Mar 17, 2014

Day 11: March 16, Globe to Safford

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The local coffee shop, rated 5 stars, in Globe said it opened at 6:30. So we rolled out of camp in the cold temperatures with that in mind, only to find that it (along with so many other useful things) is closed on Sunday. BUMMER. So instead we settled in for another gourmet breakfast in the Safeway grocery store parking lot.

For whatever reason, probably having to do with being tired from the big day the day before, this day was a challenge. Some days you have it, some you don’t, and this day we were both struggling a bit. There wasn’t too much in the way of climbing, and there was a steady but not-too-strong headwind, but it took us forever to go the 81 miles this day had in store. Long stretches of monotonous Arizona desert, punctuated with the occasional field of cactus and mountain view was about all we saw this day.

Most of the route had us going through an Apache Native American reservation. We had two hilarious encounters:

At an early rest stop, a heavyset Apache man came over and introduced himself as Kevin, asked us where we were headed, etc. Then he said “well, you know, you better watch out on the roads today, because tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and a lot of drivers will have been drinking. They could clip you out there!” And we thought, who knew that St. Patty’s was such a big holiday for the Apaches! And also by “clip us”, do you mean “run us over?” Then, he continued, “wow, New York City! When you get there tell all your friends you met a real Apache. We’re still here, we didn’t all die!” We told him we’d pass along his information, which I guess that’s what I’m doing now.

A little while later we pulled over on the side of the road for a water break, and we saw/heard a man who was clearly WASTED stumbling up behind us. He got 2 feet away from us, asked for a ride to the top of the hill (we said no), told us we were beautiful girls, with beautiful bikes, and as we bike away he told us we had beautiful butts too. A real triple-decker of compliments.

We huffed and puffed our way into Safford, AZ, a bigger town in eastern Arizona. In Safford we had set up our first ever Warm Showers experience, with a man named Mons who is all the rage on the bike touring blogs we’ve been reading. It was exactly as good as we had read. Mons was away on a camping trip, but his 19 year old son greeted us and showed us to the grandparent’s house, where a crew of 4 other bike tourists were also staying. We’re talking old school, rural Arizona experience. The entire place was covered in floral furniture, and the grandparent couple had been married 64 years and lived in Safford their whole lives. Grandma Joyce made us all a dinner of corned beef, potatoes, polenta, sour cream, buttery beans, and canned cabbage. We soon realized they’re Mormons, which is only notable because one of the other bikers had gotten there and cracked himself a Corona beer (apparently he didn’t get the Mormon memo of no alcohol). They were incredibly welcoming and hospitable, and since they’re frequent Warm Showers hosts they knew exactly what us tired bikers wanted and needed. The 19 year old son, Kyle, then put us to work putting together 2,000 Boy Scouts triathalon race packets – apparently all the bikers coming through these days get to be a part of that effort. A small price to pay in exchange for a warm meal! Then Joyce made us all flax-whole wheat – oatmeal – quinoa waffles this morning, complete with strawberry sauce (“I take the strawberry snow cone syrup and throw in a few real strawberries”) and whipped cream.

 

Mar 17, 2014

Day 10: March 15, Tempe to Globe

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The rest of our stay in Tempe was just lovely. We went to REI to re-up on some biking gear, including doing some serious upgrading to our safety accessories.

We also had a lovely evening get-together with an old friend of Concerned Mother #1, Karen Smith, who took us out for the classiest evening we’ve had so far. It’s refreshing to talk to someone who doesn’t live on a bike!

The next morning we reluctantly packed up and out of our hotel and got back on the road. After crushing another generous portion of the hotel breakfast (buffets are my new favorite thing) we headed east out of Tempe, which turns out goes on FOREVER. Urban sprawl at it’s finest. We thought we only had a handful of miles until we got out on the open road, but oh no, 30 miles of stoplights and residential neighborhoods later we finally cleared the Phoenix/Tempe area.

