Day 12

I'd say today was the second hardest day yet, the worse being the 70 mile death ride in the desert on Day 5. We had 24 miles to ride today, piece of cake, right? Wrong. In the first 10 miles out of camp, we climbed over 2,000 feet. Climbing 1,000 feet per 10 miles is tough (in Horribly Hilly Hundreds, you climb about 1,000 feet every to miles, Ironman WI it's about 600 feet per 10 miles), climbing 2,000 in 10 miles is painful.

I got off to a later start today because I had to get breakfast and lunch together, but I still managed to get out by a little after 7. A couple miles into the ride we passed through a tunnel that was in no way made for cyclists. The tunnel held a tight 3 lanes, no shoulder, a couple of lights, and a 6.4% grade. Nothing like riding up a mountain enclosed in a tunnel with traffic racing by! Thankfully that part is over!

We continued up for awhile and had some of the most spectacular views yet. Much to my pleasure, there are more trees up here, although I still haven't seen any body of water (the dried-up rivers and streams obviously don't count). After about 10 miles (which took me an hour and forty minutes to ride), we came to a sign that said 6% downgrade for the next 7 miles. We were extremely grateful for this until we reached another climb about a mile later. All I could think was what a bad joke the sign was. The community we reached at our highest point today calls itself "Top of the World".

Our highest point today was about 4,600 feet, and Superior was 2,888. Now we are back around 3,700.

Day 11

It's my day to cook, so I got on the road circa 6am. The forecast called once again for near-record breaking highs around 105'. The first 25 miles were an easy ride through eastern Tempe and Apache Junction. We ended up stopping at Starbucks because we couldn't find any local cafes.

We had a few more "flat" miles after Apache Junction, and then we began the climb. There was a mountain range in front of us, and we knew it wouldn't be easy to climb.

Ignoring the daunting miles to come, the scenery was probably the best yet.

I felt amazingly well on the ride until the last 3 miles. I hit a wall, and there was no getting though it. I had been riding with Young Mark and ended up a ways ahead of him on the climb to Gonzala's Pass,

but he passed me in the last 3 miles. 52.2 miles, my new record.

I spun the last 3 miles into camp and set out for a rootbeer float before I began my cooking. Gunnar, my cooking partner, had his bike stolen yesterday in Tempe, so of course we gave him the week off from "duties". Young Mark, Melina, and Frosty, and everyone else, really helped me out.

I beat Mark.

I beat young Mark to camp!!!! This day will go down in history!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Day 10

First day off!
To-do list:
-put brakepads on
-blog
-get usb stick from REI for Garmin
-laundry
-repack
-avoid my bike and the outdoors

Things I accomplished:
-updated blog
-avoid my bike and the outdoors
-eat alot



I wasn't very impressed with the city of Tempe. The downtown area was a nice little college town,

but I was unimpressed with much else. This may be due to the 110' weather or possibly the fact that one of our guys also had his (locked) bike stolen from in front of the library. "Luckily" it was early enough in the day that he was able to purchase another bike, and his insurance will cover his loss. Cheers to him in continuing on the trip, and I can't even imagine having that happen.

Day 9

Our last day before our first day off! We had a 70 mile day, all downhill, and we all (naively) thought that it would be an easy day.

I left at 6:20, and I knew some of the boys left just before us. I figured they'd go slow, and we'd catch them and ride together for awhile, so I took off to catch them. The road was curvy, so I figured they'd be just around the next bend. After about 3 miles of racing to catch them, I now had dropped the girls, and the guys were still no where to be seen. So, I spent the next 26 miles averaging 22 mph, and I finally caught up with 2 of them in the city of Surprise.

As I caught them, we came across a guy that was walking from Virginia to California to keep his family together.

He looked about my age, and was carrying a big trailer with all of his things in it. He explained to me that he had been married 4 years and they had a 3 year old son. He said he had never been with his son on his birthday, and he was making the walk so he could be there on his birthday. I didn't want to push too much, but I didn't really understand why he needed to walk nearly 4,000 miles to do this. I understand plane tickets, buses, trains, etc. are expensive, but wouldn't it be less expensive to "gather" $400 for a plane ticket than to try to get the money for food for such a trek? Regardless, I hope he makes it for his son's birthday.

After another 10 miles, we made it to the bike shop (rumored to offer free labor to all cross country cyclists) by 9am. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 10, so we went to the McDonald's across the street. I did have a cinnamon roll, but it was far from the homemade type I've been craving. Day 6 with no cinnamon roll. The bike shop opened, but they told us the mechanic wouldn't be there until 11. One of the guys stayed, and they told him at about 11 that he wasn't going to come until 1 today. I was glad that I took off.

We still had 30 miles left, and by now it was about 100 degrees., but for the first time since San Diego, there were some clouds!

I was feeling good, but I just wanted to be done. It took me about 3 more hours to get through Phoenix, and I found a bike shop along the way for my new brake pads. I got a little lost towards the end, but got to camp (Motel 6, truly luxurious given my new standards) at about 1:30. It was 110'.

After cooling off and cleaning up, we went to a sports bar for dinner and for Melina's birthday.
We had some drinks stayed out late (by late I mean 10:00) before heading back.

Day 8

Another hot day in the desert. We had 2 800+ foot climbs today, so naturally we left at about 5:50am as to get the first one in before the heat.

I have a new goal of beating "young Mark" to camp once on this trip. I knew I didn't stand a chance today, but the weather was cool and I felt good so I decided to try to keep him off for as long as possible. With about a 10 minute handicap, I managed to keep him off for a new record of 12.4 miles. It was another beautiful sunrise, but I wanted to see how long I could keep him off, so I didn't want to stop to take another picture.

After the boys caught us, we rode with them in a nice paceline for most of the day. It is amazing what a difference that makes, even if we're only going 10 mph. We stopped in the first town after 30 or so miles for breakfast #2 at Cactus Flats. Still no cinnamon rolls.

We stayed at "Horsepitality", and I still get a kick out of the name.

Despite the bad reviews young Mark reported to us from his "blackbox", it was a really nice place. I spent a lot of time updating my blog, and then ran back into town for a milkshake just before dinner. Props to Rick for the best dinner yet!!!

Day 7

Once again, we got off to an early start at about 6:20 am.

You could already feel the heat, and we knew it would not be a comfortable day. We stopped at Kofi Cafe for our breakfast #2, and our waitress didn't seem to like us very much. The Aussie ordered a banana split, and she didn't seem like she wanted to make it (perhaps because it was 9am?).

She did, and by the end she started to warm  up to us enough to give us some more water. Unfortunately, day 3 of no cinnamon rolls.

We got to camp (thankfully a motel because of the heat) at about 11, and the owners were out for church. We took a dip in the pool, that didn't seem to have been cleaned for a long time, and went to the bar across the street. It was rumored to have excellent milkshakes, and we had been looking forward to them all day. We soon found out the bar was under new management, and the cafe next door with the milkshakes was closed.

We had a couple of beer and talked to the locals. One of the older men (on an oxygen tank, wearing an old cowboy hat and drinking a beer) there told me Route 60 used to be the only highway, and the bar and cafe were packed in those days. Now the cafe was closed, and the bar was very run down. He told me how Interstate 10 marked the end of Salome.

One of the guys at the bar invited Melina and I to his place for dinner. We declined, finished our beers and headed back to the motel.