We woke up at 4:30 (groan!). Klaus noticed his tire was flat so he spent a few minutes repairing it. He's become very fast at repairs over the years.
After stopping at Circle K we left town a few minutes after 6:00.
We had a nice downhill ride for a while but the headwind evened things out.
The sun rose slowly and shone on the red rocks and hills. The harsh, rugged landscape looked simultaneously inhospitable and alluring. It was quite an impressive sight.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
Because of the wind, we took turns drafting, switching after doing one mile each. In addition to being tall (about 6' 2"), Klaus has a big bike (31 pounds) and carries a lot of equipment (90 pounds plus another few pounds of water).
What that means is that drafting behind him is like sitting on a stationary bicycle in your living room. When I say sitting, I mean SITTING - I didn't even have to pedal a lot of the time, and spent my time trying to figure out how to attach a small DVD player to the back of his bike. I don't think he would've noticed the extra weight.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
Oh, and YES, that IS a carton of milk.
Unfortunately for him, drafting behind me is like trying to protect yourself from Hurricane Ike by holding up some dental floss.
We stopped only briefly along the way, to eat an apple, to switch our empty water bottles for our full ones, and to snack on a Clif bar. We made good time.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
Thirty one miles later we arrived in Surprise (which, of course, elicited more jokes), a town on the outskirts of Phoenix, at 8:30.
Klaus LOVES Starbucks, and even has them programmed into his iPhone so he'll know where they are along our route. It was just starting to get hot so we stopped for a cool drink.
Bigger cities can be a real problem when you're used to smaller ones. Normally, when we stop someplace we can see the City Limits signs on both ends of town. Now, having "arrived" in Phoenix, we felt a sense of completion. Unfortunately, we still had thirty five miles to go. And that's CITY riding, which means stopping at every traffic light. Of course, we still had our headwind, only it was a little stronger now.
The heat and wind prevented us from arriving at our destination by noon, our original goal, so we stopped at Wendy's for lunch.
Eventually, after a couple of miscues on the directions, we made it to our stop for the next two nights. A friend of mine, Dave Nutz, lives in Scottsdale, which is a suburb of Phoenix. He was nice enough to offer me his extra bedroom when he found out I was going to be in the area.
Actually, that would be me AND a total stranger.
The three of us, plus another friend, Mike Gruba, went out for Chinese food at Flo's.
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| From mark on a bike 08 |
During my training, even before the start of the actual bike trip, one side of my right index finger has been going numb. Over the course of my trip the numbness has been getting worse, and has by now extended up to my knuckle. Because Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is so common in bikers, I assumed that's what was wrong.
Dave is a doctor and, after only minimal whining on my part, he took a look at it. In about fifteen seconds he determined what was REALLY wrong with it. There's a nerve in each finger that splits at about the knuckle and I had been compressing it while riding.
There are a lot of things I need to get done during my day off tomorrow, so I called a few places about renting a car. When I looked in the Yellow Pages I found that the Scottsdale airport (just around the corner) rents cars so I reserved one. I was told they're open until 10:00.
On the way back from supper Dave dropped me off at the airport. When I entered the building I walked into a starkly empty airport. My footsteps echoed on the shiny tile floor. Fortunately, Dave had waited outside. We went back to his place and I started the process over. The only place to rent a car after 5:00 is at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, so Dave drove me all the way to THAT airport, which took an additional forty minutes each way.
Sky Harbor Airport is like a giant black hole. When we were trying to leave, it kept sucking us back in. After several attempts, we finally extricated ourselves and headed back to his place.
Tomorrow is a rest day and I'm looking forward to sleeping late.
66.081 miles
60.2 max
12.0 avg
5:29:20 time
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