On our map it said to follow Route 60 for quite a ways, and we figured that, like a lot of other local highways, it would be a narrow road with cars whipping by. Instead we found miles and miiiiiiles of a stop and go traffic jam, which meant that we got to pleasantly cruise by faster than the cars, which always gives us a nice satisfying boost. We finally figured out the cause for the traffic (which literally lasted, bumper to bumper, for 10 miles): The Renaissance Fair. Seriously.

We continued on and before too long got to a small town called Superior, where we rested, hydrated and had a snack. We knew the next portion of the day was going to be a wicked uphill climb, but we had NO idea what was in store for us.

In general the maps we’re using, from the Adventure Cycling Association, do a pretty good job of guiding us on roads that are relatively safe and less traveled. This was not the case going east out of Superior. In addition to a grueling upward slope, this stretch of road was filled with hairpin turns, blind corners, and about 15 miles of a 2 lane highway that had a large population of 18-wheelers, trailers and other totally terrifying vehicles. The stretch was highlighted by a 2-lane bridge at one point, with a low guard rail and steep drop, and soon thereafter  a tunnel, also two lanes, where we got off our bikes and walked on the 10-inch platform while pushing our bikes through the glass covered mini shoulder, as cars whizzed by. We actually tried to hitch hike at one point, asking an elderly couple if they would let us put our bikes into their RV until we got to safer roads, but they were unfortunately going the wrong direction.

We were so concentrated on staying out of the road that the 5,000 feet of climbing didn’t seem so bad. Well, that maybe isn’t totally true, but it paled in comparison. We did eventually make it to the top, in fact there’s a sign for “The Top Of The World” that we got to with a beef jerky stand (we went ahead and did that), and then got to go downhill for a while. We wound up in Globe, Arizona, shortly before dark. Upon arrival to the local RV Park, we found no bathroom/shower and just a port-o-potty. Seeking something better than that, the proprietor of the park let us use the shower her house, which was amazing and completely awesome of her. We were so tired from the day we barely spoke as we crammed some PB&honey sandwiches, got in our tent at 8:45pm and woke up 9 hours later.

 

 

 

 

Mar 14, 2014

Day 9: March 13, Wickenburg to Tempe

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We were PSYCHED to get to Tempe, because it meant both that we had a hotel to stay in and because we were going to stay put for two nights. It’s really very fun to go all these places, meet all these people, etc., but relaxing for a day? That’s something that tops it all. So with that thought in our minds, we got up and out of camp early in Wickenburg, got to the local coffee shop by 7:15 and scarfed down some sustenance (caffeine), and hit the road. We even had… get this… a tail wind for the first few miles. But, needless to say, before long we had another head wind in our faces, and the fact that we had 70+ miles to go started to sink in.

We hustled to a gas station 20 miles in so we could have some breakfast. But we had places to be, so shortly thereafter got back on the road. Once we hit the Phoenix suburbs, signs of older-folks-golf-land started popping up more and more. The best sign we saw, for a retirement community / golf course, said “More fun than the grandkids!” But really we just peddled down Route 60, past miles and miles of strip malls, fast food chains and big box stores, trying to hustle to our much-anticipated hotel.

Once off the highway, we went through several more retirement communities, through a park or two, along a bike path that kept us next to a “canal” (dry as a bone) and over some “rivers” (also dry as a bone), through millions of stop lights and suburban plazas, and finally through Arizona State University campus and up to our hotel, so exquisitely chosen by Concerned Mother #1.

We showered, dressed like regular people, found the Four Peaks Brewing Company, had ourselves an evening, slept in a real bed, and didn’t have to go anywhere this morning. It’s only been 9 days on the road, but MAN does it feel like longer.

