Skip to main content

Day 6- Gila Bend AZ

 


The trains did not bother me last night, nor did I hear the man wandering through our campsite or the couple fighting early this morning. Exhaustion and earplugs are a great combination.


I headed out around 7 o’clock with Sue and Ann after a pitstop at the travel center. It’s a short ride today, just 50 miles, but I needed a break. We rode to “Conde’s In the middle of nowhere” gas station (that’s the real name!) for the first rest stop, but not before and encountering a dead rattlesnake in the road. I had to check out the rattles. They are as advertised. In a conversation with Ankur it appears he and Jack encountered a live one as well coiled and rattling I would’ve liked to have seen that!

The ride remained relatively easy, flat, without much wind. Ankur and I both laughed out loud as we cruise past a large anatomically correct sex toy in the shoulder of the road. We’d love to know how it got there. Lunch with spent at an underpass and we enjoyed the shade.



I felt the need for some alone time after lunch it’s generally a time when it’s hard for me to get going again and it’s not a time when I am terribly good at conversation. I set off on my own and played the alphabet but game: what can I find that starts with a? And made it all the way through to Z, deciding that Z was my Zen.


We bunked down for the night in the GILA Bend high school gym. We enjoyed 30 minutes of stretching yoga. After dinner I taught Ankur how to play gin rummy. He says I hustled him. I say it was a learning experience.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 3, 2022 at 6:57 PM

    Oops. I missed this one. I love how you say 50 my miles was a short ride. I just felt good that I did 30 minutes on my stationary bike. Oh well your 50 miles equals my 30 minutes, however far that was. Debbie

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1- Ocean Beach to Alpine

 Day 1 is in the books! Great day that started at Dog  Beach and a back wheel dip in the Pacific. Tad, Kathy, and Charlotte met me down there. It was great to see them as we headed out. The ride was flat for the first 25 miles or so, but hot! Temps were in the 90s with blazing sun and clear blue skies. We separated out early into smaller groups. I found good peddling with Sue and Ann. We also crossed paths with Adam and Kelly, the tandem riders. Our route took us to through Mission Gorge regional park which was absolutely gorgeous. A nice pass that cut through the mountains and made it possible for us to miss an incredible climb. No worries; there are plenty more ahead of us. At 30 miles we made sure we were fully loaded with water and electrolytes. I’m not sure if I’ve ever consumed this much fluid in a single day. Then the climb began. On the map it looked evil, almost straight up. In reality it was less steep than it was long. It was 6 miles at about three or 4% grade. It d...
7 comments
Read more

Day 45- Poplarville MS- Rest Day

 Today was our first day of rest after 12 days of riding, so of course I woke up at 1:30 AM. I was absolutely sure it was 6:30 AM and I was ready for the day. I love all these perks of getting older. As luck would have it, there was a lunar eclipse starting right around this time.  I was, of course, wide awake for it. I peeked out of the tent, took a look at the moon,  read for a while, peeked at the moon again, and decided I was hungry. I snuck out to my bike to grab a bar, there being no milk and cookies readily available like there are when this happens at home. I finally called it a night again around three. 630 finally came around for real and I was ready. The Snowflake Donut and Taco store. Beckoned and a bunch of us that off for coffee. The tacos looked pretty good but I held out for brunch back at the campground. After brunch, most of us loaded into the van and headed into New Orleans. We parked in the French quarter and headed right to café Dumond, will became im...
3 comments
Read more

Day 46- Gautier MS

It was a perfect day for an 80 mile ride. We got up really early, planning to get on the road quickly since it was going to be dark by five and we had so far to go. This was no mean feet for me as sleep was hard to come by last night. My bladder woke me at one and four, at which time I was treated to Matt singing the song of his people. And I didn’t need my alarm because the water dripping from the condensation On my tent onto my face was hard to sleep through. Kelly and Adam were on the road by 615. We followed far behind, rolling out an hour later. The roads were awesome right from the beginning. Great pavement and low traffic throughout. Mississippi offered up some treats and some oddities. The first was as we headed into McHenry. On a one and a half mile stretch of road, I counted eight old fire hydrants. And hardly any houses. This roused my curiosity. I passed a man walking a dog and asked him about it. He looked exactly like I expected a rural Mississippian to look, except the d...
1 comment
Read more