Data: 115.4 miles Riding time 6:34 (17.5 mph avg)
What can I say? Another great day! It was relatively flat, although there were some long gradual grades uphill. We all seemed to be "recovering" today (riding a little slower), because tomorrow is supposed to have tons of hills - 9,000 ft of total climbing. By the way, my solution to sleeping better seemed to have worked, so I repeated with my beer this evening.
It was nice and toasty as we left Blythe at 7 am (70 degrees), so no need to wear any sort of cold-weather clothing (we wore some stuff on the other mornings that we then took off early in the day). Here I am leaving Blythe, after everyone else.
As soon as we crossed the Colorado River at mile 5, the terrain got much more interesting. The hills were those kinds that you see near the Grand Canyon -- mesas rising right out of the desert. And, no Seguro cacti on the California side, but immediately in AZ, they were everywhere. It looked like a Disney set. I love this picture of "the road ahead" as we pedaled into Arizona this morning.
Eventually we passed by this really pretty area, and exited Interstate 10 and took a lonely road neaded northeast. It began to look more like yesterday when we crossed the CA desert, except this time there were "settlements", like RV parks, old desert homes, junk yards, Twilight Zone motels, "old west" saloons, 1940s cars buried in sand drifts, and cow skulls as ornaments. We passed through the tiny town of Hope, and here is Jerry posing at the funny sign. (Hope is also the name of my roommate Phil's wife.)
Today's scenery was really spread out. It got into the 90s, but being from So CA, it didn't seem too hot. Those from colder climates kept commenting about the temperature. Here's a couple of us rolling across the desert.
At the final rest stop, we had a real treat! A guy who went on this ride a few years ago and now lives in Phoenix, about an hour away, drove to this small town along our way and brought us some foods and drinks that he knows riders love but that the tour company doesn't provide -- fresh melons and mango, fresh strawberries, shrimp, soda pop, donuts, and choc chip cookies. I doubt we'll ever see that again. What we normally get is still pretty good - bananas, oranges, granola bars, peanuts, raisins, pretzels - I forget what else. At the lunch stop they have stuff to make sandwiches or bean burritos.
Wickenburg is a real Arizona western town. Again, it looks like a Disney set for the old west. Tomorrow morning, for the first time, we won't eat at Denny's. Interestingly, our motel has a loud peacock. He likes to make himself heard. I now have my two permanent roommates! One is Kasper Bijlsma from Holland, and the other is Phil Anderson from MN. Kasper is a very fast rider, that's for sure.
This morning, our tour leader had days 0 and 1 uploaded, so there is something there to go see on his website: http://www.bamacyclist.com/Journal2007/Fast07/07fast.htm. We all can't wait to see what he says each day (and see if we get made fun of).
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