This morning we went down to the hotel breakfast… twice, each time loading up with as much as we could carry. When we’re on the road, really all we do is bike and eat, so that we can keep on biking. So we’re using today as a day to store up on all kinds of nutrients that we can’t find easily on the road. Also less interesting things like going to REI to get some missing equipment, most notably mirrors for our bikes and really bright rear red lights. That plus coffee, a treat or two, a chocolate bar, and whatever else we can find in Tempe, this place isn’t bad!

 

Mar 14, 2014

Day 8: March 12, Hope to Wickenburg

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This day was going to be a shorter one (by that I mean only 70 miles, who have we become?) so we took our first slow morning. We didn’t wake up to an alarm, we luxuriously lounged in our tent (our perspectives have become skewed) – well actually, Madeleine’s air matress has developed a not-very-slow leak, so she luxuriated on the ground.

The day of riding wasn’t too challenging, except for the noticeable headwind which has become our regrettable and constant companion. The highlight of the day was lunch at a place called Coyote Flats, which is the only place besides a gas station to eat in 50 miles. We figured it would be another exceptional diner experience, which in some ways I guess it was. We walked in and found several tables of men clad in cowboy hats, boots with spurs and mustaches, and got ourselves a booth. I ordered coffee, water and an orange juice, the last of which came in a hilariously portioned cup.

Continuing our discovery of the food desert that exists in this area, we both did our best with menu options but wound up with greasy sandwiches, neither of which were quite what we ordered. Ah well, we were hungry.

We met a few more characters along the route, a group of 4 older guys who had found each other and become a unit. We asked if they were headed to the same RV Park / Campground as we were, and they laughed and said “well we haven’t been doing much camping”. About 70 miles later we found Wickenburg, a town of about 6,500 that was the most built up town we had seen in days. It had a big grocery store, a little historic downtown area, a couple bars and a few restaurants. The options were exciting so we checked into our RV Park, put on real people clothes (i.e. not head-to-toe spandex), and got ourselves a beer and some Mexican food. It was all very exciting.

 

 

 

 

Mar 14, 2014

Day 6: March 10, Ocotillo to Palo Verde

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We awoke at the Ocotillo Community Center feeling a little lead-legged but replenished, meanwhile we wondered how Frankie was alive after his dinner of a bag of Cheetos and a Frapachino. We got out on the road early because, due to the scarcity of civilization in that area of California, we either had the option of going 40 miles or over 100 miles. So we figured we’d do 40 miles and see how we felt.

We passed an enormous cattle feed lot, which was slightly disconcerting, and very little else. 40 miles later we rolled into Brawley, which somehow had a population of over 24,000 people but no more than 8 of them were visible at any one time. The town is sprawling. We found an amazing little cafe, where all the waitresses had Bible quotes on the back of their t-shirts, where we ingested vegetables for the first time in days and stored up on lots of healthy calories. We would have considered staying there, with the next 65 miles seeming a little daunting with the sun beating down, but there was literally nothing to do so we decided to keep on trucking.

There was nothing but long, straight, flat or slightly uphill roads ahead of us, not a gas station or or rest stop, but ahead in the distance I saw what looked like a big pile of sand.

By 50 miles, the sand piles appeared closer but it was hot as hell and we started to need more water. By 60 miles, we were in the middle of the sand dunes and had found a string of trailers about 100 yards into the sand, which sold us water for $8. By 70 miles, we were feeling motivated. By 80 miles, we were proud that we had already biked further than we ever had before. By 85 miles we wolfed down some more calories in the shade a some desert tree (the only one we’d seen in a while). By 90 miles we were very sick of being on our bikes, and finishing the last uphill portion of the day. By 100 miles, we were squinting trying to see ahead to where our destination would soon appear. By 105 miles, we found the RV Park where we were headed, fell off our bikes, realized the only convenience store in town (which consisted of the RV Park and the one convenience store) had closed two minutes earlier, went and sweet talked the lady into letting us buy some things, made the inexplicable decision to make two cans of baked beans and pretzels for dinner, got chased by geese, watched Frankie eat Ramen with measuring half-cup, and passed out hard for the night.