We made it to Apache Junction, but it was a long day. I awoke at 3:30 a.m. in order to pick up Brian and get to the airport in time for our 6:50 a.m. flight to Phoenix. The flight was fine, and we actually arrived ahead of schedule and had to wait for a gate in order to deplane. Our bags were the first ones off the conveyor belt—I hope we don’t have to pay karma back and wait forever when we get back to Philadelphia. Beth picked us up, and we were promptly back at the Marriott in Tempe (where we ended our trip last year) by 10:30 AM. I had my Bike Friday assembled and I was ready to ride in no time, but Brian had lots of trouble with his cable couplers, and he had to drop the bike off at a bike shop in Tempe. We ate a nice lunch and were riding by 2:00 p.m. Today’s ride was mostly in congested, suburban-type neighborhoods with lots of traffic stops and school dismissals (oof), but we arrived at the Best Western in Apache Junction by 4:30. Tomorrow will be a much harder ride to Globe—we will climb about 4000 feet over 55 miles.

Well my bike is ready to ride!

Bike shop to the rescue! Just had the front cable to the rear derailleur and rear cable to the front but everything else was right!

Pit stop on the way to Apache Junction around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Nice motel! Almost rode right past it!

Waiting for Beth to give us room keys.

Can’t finish a ride without a few Fat Tires.

Hard to believe we are a month away from this year’s ride from Phoenix to El Paso. Overall, I would say it has been a good year. I’ve actually been back to Arizona twice since last March. Holly and I visited White Stallion Ranch in May and again in December. It is a dude ranch outside of Tucson. Great place for a vacation.

Great desert and mountain view

Holly riding in the desert

Tim, Brian, and I tried to ride as much as possible over the summer. Here are some photos of a few of those rides.

It was a very hot and humid Sunday morning.

Matt, Tim, Brian and Chris

A covered bridge somewhere in Delaware.

One of the many horse farms along one of our favorite routes

“You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes — that means your preparation. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out under the bright lights.” — Joe Frazier

Having this big ride keeps me focused. I have an almost 60-year-old body but the spirit of a little boy. In order to make the two coexist, I have to keep the body in shape so the spirit can play. Therefore, I’m always in training mode, and have been all year. Tim and Brian are the same, I’m sure. We still ride together on the weekends, weather and time permitting.

Most days, I spend 30-60 minutes on my inside training bike with my iPod and a book to fight the boredom. Then I walk my dogs for 45 minutes. I lift weights a few times a week as well. You gotta do the early morning roadwork!

This song was on more than a few of my playlists:

I am really looking forward to this year’s trip. It is fun to do normal everyday things in unfamiliar settings. Last year Beth and I made dinner in a small kitchenette at the Westward Motel in Salome, AZ, for example. (Tim and Brian, you are welcome.) Talking to strangers at rest stops, finding loose change on the street, drinking a few beers at the end of the day…these are the little things that I remember fondly. I am hoping that this year I will conquer the New Mexico mountains while letting my inner boy escape to have as much fun as possible.

70 miles (113 km) – Total so far: 582 miles (937 km)

Let’s have some lists about the 7 days of riding:

Road kill – Hardly any seen. Two young Coyotes, a rodent and one sparrow. The western squirrels must be more car savvy than their eastern cousins.

Number of times I had buzzards circling waiting for me to drop – I’ll not say

Number of flats – zero, zilch, nada. Can you believe none of us had a flat?

Number of days with headwinds – 2 and a half. The first day from Alpine to Pine Valley. On the second day, on the way to El Centro, every time we had a climb there were 30 mph winds in our face. We had a lot of climbs that day, too. And on the ride to Salome, we had a climb with a headwind right before we hit the desert.

Number of days with a tailwind – 2 and a half. And they were either flat days or downhill days and it was marvelous.

Number of days without good home cooking – too many

Number of days without TV – 8 and counting

Best road surface – Rt 60 for the first 19 miles East of Wickenburg. It’s brand new with a nice, wide shoulder.

Worst road surface – Hwy 80 in CA for 20 miles between Ocotillo and Seely. The surface between Ocotillo and Plaster City is downright bone rattling.

Weirdest trash sighting – one brand new sexy, high heel shoe.

Weirdest tan line – the little tan ovals on the back of my hands where the Velcro openings are. Also my right elbow is tan and my left inside forearm is tan. Weird.

