Days 9 + 10: Sunglow Campground to Koosharem to Snowville to Bend, Oregon

When the days are relatively short, you learn to just wake with the first light. Second coffee seemed to be a habit when we had towns nearby, so there was no reason not to take advantage again. Except that this time, the lovely employees at the Sunglow Cafe gave us our coffees on the house! Aaaaaaahh, seriously, bike touring sometimes, just a simple gesture can make a whole day feel that much better.

We love you Sunglow Cafe!

On the way out of town, we saw the Curry Pizza, which was featured on The Food Network... we were bummed that we didn't know about it, but vowed to look it up later (which clearly, I did). Today's riding was probably the worst of the whole tour... decent shoulder but a fair amount of high speed traffic and lots of climbing. We ground out the climb into a brisk headwind and made it back to the car in good time. 

So excited to have fought our way to the summit for the day.

Brand new pavement... zooming downhill back to Koosharem.

One last climb back to the car.

We pulled up to where we had parked the car and there were a few guys hanging out in their RV next to it. They made some friendly comments about watching after my car... they had seen us leave over a week ago and were shocked we hadn't come back yet. We packed up, hit up a grocery store for provisions for the long drive home, and found ourselves at the Earp and James campground in Snowville on the border with Idaho. For $5 a person, we had a grassy spot to pitch a tent, a heated bathroom with shower, and some adorable camp cats. It was great because the RV spots had electricity so we weren't bothered by generators or the like. 

Adorable kittens... who like to climb tents.

Dinner!

The bathhouse.

It was a perfect stopover and we found ourselves back in Bend in no time at all wishing that we had just a few more days... which is exactly how a bike tour should end. Having had a grand adventure, but wanting to bike just a little more. Ani and I both agreed that this bike tour just made us want to come back and explore more corners of Utah. Daaaaaang Utah.