Day 8: Wickenburg to Phoenix

Day 8: Wickenburg, AZ to Phoenix, AZ
Miles: 66.50 miles
Theme: True Love

First: Special note to Lala (my niced) Happy birthday! Hope you had a great one! Believe it or not - today a man by the name of Eric played Happy Birthday on the bagpipes. He is a friend of Liz who is on this trip and it is her birthday. When he played Happy Brithday - I thought of you as well!

Now, on to the blog for today. Well we were up and at it early this morning. Given the heat in the desert - we wanted to get going while the going was good. We left the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and it was 46 degrees. Within one hour it was 63 degrees! It was cold to start out and my fingers weren't too pleased but the goal was to get in as many miles as possible before the heat of the day.

The sun has been so intense that I am getting some burning on my arms despite lathering up with sunscreen often during the day. So today I rode with a long sleeve shirt on. Fortunately it is a light weight shirt and the breathable type, so it actually made riding more pleasant today. The ride started off down hill which was nice, but the shoulder of the road was very bad. It had lots of gravel and glass. There was also a continual rumble strip between the road and the shoulder. It was very rough riding! To make matters worse, every now and again you would get slapped in the arms and face by bushes that hung out way too far. Not a lot of fun but we made it safe and sound! At one point Liz was riding out on the highway and a police came by, put on his lights and we all thought she was going to get a ticket. And today is her birthday! The cop just got on his loud speaker and told her to get onto the shoulder. I think she got her birthday present (no ticket!)

The countryside was beautiful this morning. At one point a saw a large bird sitting on top of a saguaro cactus. I had to stop to take a photo! I thought it was a crow at first, but it was some sort of hawk. I'll have to look up what type later! I also saw a number of woodpeckers pecking away on the cactus as well. While I found yesterday's countryside pretty boring today was spectacular. And for me (a non-desert person) to say that is saying something).

Other than the road condition, the biking was pretty easy. I can tell we are all getting stronger. We got to mile 20 point this morning before the Sag Wagon. We decided to stop and call Lisa (doing Sag for the third day in a row because her bike is broken) to let her know where we were. Just as we got off the phone with her Carol and Linda came in the van (pulling the trailer). They stopped and Carol said it has been quite a morning already. One person couldn't find her luggage (her roommate graciously took it to the trailer but failed to let her know - oops). Then Greta was riding and went over the rumble strip and her chain got stuck and they couldn't get it out so they had to call for Sag help. Carol got it out, but three loops around a parking lot and the same thing happened again! No bike riding for Greta today - the bike had to go to the bike store in Phoenix to be fixed. And then one other person had a flat tire. So no wonder we beat the Sag to mile 20!

Carol asked us to go up a bit until we found a good place for the Sag and wait for it there. She didn't want people to get too spread out as it makes it really hard for the Sag.

The Sag came a bit later, we had already watered up (from the van/trailer when Carol and Linda stopped) so we signed in with the Sag and took off again. We peddle on. Soon we were at mile 40 but again the Sag hadn't passed up. So we pulled off at a store and called the Sag to let Lisa know we were okay (watered and fueled) and going on. We used the restroom and got some goodies...

We had already decided that we were only going to go about 10 miles and then stop for lunch. I was leading at that time and saw a place called Heart and Soul. Sounded good, why not. So we stopped. What a place!!!! There was on old Chevy - with a table in the middle... One of us asked if we could eat in the Chevy and the waitress said it was all set up and waiting for us. The waitress was so much fun, took photos of us in the care... Turns out her sister owns
the restaurant and they were all their own recipes. The special of the day was a quiche with potatoes. On her recommendation we all ordered it. She asked where we were biking (as did others) and she was so impressed she brought out special treats just for us. She brought out a plate with 2 baby cinnamon rolls and 2 muffins that were heavenly. And then the quiche came. What can I say other than out of this world. We all had a great lunch! Since it was Liz's birthday the three of us treated. We were happy campers as we waddled out and got back on the saddle!

We had about 17 miles to go. It went very quickly and though the city of Phoenix is busy, the bike lanes are good. Our destination, Exhale Bike Shop. It was time to really get my tire trued (hence TRUE LOVE). We found the shop without much difficulty and Wes quickly got my bike up on the bike stand and started to work. In very little time he had the wheel trued, tuned up the bike, and took off my back rack as I decided I really didn't need it. I also bought a couple long sleeve light weight biking shirts as that worked really well today and will protect my skin better. Kathie and Tex also had some maintenance done on their bikes. Lisa (our Sag driver) --- also known as Young Pup (she is the youngster on the trip at 28) was at the bike store as well. She was so thrilled to be getting her bike back and looking forward to getting in the saddle again!

With properly adjusted bikes we made it to our hotel in no time. I did some laundry along with Eva and Great. And then it was dinner time. I didn't think I would be able to eat another bite after that lunch - but oddly enough none of us had any trouble! A great dinner once again. Tonight it was pork tender loin, mashed sweet potatoes, quoin salad. A rider who had done this trip last year also joined us. I remember reading her blog last year, so it was great to meet her! Oh and if you were wondering, there was dessert. Haagen Daz ice cream courtesy of Katherine Jetter. Katherine is raising $200,000 for Wound Care, Ostomy and Continence Nursing Care. That is story for another night. She is our oldest rider on the trip and she is -- well there is no other way to describe this woman other than TOO MUCH FUN!!!

Once again, what an absolutely fabulous day. My bike is in great working order, I have clean clothes, my stomach is full and I get to do it all over again tomorrow. I just keep pinching myself to make sure this is all real.

Good night my friends!