This hill sucks. It sucks more than the last one, but less than the ones that will come after: the fifty shades of punishment that only the Tuscan countryside can deliver. I’m slumped in the saddle of my nimble little Pinarello race bike, shoving my feet against the pedals one at a time. At the…
Author: Emily Gindlesparger
My Heart Meets the Heart of Tuscany
When you’re trying to recount the newest most amazing trip you’ve taken in your life, it can be hard to start at the beginning. Details of things loved and mishaps overcome come rushing in all at once. So instead, I’m starting in the middle of Italy, with the day Logan and I saddled up in…
Bike Tour from Sonoita to Bisbee
As a “dry run” for our cycle tour through Italian wine country, we decided to take a tour through Arizona wine country, and on our two day trip we found more beauty and challenge than we had bargained for. We started in Sonoita, with Logan’s parents graciously playing the role of our shuttle drivers. They…
Italia!
It all started when a customer walked in the store for something simple–I think it was sport beans or vitalyte for a cycling event–and told me about L’Eroica. His eyes got that faraway dreamy stare as he told me of this long ride through Tuscany on historic white gravel roads called the “strade bianchi.” Three…
Mt Humphrey’s Sunrise Summit
We left Tucson around 3pm headed for Flagstaff. We had two options for our hike. We could either find a campsite, get a good night’s sleep and start early in the morning OR we were considering having dinner, getting a few hours of sleep and starting around midnight, putting us at the summit around sunrise….
Being A Warrior Princess is Tougher Than You Think
As a kid growing up in the woods, I fantasized about being a warrior princess: a powerful girl trained in the arts of survival and war, who could stalk soundlessly through the brush and skillfully ambush prey. I wanted to live in a house made of earth, fish in the river with a spear, wear…