Amount of money found and picked up the highway – 15 cents. When I get to $1 I will buy a lottery ticket and win $1,000,000

Amount of money seen and unable to pocket – 12 cents

Equipment we need for next year – one new neon green wind breaker for me. My old orange one has no zipper. one set of Campy Record training wheels for Brian. Maybe a Brooks B – 17, also.

Number of bugs I ate – just one and it was in the desert where everyone knows there are no bugs.

Best song I had stuck in my head – “Singing in the Rain”

Worst song – the iPhone Marimba.

Enough lists. The trip is at an end and I have mixed feelings. I will miss the challenge. It was a feat. I am proud. We were lucky. No one had any mishaps. Weather was perfect. It went by quickly but it seems ages ago that we left San Diego. Time goes by very slowly when you are traveling on a bike. The days seem to fly by, but when all you can monitor for progress is an odometer, time almost stops.

There is no room for contemplation riding a bike. I had no deep thoughts and I solved none of the world’s problems. You just can’t zone out. There are things ahead, around and behind that require constant attention. You get mentally and physically drained by the end of a long ride.

As far as today’s ride is concerned, I loved the Arizona Canal system. It was safe. But nothing is signed. Not the name of the canal you are riding nor any streets you go under or over. You just can’t tell where you are at any time. It took 3 of us to navigate. Tim had the paper maps. Brian had the Google bike map listed street directions on his phone. I had a Google bike map with the locator pins. It was longer than the surface streets would have been but safer so worth it.

Big breakfast in Wickenburg to start the day right

Nice! Right out of Wickenburg on Rt 60

I think this is a fence made with ocotillo branches. Taken at our 10 miles, 2 minute rest stop. Still on Rt 60 East.

Another desert vista

And another

And another.

Finally off busy Rt. 60 and onto the Arizona Canal Trail system. We entered at 99th St. It was safe but slow going from here on.

An underpass on the trail. No signage to indicate where we were or what trail we were on even.

We did have to cross the street to continue on the trail sometimes. I think this might be near Dunlap St.

The Wrigley Mansion. This was our final pit stop for the journey.

Lots of random things are running through my head today, such as “Americans throw a lot of stuff away.” When riding a bicycle on an Interstate, you see things from a different perspective. Today we rode on I-10 from the border of California for 31 miles into Arizona (on The Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway). On both sides of the road, there are beautiful wildflowers in bloom this time of year and when you look ahead, there are yellows and pinks and tiny blue flowers in blossom. But when you turn and look to your right side, and focus just a few feet in front, there is an incredible array of trash. Rubber pieces, metal parts, nuts, bolts, screws, T-shirts, shoes, Astro-turf, car floor mats, and all manner of fast food wrappers and containers. Its everywhere. As nice as it is to ride a nice straight, smooth, gently graded path, after a while, the noise of the trucks and trash gets to you. I was glad to exit and get on Highway 60.

Another random musing: What would it have been like for my grandmother in 1936 when she traveled coast to coast by car before the Interstate system? Was she seeing things in a similar way as we are by bike? She wasn’t going 75 mph and cars weren’t air conditioned. And there were no rest stops so she was stopping in small, out-of-the-way towns like we are, meeting and talking to strangers. We talk to strangers all the time. People who would never even notice us except for the fact that we are on bikes. (It almost makes people ask, “Wow, where are you going and where did you come from?” One gentleman at a rest stop on I-10 we met looked so envious as we described our journey, I felt bad for him, especially when his wife yelled at him to come and open the car door.) I think my grandmother might have had similar experiences.

Anyway, today’s ride was so nice: we had tailwinds. Big tailwinds, 30 mph tailwinds. Finally! At one point I was going 22 mph and there was absolutely no sound or wind on my face. I was going exactly the same speed as the air around me and it was marvelous. Indescribable. Nothing hurt and life is good.

We are staying in the most fantastic motel. The Westward Motel has 4 rooms and we got ’em all. We sat outside and had another beer, cheese and cracker picnic. Then we made a big salad and pasta dinner in the kitchen and had a great state border crossing party. Two bottles of wine and 3 six packs are gone.

Here are today’s pictures.

First border crossing

The bridge over The Colorado into Arizona

The river is beautiful

Tim working on his gears at a rest stop. He didn't fix a thing but looked busy and knowledgable, didn't he!

Brian is in love with cacti plants.

This one and the next one are typical of what we saw today.

Downtown Quartzsite

Snowbird RV Resorts are everywhere around here

Damn you, autocorrect!

This is big sky country!

Best dinner yet.

