On March 22, Doug wrote:
Yesterday's entry was typed on my Droid cellphone, and it's hard to write a lot or correct mistakes, especially when I'm tired. Tonight I'm at a hotel computer.
First, I have to back up and issue a big THANK YOU to Cheryl's friends John, Vi and Kirsten, who took wonderful care of us in Phoenix. Couldn't possibly ask for more hospitality--or nicer people either. Cheryl, we miss you!
Also have to comment once again on how ENORMOUS metropolitan Phoenix is. From the town of Surprise on the west end to Apache Junction on the east it's easily a 6 hour bike ride in urban conditions the whole time, though the eastern 2/3 had MUCH better roads for biking. All the way to Phoenix, riding through the desert, I found myself thinking how much room there is; that mankind couldn't possibly fill it all up. But now that I've seen Phoenix I'm not so sure...
Spent last night in Globe, and we were too whupped when we got there to do much but sign in at the first motel we came to, order pizza delivery and go to bed. This morning we found it to be a VERY pretty town on the side of a hill even though a huge copper mine looms over the entire area on the very same hill. Very picturesque.
Our ride today was through the Gila valley, and much of it was on an Apache indian reservation. Again we see that the Indians appear to be living in very poor, impoverished conditions, but possibly the natural beauty of their surroundings is some compensation. At least I hope so. They are very friendly, nice people who almost without exception come up and talk to us about our trip.
The views remained stunning all day with mountains in the distance on both sides, and some tall ones in front of us that are snow-capped. I suspect we'll be climbing over a couple of passes in those mountains in the next few days. But today was relatively flat, only 80 miles, and after lunch the wind shifted from a light headwind to a light tailwind--something we haven't felt nearly enough of--so that we actually had a decent average speed for the day--over 15 mph. It'll be a few days before we match that again--we have the hardest climbs of the trip coming up, including the continental divide and Emory Pass (8228 ft.).
Again today we were blessed with extremely good pavement--something that has been the rule nearly the entire ride. Even the shoulders are usually passable, depending on one's tolerance for broken glass--which lines the roads everywhere we go. Many of the roads have rumble strips separating the travelled portion from the shoulder, and I'm much more willing to ride to the left of these strips, keeping an eye on my rear-view mirror for traffic and dodging on to the shoulder when necessary. Kathy prefers to ride the shoulder and dodge the glass. We're slowly working out a compromise which includes factors like the amount of traffic, the condition of the shoulder and the width of the lane. Generally the lanes are wide and the cars give us plenty of room, and we've only had one close call--back in California in the desert on a curvy, narrow section with no shoulders and very limited sight distances.
The bikes are holding up fine, and nothing hurts so much I can't ignore it--except my butt once in a while. It is daunting to wake up each morning and consider what the day holds, but hey, the only thing we have to do is ride our bikes!! Seriously, this is beautiful territory here, wild and wide open, and the weather has been as good as we could expect.
I miss you guys too!! I am still so jealous although Vi, Kirsten and John have kept me plenty entertained and my caloric intake is about the same as yours with lots of great cuisine(yikes!). Doug, did you already forget that changing a flat is much easier than changing a car wreck??? Be safe Doug. You are not a cat :-). xo
ReplyDeleteI wonder if all the glass you're seeing by the side of the road is the result of a lack of a bottle deposit law in AZ. When I spent some time in NM a few decades ago, that really stood out, especially so compared to Michigan, where we do have a bottle deposit law. When there's no incentive to turn a bottle in, it just gets tossed out the window...
ReplyDeleteIs this trip so far harder than you imagined? From your reports, it seems as though there's a lot of climbing nearly every day, plus headwinds a lot of the time. Riding loaded bikes, I'm sure, doesn't make it any easier. There will be, presumably, easier days ahead when you're out of the mountains?
Also, how do you decide on where to stay at night? Do you have a daily itinerary? Do you have a goal to shoot for every day, in terms of a town or city to ride to? Or do you just ride until you're tired and then find a motel?
Finally, as long as you're answering questions, how come we've never had a Pope named Leroy?
Zolton