer, wine, cold Coke and Dr. Pepper in desert-like conditions (heaven!), cabins, firewood, backyards, hot showers, computer usage, pancakes (twice!), concert tickets, serenaded guitar songs, rides to the grocery store, rides up the hill to our campground on our day off in the rain, rides in a golf cart to carry firewood, a ride in a boat to waterski, an offer to shoot badgers with a pistol should those pesky badgers come abotherin' us durin' the nighttime, and in the most recent and perhaps most eccentric yet fascinating episode, we have been given dinosaur poop. Yes, you read that right, good old petrified dinosaur crap! Scientifically known as copralite, we are now both proudly carrying bike-friendly portions of this oddly-beautiful substance. As Molly noted, now we too are fossil-fueled.

The source of the poop was friom an off-hour tour of the rock shop in Hanksville this morning, which was run by the late Ernie, a man who the scientists came to for questions about dinosaur bones, fossils, rocks, and petrified wood in southern Utah. Ernie would've turned 90 today. We met Bill and MaryAnn last night who were Ernie's good friends and shared his passion for the land, and they offered to give us a tour of his ecletic and impressive rock shop. We always find it best to learn about things by the people who are passionate about their subject, and so the rocks of Utah came alive for us today through Bill, MaryAnn, and their friend Reese as they gathered together for a memorial for Ernie.

You can tell a lot about the earth during the dinosaur age via copralite, but we found the story of how copralite came to be called as such the most compelling story. Back in the 1800s, the early paleontologists were cutthroat about their dig sites and would devastate and even bomb each other's sites. This guy Cope and this guy Marsh were mortal paleontologic enemies, and when Cope died, Marsh decided to get the ultimate revenge by naming dinosaur crap after Cope--hence copralite.

We biked in crazy headwinds (which luckily became crazy tailwinds, eventually) through Capitol Reef National Park and up to Torrey, a small enclave of culture in southern Utah. We had very good culinary experiences today. We hit an organic farm, Mesa Farm, in the middle of the desert and got our long-standing (since Kansas) questions about irrigation answered by Randy, the farm owner. Then we had the ultimate gourmet dinner at Cafe Diablo in Torrey. We figure that if Stephanie climbed Boulder Mountain last year (as we'll do tomorrow) fueled by Patron margaritas, then we shouldn't break the tradition!