today and missed days

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The above pictures were taken outside Yarnell, AZ by Michael McClure. Michael, his wife and two sons were on their way from L.A. to Prescott, AZ for a 50 mile mountain bike race when he took these pictures at a small convenience store in the middle of nowhere. Michael's son, Willie, is only 13 years old and he was the youngest of the riders in the 800 person field with the next youngest being 16. It's always great to meet other bikers out on the road and to swap stories. Thanks for the pics, Michael!



Today, Tucumcari NM to Dalhart TX, 96 miles



Just when we thought we were going to have our first easy day, mother nature throws another curveball at us. 96 miles is by far the fewest miles we had to travel today, and we left the hotel in high spirits after some guy we were talking to said we would have winds on our back the whole day. He must have been a T.V. weather man, because he was dead wrong. We had 20 mph winds in our face all day. We had a weak breakfast that consisted of mutilated waffles that did not come off the iron well and some nasty fruit, but we were going to have tailwinds all day, so it didn't matter. Anyway, we got to the next town after the first 25 miles and we got a gatorade and I had a baby ruth. Dad didn't get anything, because he was just going to wait until the next town 25 miles down the road. When we got there, it was a total ghost town with no stores at all....sweet. So, we had 45 miles to go with 1 1/2 bottles of water each, no food, 20 mph headwinds, and the complete opposite of a Richard Simmons attitude. About 25 miles outside of town, we were starting to get very hungry and decided to throw up a thumb. About 45 minutes later, Scott picked us up and brought us into Dalhart, and by this time it was no warmer than 50 degrees with the same 20 mph winds. We thought we wern't going to make it today, and it wasn't even hot. I directed all of my anger towards scenarios in my head of what I would do to someone if they so much as looked at me sideways...trust me...don't look at me sideways, ever, because I might have a flashback of today. Well, we got into town and devoured a $5 footlong and are now at the Days Inn, and it is pretty nice. Tomorrow we will have only 10 mph headwinds and scattered T storms...oh joy...



Wednesday, Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NM, 135 miles



We left our trashy Ramada Inn in the morning and hit Highway 14 north to Santa Fe. It was the first time since L.A. that we had seen some decent vegetation, which was very nice. We had some tough climbs for about the first 35 miles, and then we stopped to eat lunch in a hippie town called Madrid. We stopped for lunch at this weird bar with an even weirder waitstaff. There was one lady behind the bar that dad and I both agreed we would never try to pick a fight with, because we would get destroyed. We also agreed that our waitress was a bit crazy. She took our order, and about 30 minutes later (when we still did not have our food nor had heard from her at all even though we were about the only people in there), we see her over in the corner getting all Miss Cleo mind reader with another waitress. She had her hands on the other girls head and they each has their eyes closed for a good three minutes. I was waiting (and kind of hoping) she would suddenly exclaim, "You sittin' here lookin' like a pauper while ya boyfriend runnin' around lookin' all GQ!" Anyway, after about 45 minutes we finally got our burgers, ate quickly and left.



This day was a great day for me to get a breakdown, because if I had broken down 30 miles up the road, we would have either had to backtrack to Santa Fe, or hitchhike to the next town with a bike shop, and that may have been Topeka. Anyway, I busted some spokes about 5 miles outside of Santa Fe, and Tom picked us up and hauled us into town to a bike shop. About two hours later, I was up and running with two brand new wheels with an adequate amount of spokes for a cross country ride. What was unfortunate was that it was now 4:00 pm, and we had 60 miles left to Las Vegas. We pounded it pretty hard and got off the interstate just as it was getting pitch black outside. We made it to our hotel at 8:45 pm, and had to order Pizza Hut for the second time in three nights because everything else was closed. That was about it for that day.



Tuesday, Grants NM to Albuquerque, NM 80ish miles



This day could not have started out much better. We had relatively decent tailwinds for about the first 50 miles, and nothing much happened. When we got about 20 miles outside of town, we stopped at a diner right next to a casino and had a big lunch. We then had one of the most deceiving climbs of the whole trip. It didn't look that bad to begin with, but five miles later, we finally made it to the top of the hill we could see from the bottom. We then had to bike through Albuquerque for about 10 miles, and from what I saw, Maisi, I am glad you did not choose to go to school there. I'm sure there are some nice parts, but all of the 10 miles we saw were not. We got to our hotel, and dad called a bike shop to get some spare tubes. He talked a guy into coming to our hotel with the tubes after the shop closed. The dude showed up with these thorn-resistant tubes that seriously weighed about 20 times the amount of a regular innertube. Dad said they wouldn't work because they were too bulky, and the kid tried to say that he could not return them to the store that he worked at, and we had to take them. He insisted that we would get so many flats due to the excessive amount of thorns that would be on the road throughout the entire state. We all know dad, and after about 30 seconds, the dude was leaving with all four of his tubes he showed up with. So, for the rest of the time spent making it through this state, we had a recurring joke, "watch out for the thorns, they're everywhere." It turns out there were no thorns, and neither of us got even one flat in all of New Mexico. Punks with frohawks trying to trick cross country guys from Minnesota...not on Phil's watch...



Monday, Gallup NM to Grants, NM, 60ish miles



Dad woke up in the morning, and he looked like death warmed over. He looked as if you threw the Grim Reaper in the microwave for a few minutes and he came out looking like Uncle Fester from the Aadams family. We were supposed to spin 145 miles straight into Albuquerque today, but I finally convinced dad to get his antibiotics and to break this trip up into two days. He agreed, and I was very surprised. He said in the middle of the night he woke up and both sides of his pillow were soaking wet with sweat. Personally, I think he was just crying all night. We slept until about 10:00, went to Walmart for his Rx, and were on the road by about 12:00 noon. Let me tell you, this day was about as much fun as spending five minutes making two delicious strawberry hand-dipped milkshakes at a Perkins restaurant in Menomonie, WI, stepping out into the dining room, going down hard as a result of a freshly mopped floor, acting like it's no big deal, and then finally having to remake the milkshakes(hypothetical...i wish)...not fun. We had 35 tough miles on the interstate up to the Continental Divide, and then another 30 miles or so downhill with a lot of wind in our faces which made it seem flat. The country we went through was also very depressing. We spent the last 30 miles on old Route 66, and we can only wonder what that stretch of road was like 50 years ago. There are so many motels that have been vacant for years, it makes you wonder how much of a hotspot it really was back in its heyday. We had a really nice room this night, and it got us rested up for the next day. This was an average pound-it-out day...nothing really happened.

Goodnight.



Blake



P.S. Yesterday, after three days of antibiotics, dad said, "I'M BACK!!!" Personally, I'm finally glad he decided to show up in the first place...