Follow my journey through the southern tier of America on my bicycle through my blog.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Day 40 (35 riding): Total overall distance: 2605.77mi Total distance today: 97.42mi Total time: 7.30.35 Avg speed: 12.9mph Top speed: 35.5mph

Random thoughts of the day:
-Waking up to a flat tire isn't fun...sorry Nadine
-"Top of the world" is a silly name for a town only 4500' high...they know there's places higher right?
-Passed the world's smallest museum today in Superior...by the time I got my Iphone out to take a picture, I was past it...and it was downhill so I didn't turn around :/
-I rode through the desert on a horse with no name
-REMIX: I rode through the desert on a bike named Blue Angel...it gets catchy if you say it a lot
-Do you call people from India Indians?
-These maps have been awesome...but this one is pathetic...I almost just rode into a canal
-We are soooo lost

Today was a great day of riding until we got to Tempe/Phoenix. We had a moderate climb early in the day but it was nice out so it wasn't too bad. Then we had another climb a short while later, but this one led into my favorite portion of the trip so far. It was an 8 mile section leading into Superior, AZ and it was all downhill, most pretty steeply. Therefore, I didn't not get any pictures :( but parts of it were spectacular. There were some awesome rock and cliff formations and we even got to go through a tunnel through a mountain at like 35mph. Then there was a crazy looking bridge over a massive ravine. Spectacular. I was going about 35mph the entire time and loved every second of it. After that we had one more climb for the day but stopped 1/4 of the way up to pose for pictures with a massive cactus. The thing had to be no less than 25 feet tall. It's amazing to me how hard cacti are...it felt like concrete to touch. Really cool plant, can someone buy one for me? I want one for my apartment.

Once we descended a little after the lst climb, the weather became absolutely perfect. We rode through Mesa, AZ and the first part of Tempe along nice bike lanes in 70 degrees and only a slight wind in our face. We even stopped to have some oranges off of an orange tree on the side of the road. Fantastic tasting oranges! The ride was good up until we had to cross the Tempe Town Lake and head into downtown Tempe and then into Phoenix. The maps we have did a terrible job with this section and it was virtually impossible to follow. I used a combination of those maps and my Iphone and still managed to get a little lost a couple of times. We rode for about 5 miles more than we had to and arrived at the RV park, where Dan was waiting, in the dark. We rode alongside a canal for a few miles and through some pedestrian tunnels under roadways. The maps said to cross between the canal and a ditch like 3 times...huh?! Very bad directions.

On top of the aggrevation of the directions, we arrived at the RV park and found out it was not a very nic place at all. Plus, after quoting me $13 per tent over the phone, they changed the price to $13 per person when we arrived. That would be about $60 after tax to sleep on the ground, so we went to a hotel 1/2 mile away and paid $59 for a room. Dan drove us down there with 3 bikes and Paul in the bed of his truck holding onto them. We immediately went to a Mandarin Buffet before even showering because we were so hungry. There, I had more food than I've ever seen one person have in one sitting. The picture bellow is one trip out of about 6...and it's 3 full plates. I almost blew up leaving there. Got my $10 worth of food though, that's for sure.

It's been a long day and I'm tired so this blog is going to be short. If I forgot to mention, we are in the middle of Phoenix tonight. Dan says hi to everyone reading this back home. I'm really glad he made the trip down, it was great to see him!

2 comments:

  1. Many thanks for the exciting blog posting! I really enjoyed reading it, you are a brilliant writer. I actually added your blog to my favorites and will look forward for more updates. Great Job, Keep it up.. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for that comment! I love getting comments like this one, it really makes me enjoy writing them because there are many nights when I don't really want to. Thank you again, I appreciate it!

      Delete