The mountains may kill me

Today was our 7rh straight day of riding, and thankfully it was our our last for this series, because tomorrow is a build day and a much needed break from cycling.
Today’s ride was another beautifully senic ride through the mountains of Arizona. It started off with a full 25 miles of climbing. We climbed something like 2500 feet before lunch. But the climbing really wasn’t bad today. The roads here are more gradual than the one we rode on back east, and after almost two months of daily riding we are a bit better prepared for a morning of climbing.
After lunch we really had some fun. We managed to descend almost 4000 feet after lunch. So we gave back every foot we climbed this morning and then some. Our first decent after lunch was a beautiful 9 miles with a 6 percent grade down through the mountains. As you can probably expect we all really enjoyed this. The only reason to pedal for the first 15 minutes after lunch was to see how quick you could get going down the hill. One of our leaders was able to reach a personal best of hitting over 50 mph on that hill. I didn’t go quite that fast, but I certainly did enjoy the ride.
I managed to get in to the host site fairly early today because it wasn’t a bad ride, and there weren’t alot of places to stop along the way. When I got in i met Karen, who is the director of the local Habitat affilate we will be building with tomorrow, and she gave me some great news. She had managed to get all of us in our group, day passes to Cottonwoods new recreation center. So I went and spent a few hours this afternoon relaxing, splitting my time between the indoor pool, the giant hot tub, and napping in a chair nextto the pool. I really can’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon. The jets of the hot tub were like tiny little midget hands massaging away all the miles we climbed this morning. It was glorious.
So now I’m sitting here waiting to get picked up from the rec center so I can get back for dinner which is being provided by the church we are staying at. Later this evening we are going to have a “star party” with Karen and her husband. Apprentally they are Into astronomy, because they are bringing out some of their telescopes and they are going to be shwing us all what we can see in the night sky out here in Az. Should be a good evning, and like I said tomorrow is a build day and a much deserved day off the bike.

Today’s ride turned out to be a great ride, though it certainly didn’t start out that way, not for me at least. I had a very rough start to my day this morning. It turns out that i throughly enjoyed prom last night. I may infact have enjoyed it a bit too much. As such even after almost 7 hours of sleep I was not feeling very motivated for today’s ride. However the unfortunateness that was my morning was not just field by my exuberance last night. It was also another cold overcast Arizona morning where I was expecting it to rain on me all morning. Oh yeah and seriously the first 20 miles this morning were all uphill. Despite all of hese forces working against me, I managed to grind through the first 20 miles of this morning and as a reward was granted beautiful views and riding for the rest of the day. Seriously after that first 20 miles the clouds started to part, the temperature started to rise to a managable level, and the road dropped over 2000 feet in elevation in rhe first six miles, and seemed to just keep dropping further after that.
So dspite a rough start, the day turned out beautifully. I managed to get into Payson early enough that I had time to go to DQ for a predinner snack before getting to our host site.
Besides that it wasn’t a very interesting evening. We are staying at a local Methodist church. Dinner was provided for us by the local Habitat affiliate who apprentally thought we were going to be a large motorcycle group until they showed up and saw bicycles lining the hall. Once we got that all straightened out they really seemed glad to hear about all the work we are doing, and I think they hope to get a group back here next year to actually do some work with them.
Tomorrow we head 70ish miles i think to Cottonwood Az. I don’t know anything about Cottonwood except that we are going to be building there which is really exciting because it means we are finally going to be done with our 7 day of cycling in a row and our butts will finally get just a little bit of much needed break. Woo

