Skip to main content

Day 7- Mesa AZ

 I woke up this morning with a swollen Frankenstein face going on. My eyes were almost swollen shut and I felt very congested. I was wondering if I would even be able to ride. Once I got up and started moving around and ate something everything started going back to normal. I’m not sure what it’s from but I’m glad it’s done. And no, there is no picture to go with this paragraph.

Today was a 75 miler with high traffic but relatively good roads. We got out of Gila Bend early. Truthfully I didn’t really feel like riding at all, so I had to come up with a strategy to get me through the day. I broke the day up into seven 10 mile rides. This meant  I stopped just about once an hour. I rode with Sue and we made good time and chatted about the problems of the world. You can rest comfortably that we have solved most of them.

One thing that stood out to me today is that there are huge cacti in Arizona. I did not expect them to be so tall. For reference in this photo, I am only 5’3.



We hit Maricopa for lunchtime and were glad to drop the bikes for a while. My seat is not comfortable. We’d written about 20 miles on route 238 with no shoulder and lots of traffic. Enough drivers were stupid to make it a little scary, and F bombs were dropped.


From Maricopa out to Mesa things lightened up and we thoroughly enjoyed the Chandler Paseo trail and the Heritage Trail which took us directly into Gilbert. Here’s where the wheels fell a bit off the bus. The directions told us to go right when we left the trail so we’d go through a little tourist area before making us go left towards the hotel suit. Sue and I got turned around and added a few miles. Hey — adventure cycling — how about NOT giving us a sightseeing tour at mile 70!

And now we are tucked into a Super8 that’s behind a car wash. It’s hot as hell, but the pool is green so it’s a no go .It’s more than a little sketchy. We took a look at the TripAdvisor reviews and the titles of the first three are:

Drug Palace

Don’t

Drug Den and Whore House.

We did see some interesting interesting characters, but truth be told we had a very good quiet nights sleep and enjoy the rest day for Day eight.


Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 2, 2022 at 5:42 PM

    Amazed at every blog post Lydia!!- Gari

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 2, 2022 at 8:04 PM

    You crack me up. You have such a way with words. You really paint a picture. I’m going to bed with a smile on my face. Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 3, 2022 at 4:55 AM

    Lydia, I also am inspired by how you took a big task and broke it down into small parts. That's the teacher in you coming out. Lastly, aren't' you taller than 5'3"? If not, you definitely present as taller. I love reading your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 3, 2022 at 7:02 PM

    Impressive Lydia! XOXO Pauline

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 53- Perry FL

 We had a very windy night which made for a great sleeping. I set an alarm for 1:00 AM so I could see the Artemis unmanned moon rocket launch, but when I got up I found it had been pushed back and well, 70 miles, so I chose sleep over history. It was gray when we got up, and gray as we headed out. And chilly! I wished I’d opted for leggings over my shorts but was happy to have gloves. Small victories.The temp said it was almost 60 – my body threw the BS flag. I was cold all day. Not much to say about this ride. We had a 20 mile bike path that took us off route 98 for a while. We met another Bike traveler named Tony who had been on the road since June 26.  He started in Connecticut and rode to Indianapolis, then back towards Pittsburgh where he rode the trails to DC. He then went to Key West and is now on his way to New Orleans. We asked questions about his gear (there wasn’t much!) and traded a few stories and wished each other well. We got off the trail and crossed the St Mar...
3 comments
Read more

Day 58- St.Augustine FL

 To our utter surprise we woke up to dry skies with the sun peeking through the clouds. No rain in the forecast — what a gift! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and set off around 9 o’clock. Family and friends had been given an arrival time between 1130 and 12 so the pace was leisurely.  We rode mainly bike paths. No spectacular scenery, just quiet miles with lots of introspection. As we neared Saint Augustine I started to feel the excitement grow. I was ready for the ride to be done, to see Greg and Gemma and the rest that would be there to join me. It wasn’t quite time to stop paying attention, however, because our route took us right through downtown Saint Augustine’s narrow streets and traffic was both heavy and unforgiving. It wasn’t till I turned into the state park that I got a little emotional. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the realization that this adventure is truly over. I rode in and spotted Greg’s truck right away - and next saw Sarah and Walt and Gemma...
5 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