Globe to Safford

Pretty mild ride with a few big climbs. Rode through an Indian reservation.

The wild flowers are really pretty.

Nick got us our first hosting through hot showers. Our host was named Jay and 83 years old. Still pretty active and cleaning up south eastern Arizona with an organization SEACAB https://sites.google.com/view/seazcab/

We stayed in his garage that reminded me a lot of my grandfathers garage.

Tonto Basin to Globe

Short day.

Started out with rolling hills and lots of good scenery over Teddy Roosevelt Lake.

Pretty big climb in the middle. I went too hard over it and my knee is sore now.

Camped for free at the community center in Globe. A softball and baseball game happened after we got there. Luckily no foul balls came our way.

Mesa to Tonto Basin

Started climbing pretty immediately out of Mesa. Seemed to be the local road riding route as there were a handful of cyclist out for a ride.

The scenery very quickly became beautiful. A lot of climbing this day. 6000 feet over the 75 miles we covered. I finally felt good on the bike. The climbs were long and steady so I could just get in my groove and spin.

The last several miles were mostly downhill which was awesome.

We stay at the Tonto Basin inn which was adequate and pretty cheap.

Trying to get better about taking pictures.

Got to sleep in and run some errands.

Then I got the call from Mike at Mike’s Bike Chalet https://www.mikesbikechalet.com that my new rim was in.

He was kind enough to let me use his truing stand to rebuild my wheel. Felt a bit rushed, I can and do build my own wheels but take my time doing it. Got it done with a little of chris’s help.

Rode to Rei to return some stuff and pick up some other things.

Then rode to Mesa to get a hotel. Pretty chill 40 mile day.

Aguila to Phoenix

We woke up to find what seemed to be a carnival of sorts getting setup in the park. The bounce house was half inflated by the time we left Aguila.

This day felt pretty good to me. We were out in the sun for a long time though. The original plan was to head to surprise but nick found out he had a friend to stay with in Phoenix so we pushed the extra 30ish miles to get there. Tensions and patience ran thin as we trudged towards Phoenix.

We got to nicks friend Laura’s house got to shower and had a pleasant night. There was a nice dog Jorge and cat Turkey.

Quartzsite to Aguila. Had to ride route 10 on the shoulder for a bit. Otherwise a pretty good ride. Called the library in Aguila to ask if we could sleep outside it. We were informed we could sleep in the park. There was no water available so we bought something at the convenience store and filled up our water in the bathroom.

Nick probably got sun poisoning so he passed out quick after dinner. Chris also passed out quickly after dinner.

Nice to wake up clean and showered. The day was pretty chill some headwinds and climbing but nothing crazy. As we were rolling in to Quartzsite I again relaxed too much and rolled off the road as we passed through a parking lot and took a tumble. A little road rash and I tore my panniers a bit but not a big deal. Luckily didn’t collect chris or nick with me.

Ended up staying at the b-10 rv Park which was only $10 for all of us which has been the cheapest place we’ve paid for. Got to shower two days in a row!

Rough night sleeping with chris in my tent while on the ground. Got packed up and mostly got the sand out of my things.

Rode through the dunes and got sand blasted as the wind blew. Each vehicle that passed also sprayed lots of sand on us. Saw a sand plow truck which was wild. I had no idea such a thing existed. Got to Glamis and luckily got a tip on a camping spot in Palo Verde.

We were shooting for Blythe but between the terrible headwinds and rolling hills along route 78 that wasn’t in the cards for us.

That was the hardest I’ve ever had to work to go such a short distance.

Luckily Palo Verde did have a nice RV Park with warm showers and laundry. My undercarriage greatly appreciated it.

Made it through the night with no mishaps despite really high winds. Luckily the restaurant in town was open early so we could use the bathroom. The owner was from Cleveland.

We took the highway to El Centro rather than the prescribed route because locals told us a bridge was out. I got a flat but made it to our exit. Stopped at the local bike shop and bought a new tire since I had needed to boot the holes in my tire with a dollar bill.

We then headed to brawley via 78. There was a stiff crosswind to brawley. We loaded up on food and headed to the desert. We camped in the Imperial Sand Dunes National Park. There was a tail wind to get there and the views were amazing. The wind was pretty mild by the time we went to bed.

In the middle of the night I noticed my face getting hit by fine sand coming through the mesh of my tent. I figured there was nothing to do so I went back to sleep.

I was awoken by a frantic Chris in the middle of the night. His tent got picked up by the winds which had picked up during the night and got flipped over with him in it. In my sleepy stupor I helped him gather up his things and stuff the into his panniers. It was only midnight and he now needed somewhere to sleep. So I deflated my sleeping pad and we squeezed into my one person tent.

When we woke up we were both covered in sand and my tent was full of it.