Arizona is a strange place, and nothing like I expected. All spring while I was training I was preparing myself for miserably hot flat barren desert. So far however I haven’t gotten any of that in Arizona.
Today it rained. I got rained on before lunch, and I got rained on after lunch. It was a cold rain as well. While riding today I read a sign on a bank saying it was 56 degrees, and that was in the later afternoon. I was seriously worried about frostbite. Which sounds rediculous considering I am riding through Arizona during the hottest part of the year.
Because of the weather today’s ride was a long one. We got on the road about 7:30, and I didn’t get into our site until after 5pm. I wasn’t riding that entire time though. I stopped to help fix two flats, one of which was less than 2 miles from the host site at the end of the day. I stopped for awhile in the morning to climb a rocky hill for awhile. I also stopped at least three times because of the rain. The longest stop was for the better part of an hour at Carl’s Livery. I had stopped at a church just a couple of miles up the road to try and let the rain pass, but as soon as I got on the road again the rain picked back up so I ducked into Carl’s. There weren’t all that many places to stop so I think I was eventually joined by 8 or 9 of the other riders all trying to get out of the rain.
The best suprize of the day came when I finally made it to the host site. We were staying at the local highschool but the locker rooms were under construction so we were actually not expecting showers for the first time on the trip. Our cue sheet this morning actually said we would be having hose showers at the school if anything. After freezing all day in the rain hosing myself down when I finally got to the school sounded like the worst idea ever. However when I finally got to the highschool I learned that they had actually found an rv park for us to get hot showers at. It seriously made my day, just to be able to warm myself back up to human temperature after spending the last few hours of the ride just miserably cold.
Also after dinner we had our bike prom inthe highschool’s gym. I was decked out in a tux that I picked up at a goodwill in Roswell. Most of the girls went for puffy 80′s prom dresses, though there was at least one figure skating looking unitard mixed in as well. It was a lot of fun, and I really think everyone got into it and had a good time even though we wrapped it all up by 11:00pm so we could get some sleep before having to ride our bikes again the next morning.
I’m sorry to say I don’t have any pictures of us in our prom attire. I didn’t think to have my phone on me at the time. You will just have to settle for a picture I took from the top of the hill I climbed before lunch. Enjoy.

We made it to Arizona today, so we only have two states left between us and calfornia.
Today started great. We didn’t have to get up until 7am this morning, which is actually a couple of hours after wenormally get up this means I actually got 8 hours of sleep for the first time in weeks. After we finally got up and had breakfast at the pie town community center, most of us went back to rhe daily pie cafe that was already closed when we got in the day before. I got a slice of the lemon icebox pie as a post breakfast snack. It was a fantastic way to start the day however it ment that I didn’t actually get around to riding my bike until after 10am this morning.
Once we did get around to riding it turned out to be a great morning ride because pie town is just over the continental divide it meant that we started the morning at top of a vary large hill. I think the first 20 miles may have been downhill. After those first 20 miles the weather took a bit of a downturn. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying not to get rained on. For the most part I was able to succeed in this goal. I had to ride through a little light rain for a few minutes until I was able to duck under a reststop shelter to let let the rain pass. All in all it wasn’t too bad considering how much rain there seemd to be in the sky around me all day.
Tonight we are staying in the 8th largest geodesic dome I. The united states. It is the stadium of the local highschool. It I’d bigger then the gym where I went to college. We are actually sharing the dome with some 200 highschool band kids so it’s a bit different the. Where we were staying last night where the town didn’t even have 200 residents.
Tomorrow is another 80 mile day of mountains in Az. Should be fun.

Today was the 2nd day in a 7 day ride series through new mexico and Arizona. We rode 75 miles today from the tiny town of carazozo to the slightly less tiny town of Socorro.today’s ride was similar to yesterday’s ride in a number of aspects, with the major exception of the 12 mile decent into the town at the end of the day. Even without an entry like that I continue to be impressed by the beauty of desolation of the landscape of the southwest. This is my first
Time visiting this part of the country, but it always seems as if I have been here before just because I continue to think that everything out here looks like a painting or a photo of thw wild west that I have seen before. Except in most of those painting, there tend to be more buffalo being chased by wild savages which unfortunately I have yet to see in my travels.
There is no longer any doubt that were ate i the mountsins now. Today’s ride was a series of long climbs followed by even longer descents, which isn’t a bad way to pass the time. Today’s ride didn’t offer as many opportunities for extra stops as yesterday’s ride, but the one bonus stop we did have was at a national Forrest which was the home of some ancient lava flows, they were interesting and very photogenic with the mountains in the background.
Tomorrow is some 85 miles of more climbing to reach pie town new Mexico. As you may expect I am really excited about getting some pie in pie town, and the great thing is that of 85 miles of climbing mountains on my bike I think I get toneat just about as much pie as I would like tomorrow without having to feel bad about any of it.

Today was a great riding day. We rode 91 miles into Carrizozo Nm, which may sound like a lot, but today really flew by. We started he morning in Roswell, and befoe we left the day was already off to a great start because we were treated to breakfast at a local diner. That was a first for us on this trip and we all really enjoyed it. I had he pancakes, and they were fantastic fuel for the rest of the day. Also this morning I got to ride around in he GTO that Rita was loaning out. It was only around the block while other were getting ready, but it was still fun.
We got into the mountains of Nm today. We climes from 3400ft this morning to about 7000 before we started our final descent into carrizozo. Even though we had a good about of climbing today it was all really gradual so it never really felt like that much work. In the end all that climbing paid off because the last 12 miles today into Carrizozo were all downhill. It was breathtaking to see the mountains all around us as we came into town. It has to be one of the best entrances into a town we have had so far.
Highlights of today include “finding” a rattle on the side of the road, outrunning the rain long enough to find shelter in Lincon, the smokey the bear museum we went to in capitan, and the views.
On a less positive note I had my first flat tire today. I think I may have been the last person in our group to get one, and I made it some 2700 miles without a flat, so I guess I can’t complain too much, but I was really begining to hope I could make it all the way to Cali without a flat.