89 miles (143 km) – Total so far: 232 miles (373 km)

I have to be honest, Beth was right. Last night’s motel was lousy. The ACA maps don’t list the brand new Best Western in Brawley, but if you are riding The Southern Tier and need a place to stay, go there. You’ve been warned.

We knew that today’s ride would be a long one and we left Brawley at 7:05 a.m. It was cold for the first hour but we warmed up quickly. From Brawley to Blythe, the road is flat, through farmland on both sides of Rt. 78 for the first 20 miles or so. Then the road goes through the dunes and up and over the Chocolate Mountains. The last 30 miles are flat again with agriculture on both side of the road. It was amazing how similar the scenery was on both ends of the ride; flat green fields with mountains on all horizons. The big difference was the road surface. When you leave Imperial County and enter Riverside County, the road becomes beautiful new asphalt. The road for the most part today was fine. For long stretches, the main highway had a chip seal surface, but there was about a two-foot strip at the side of the shoulder of older, smoother asphalt that we rode on. At times when the shoulder was absent, we rode on the white highway line to try for a less bumpy ride.

We stopped every 10 to 15 miles for short breaks; it seemed to help our stamina. We did not have a sit-down lunch today, there literally was nothing open until we reached Blythe. Glamis was closed. Palo Verde was closed. Ripely, believe it or not, was closed!

Beth stayed in Brawley until check out and then drove until she spotted us. She refilled our water/Gatorade bottles and provided Cliff bars, bananas and such. The temp today reached 84 and for most of the ride, the wind wasn’t a factor. We did have a bit of wind climbing the Chocolate Mountains, but not too bad.

We reached Blythe around 3:30 p.m. and went to the address for the Comfort Suite Inn listed on the ACA maps only to find out that the motel is now in a new location. What’s a day without a little detour? I should have verified the address on Google.

Tomorrow we cross the Colorado and enter Arizona.

Brian had to stop and tie his shoe and really upset these barnyard dogs

This is the end of the irrigation canal. The desert began immediately.

The start of the Dunes. Thank goodness it wasn't on the weekend or traffic would have been heavy. We only heard a few dune buggies. Didn't see any.

The beginning of the climb out of the Yuma Desert.

It got hot fast. Every layer came off at once.

My mother would have loved these "Chocolate Mountains."

I had to get in at least one photo!

Beth saved our lives. What a great Soccer mom!

We met Jack Watson along the way. He's camping out and going to Florida. He left on March 1.

What a good looking guy.

15 miles (24 km) – Total so far: 143 miles (230 km)

Today our check out was at noon, and we were out by 12:30. El Centro is bigger than I had thought, and we are 3 or 4 miles from the ACA actual route. We didn’t get to the Fairfield Inn last night until almost full dark. This morning, Brian googled a bicycle route from our hotel to Brawley and it was a straight, 15-mile shot parallel to Austin Road — the ACA road. It was a smooth asphalt road without a shoulder, but on a Sunday afternoon there wasn’t any traffic, so we were fine. It felt so good to ride fast with no wind or hills to climb. We flew! We would have made it in an hour if Brian hadn’t seen a sign saying “Get rid of Obama and Brown.” So we stopped (some of our dismounts were more graceful than others, ahem, Brian. Think about that guy on the tricycle from the old “Laugh In” show).

Tonight we are in a pretty run-down motel in small-town America, but the weather is perfect. Beth had a leftover taco that I ate for lunch at 2 p.m. Brian and Tim skipped lunch (???) but I’m eating and drinking all the time. Brian and I went to Von’s Super Market for snacks, water, and beer, and around 4 p.m. we went outside on our fancy veranda at this 5-star palace for a little picnic. Tim, Brian, Beth and I had some wine and cheese (Cracker Barrel and 2 six-packs) before we head to a steakhouse in about 30 minutes.

My knee feels better today, but it was pretty sore after all that wind and climbing. I lowered my seat a few millimeters and took lots of Advil and iced it before and after the ride today. Tomorrow we have an 89-mile ride with about 1500 feet of climbing. We are actually below sea level here in the Imperial Valley. We plan to eat breakfast in our rooms and be on the road by 7:15 a.m. We need to carry everything we need because there are no WaWas where we are going. Services will be limited to non-existent.

We found an authentic outside eating area Mexican diner. It was great, filling bicycle fuel.

I like this beer!

Our picnic was fun!

Those are the mountains we will cross over tomorrow.

