Life is an Adventure

The first 20 miles out of Gila Bend was a low grade climb into a 15 mph wind, taking over 2 hours. This area has not one structure. It was mostly scrub sagebrush but as the mountains came closer we started to see saguaro cacti. The slow climb brought out a lot of beauty in this place. I’d like to have explored some of the trails we saw. The first structure we saw at about 30 miles in turned out to be the admin building far a very busy landfill. Of course the wide berm petered away and we were assaulted by numerous 18 wheelers returning from the landfill and passing too close for comfort. Then I get my first flat in a few days. I immediately found a stainless wire that had pierced my tube, put a spare tube and the tire back on with Brian‘s help and got on the way. 3 miles later, another flat And I again found a tiny wire that pieced the tube. Another repair.   We got to Maricopa and stopped at the busiest Circle K in the world and I bought an extra large Mountain Dew to quench my th...

The Middle of Nowhere Solar Concemtration Plant                       Sunrise at our Camp  We cowboy camped last night- in the desert about a half mile outside Dateland. After a late night we got in our tents at 7PM. We were sandwiched between the main railroad line and Interstate 8 so it was pretty much a certainty to be noisy. Nevertheless the stars, moon, and Milky Way were very pretty.  About 8 PM someone walked by on the road and must have seen our phones on in the tent. He spot lighted us for a few minutes before moving on. Not sure what that was about. Our first 10 miles this morning was on old US80 highway paralleling Interstate 8. Over these 10 miles, which took just under an hour, not a single car passed us. We did, however, have two long trains headed west go by and one pick up truck go in the other direction.  We did about half Interstate with a headwind today. We could see forever but mostly saw sagebrush...

Cycling, a great way to lose weight The true news today is that we had no flats or mechanicals. A first for this trip! Also a beautiful sunny day with a tailwind at times and temperatures in the low 80’s.  After a great night at our warm showers host house, including a egg sausage and hash brown breakfast, we got on the road at about 9 AM. I’ve been carrying a jug that I had filled half up with water. We got about 2 miles out of town and I went to take a drink of water from my bottle and it wasn’t full. Oh shit! I filled up my jug halfway  and forgot to fill my water bottles. Let me tell you, you feel like a real dumb ass when you don’t fill your water bottle up before you head out into the desert.  I took a quick look at the map and decided that I had enough water to get to the next area where there was a gas station. Luckily, about an hour down the road I found a VFW that was open and was able to get some water there. Thank you VFW! We were on a busy  highway for t...

  At the Arizona State Line The good news is that for the first time we had no flat tires! So I was happily riding along and then suddenly I heard a thunk and the rear of the bike got all mushy. I got it stopped and was still upright which was a good outcome. Got off the bike and look at the rear end and I see the rack and it’s 40 or so pounds of gear has transited from it’s usual spot to acting as a drag brake. In other words, it was still attached to the axle area but the attachment near the seat post had failed. Grr. Bungee cord and Flat Straps We were halfway between Holtville and nowhere. So  Brian and I got together like the ground team of the Apollo 13, pooled our available materials and used bungee cord and flat straps ( it no duct tape) to secure the rack. It actually made the next 50 miles with no problems. We were able to do a semi-permanent fix when we got to our Warm Showers host so I should be good to go tomorrow. We saw a lot of agriculture and then a lot of des...

Sunrise at the Desert Tower First, the Desert Tower where we camped last night was amazing. It is located right on the edge of a 3,000 foot drop into the desert- which included I-8, our descent route. The host treated us to coffee and the view from the Tower this morning. We broke camp and loaded the bikes. Then I discovered my tire had gone flat overnight- 2nd one in 2 days. After replacing the tube, we made it back to I-8 and headed downhill. The wind was gale force and we had to continually brake to check our speed and really hold on in case of crosswinds.  The descent was 7 miles and about 3,000 feet.  Unfortunately Brian hit a small rock and had a flat about a mile into the descent. He had trouble seating the tire properly which resulted in a couple more stops- then at an off ramp a few miles later his tire blew. Luckily he was almost stopped and he was able to stay upright. After he pulled the tire and tube I found a large hole on the inside of the tube which turned out ...

America’s last pay phone? Brian at Vista Point Great group of officers at Mary Etta’s The Desert Tower Changing a flat tire Fittest hill of the day was a doozy!  Big climbing day- we ended up with 62 miles and 6,211 feet of climbing. It made for a long day as we came in just after dark at a  place called the Desert Tower.  We were up at seven and on the road by eight. Stopped at a nice little breakfast place called Mary Ettas and I refueled with pancakes and eggs. The bikes were deemed to  be safe since most of the county sheriffs department was  in the parking lot (nice guys, see their picture). The climbing took forever but the down hills were just short of amazing. The terrain ranged from some pretty forest up in the mountains to a lot of what I would call high desert. Tomorrow we should be descending down into some real desert.  We rode fairly close to the Border fence for a couple of miles. This was the new design and it really jumps up and smacked you...

 San Diego to El Paso by Bike - the hard part is getting there  10/23/21. After spending the better part of the past week boxing my bike and figuring out what I need for about 3 weeks on the bike, I’m finally sitting in the airplane. The alarm went off at 330 this morning and so far the trip consists of a 45 minute drive, 45 minutes getting my bike checked and 45 minutes in TSA. Cycling should be easy after this.  American has a bike rate of $30 which is a deal. Unfortunately the gate agent had no idea about the rate so it took her and 2 others to figure it out- thankfully it didn’t turn into the $200 oversized charge. The bike box came in at 49 pounds against a 50 lb max! I’m meeting my friend Brian Blair in San Diego. Earlier this year we rode the OTET trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland with a group of four. The last time I biked with Brian was in 2011 when he and Susan Spinelli let me join them for the Seattle to Glacier National Park part of their cross country ride. ...

Garmin 830 Display with Cars Approaching Garmin Varia Radar Light                                                   Several riders have recommended the radar tail light from Garmin in the past couple years.  I've ridden with several people with (let's call it radar for short) a radar and heard the beeping as a car comes into range.  I always ride with a mirror and the radar would often alert to a car before I heard or noticed it coming. So, in the interest of improved safety, I watched and finally saw one on sale for $160 at BikeTiresDirect.com. Now there are several different versions- the one I bought has a rear light in addition to the standard connection to my Garmin cyclocomputer. The cyclocomputer will beep and also displays a dot  on a narrow bar graph on the right side of the computer as the car (or sometimes bicycle) approaches.  If mo...

 Last fall (2020) I bought a used gravel bike from a friend- I took a test ride with him and within about 50 yards I was in love with it.  The bike is a 2016 Niner RLT-A which has SRAM components and a hydroformed aluminum frame.  It seems to flow over the pavement or gravel as compared to my carbon fiber road bike which sort of clatters over our local roads.  I bought a spare set of wheels from another friend so I now have on set with 700/30-32 smooth tires for roads, towpath, and touring and one set with 700x42 knobby tires for gravel. So of course I had to rationalize the need for a used gravel bike and it was pretty easy.  First, it is actually a really good setup for touring.  I never really "loved" my touring bike although I had several really nice tours on it.  I was able to sell it for about 1/3 what I paid for the gravel bike so that helped. Another significant reason was to morph my riding more over towards more bike trails and towpath and le...