The name of the game today was wind. We rode 92 miles today, but it seemed like a thousand because we were riding into a strong hot headwind the entire time.
Highlights include, the police escort out of Portalles, as well as the two abandoned buildings we stopped at for lunch.
Also today we celebrated “august fools day, to make up for the fact that we do not get the chance to celebrate April fools day on our trip. The day started out with a squit gun wakeup call, set to the James bond theme playing in the background. Then I zip-tied a half a dozen or so of the bags in the back of the trailer, so people would have to cut them apart or take them out as a whole group. Lastly I had a couple of cans of sillystring that I sprayed people with on the road. I wasn’t the only one playing jokes, but by first lunch I had a fairly large target on my back. Those who unloaded the trailer got me back. They emptied my bin, hiding my stuff in different places, and making me try to find it all scavanger hunt style. Then they filled my emptied bin with Gatorade. A bit harsh of a retaliation I thought, but I guess I had it comming.
After dinner a group of us went out stargazing. We drove half an hour out of the city to some state park where there wasn’t alot of light. It was amaizing how much more we could see out there. I wish I could bring this sky back to Charleston with me. It is one of the few things I think Charleston is missing.
Tomorrow is a build day which is fantastic because I don’t have to be on my bicycle seat.

Today we reached New Mexico. We rode 75 miles out of Texas into New Mexico. I’m really excited about New Mexico because it’s one of the states on the trip that I have never been to before.
The ride today was great. The pavement wasn’t trying to murder my butt all day, the winds seemed less brutal, the stench of feedlots bettered as we got further from Herford, and best of all I just slowed down and took me time. I had my morning snack at a doughnut shot on our route. I rode with a group of people in the back of the pack today and just enjoyed my time and co versations with them. As is now typical we made a number of additional stops including rhe best one of the day which was to see some people’s collection of old windmills. The dallies had been collecting old windmills for 25 years and had admassed over 80 different mills. Some were brightly painted other looked as if they had been abandoned for years. It was just interesting to see how much they cared for these. We actually knocked on their door and ms. Dallie gave us a private tour, pointing out some of her favorites and telling us about their history.
Dinner tonight was provided by a local church. The mayor of the town goes to that church, and not only came to dinner but also gave us an official proclimation proclaiming today to be bike & build day here. The church also had a few members play music for us, and we got up and sang with them after dinner. It was alot of fun and I think the church members really enjoyed it as well.
Now I’m off to bed, we are staying at a college tonight so I actually get a bed to sleep in which is exciting. Tomorrow is 92 miles into Roswell. Woot.

Hertcord was supposed to be a short 50 mile day. However there were opportunities for a couple detours that people could take along the way. The first optional detour was to the cadallic ranch. All it is, is a series of 10 or 12 cadallics that some rich guy burried half way into the ground with their trunks pointing towards the sky, that you are encouraged to spraypaint. It may not sound like much, but it was actually really cool. We got to take some great pictures, and we had fun spraypainting messages for different people. The detour itself was a bit of a challange to get to. We didn’t really have any real directions, just a couple of people telling us how we could get there, and it doesn’t have an address since it is just out in the middle of a field so we couldn’t even google it. However we managed to find our way there, and back onto our route without too much trouble or heartbreak.
The second detour was to the second largest canyon in America. I didn’t go tothat though because it was an additional 18 miles, we are goingto see the largest caynon in America in just a few weeks, and I really wanted to go to the cadallic ranch.
The ride itself turned out to be suprizingly difficult. It was short, but we started late, there was alot of wind to fight against, the pavement continued to hurt us. Alot of the ride into Hertford smelled bad be ause they are the beef capital of the world and all that beef comes from feed lots that smell just as bad as you think a herd of a few thousand cattle would.
Once we got in we showered had dinner, and then had our hoedown. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at the hoedown. The costumes were halarious. One of the guys shaved his beard into a handlebar moustache and massive chops. I was decked out in some great red whit and blue flannel as well as some jeans I cut into shorts. I also had one of the many large and legit cowboy hats. A number of people were in jean overalls. A few of our riders even managed to pick up cowboy boots at thrift stores along the way. Best of all Kristine was able to meet back up with us. It was great to get to ser her, and know she was ok.