Flat green fields

I love a good Mexican Steak House!

76 miles (122 km) – Total so far: 128 miles (206 km)

Well, I didn’t see Erica Kane, but the Pine Valley Inn was a nice motel. I’m not sure the thread count was up to Erica’s standards, but it was OK for me. Thankfully I didn’t hear Tim snore but he said he heard me! Too bad for you, Tim. We each had a giant, good old-fashioned 50s diner breakfast and lots of strong hot coffee. The only thing missing was a waitress asking, “What can I getcha, Hon?”Our ride started a little after 9 a.m. and we had a long climb out of Pine Valley right away. There was a wind advisory for San Diego County; 30 to 60 mph winds ENE. Great. Just what we needed and wanted–more hills and another head wind. Today, at least, Tim got his back wheel on nice and tight.Then, unfortunately, we made a wrong turn. OK, I made a wrong turn and Brian and Tim followed. It was only a 4 mile error but there was at least 2000 feet of additional climbing in those measly 4 miles and it cost us an hour. For those you on the Southern Tier, Buckman Springs Road and Old Buckman Springs Road are two VERY different roads.

We saw the big fence between Mexico and USA and lots of border patrol vehicles. They were very busy today. I-8 was a long, windy, nerve-wracking 10-mile twisty downhill. I finally relaxed and just went for it. Max speed was 32 mph.

We ate lunch in Ocotillo and I had a pretty good Philly cheesesteak. I fueled up on lots of Coke and refilled my Camelback from the ice cold water fountain, then it was back to the road on a very bumpy Old Highway 80 through the Imperial Valley. We were in the Yuma desert one minute, and the next we’d be biking through green, flat farmland. Beautiful spinach and lettuce and grass. We saw quite a few animals–horses and cows, and sheep. Lots of sheep simultaneously lifting and turning their heads to stare at three crazy guys on bikes. My camera battery went dead before lunch so unfortunately I’m a little short on afternoon pictures.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are taking it easy. It’s a little more than 20 miles to our next stop in Brawely, and we have a late check out from this nice Fairfield Inn, a long lunch, and hopefully an early check in at our next motel.

The beautiful Pine Valley Inn

The inside of Majors Diner where we had breakfast

On our descent out of Pine Valley we had to stop and walk over these water run off thingies

We went through 2 Indian Reservations today

That is the International fence just outside of Jacumba Hot Springs.

These rocks look like they were just dumped on the sides of the mountains and look like they would tumble at any moment.

Looks like the rock from "Galaxy Quest"

What a great day.

First of all, I have to tell you how hard it was. I’ve done several somewhat hilly Century rides before, and my time on these rides is usually around 6 to 7 hours. This was harder; this was WAY harder. We did 52 miles today from motel to motel. We started real riding at 9 a.m. and got to Pine Valley at 5 p.m., with a 1-hour stop in Alpine for a great lunch. After our break in Alpine, the wind kicked in and kicked our ass. No little wind, either, this was at least 30 mph. At times in the afternoon we were only doing 4.5 mph. On I-8 the wind was especially brutal. On the few descents there were, we had to pedal downhill. It was very discouraging, but we kept plodding along. And that bridge over The Sweetwater River? Don’t look over the side if you have any fear of heights! But I started this entry by saying what a great day it was. The temperature was perfect leaving San Diego: no leg warmers, no hat, no gloves. I only needed a light jacket, which I took off after an hour. Mike led the way to Alpine, traffic was light, and the bike lanes were great. I really enjoyed the city riding through San Diego. Not bad at all.

Today we saw palm trees, eucalyptus, cactus, and finally snow in the mountains. We heard birds and frogs and roosters and trucks. Here’s hoping I don’t hear Tim snore tonight.

Our tires in the Pacific.

First rest stop after 12 miles.

Brian climbing and still smiling.

Tim climbing. No wind yet.

Lunch in Alpine. The wind and hills are about to get stronger and steeper.

About to ride on an Interstate for the first time.

Pine Valley is 1400 feet higher.

It was a long day. Tim arrived yesterday and Brian, Beth and I arrived today. We assembled our bikes and did a short test ride to make sure everything works and it does. My nephew Mike, Tim’s son, lives here in San Diego and will ride with us to Alpine tomorrow. That will be a big help since he knows the way and we won’t have to read cue sheets for directions.

Mark, Brian and Tim from the The Inn at Sunset Cliffs

Sundown at Sunset Cliffs

Mike and his son after dinner