Alain fixes tube from flat #9. Flat was from yesterday...
Alain hits 3000 miles. He wants to know if I will call him a cab.
John hits 3000 miles!
Nothing like the roads of home. We arrive at Indian Trace and 84.
Two block from Alain's house, Boris has another flat.
The journey draws to a close. John and Alain congratulate each other on compleating an epic journey and head to their homes.
Final odometer readings: Alain 3047, John 3027
No place like home!
Straggling picture: Professional shoe drying rack. Dilbert would be proud.
Alain reports:
Coming back from Mt Dora (days 26 and 27), John and Alain teamed up with Boris. This required some considerable adjustment. Alain's pace lining skills are rudimentary at best, and the only discernable improvement after 3 weeks of riding with John, is that Alain has now been taught to call out "Butt break" before standing up on the pedals to take a load off (a frequent occurrence by this point in the trip). As for Boris, he is by nature a free spirit. So for the first half day John, Alain and Boris were all over the place, and not in an organized formation. By the afternoon of the penultimate day, the landscape changed from rolling hills to flat Florida terrain, so they managed to settle down into a reasonable pace line.
However, on the final day, disaster nearly struck. John was in front, followed by Alain, with Boris in the back. John is normally a skillful and predictable rider in a pace line, but suddenly and without warning he started stopping. Alain yelled "Stopping!" and hit the breaks, looking back to see Boris heading off into the grass with a look of terror (but still cheerful terror, for those who know Boris) on his face. Somehow he managed to control the bike and get back on the road. Afterwards, Boris confided that at that moment, everything was in slow motion, and he wasn't looking for a place to ride the bike, he was trying to select the best place to crash.
"What happened, what's the emergency" Alain and Boris asked John. "My computer's not working" John replied. John's bike computer had taken some hard knocks during the trip and was being held in place with electric tape. The tape had come loose, so no miles were being registered on the odometer. Now normally, this is not considered an emergency, but John was about 16 miles away from reaching 3000 miles for the trip, and we had agreed to take a break when he got there. Each mile that went by without the computer registering meant 1 more mile before we could take a break, plus it could mess up the jar of miles calculations.
Alain was plagued by numerous flats during the trip, most often caused by pieces of wire about 1/4 inch in length. Somewhere South of Mt Dora, John ran into a huge piece of wire that would have been about 1 foot in length if it was uncoiled. It stuck into the side of his tire, and made a horrible sound as it slapped the bike frame each time the wheel rotated. John stopped, and removed the wire. Miraculously, this did not cause a flat tire.
Alain seemed unable to accept this cruel twist of fate, so in a sign of solidarity, Boris got a flat in his rear tire somewhere in Weston, and then for good measure a flat in his front tire about 1/2 a mile from his house. This was lucky for Boris, since this was the very intersection where Alain was due to turn off and head for his house, and Boris was now out of spare tubes. Alain, who has had enough of road bikes and road bike tubes, was all too happy to give Boris a spare tube.
Alain's milage (total at end of each day, along with destination for that day):
0046 Pine Valley, CA
0183 Yuma, AZ
0301 Gila Bend, AZ
0408 Fountain Hill, AZ
0477 Payson, AZ
0509 Eager, AZ
0660 Quemado, NM
0767 Socoro, NM
0898 Vaughn, NM
1018 Clovis, NM
1105 Plainview, TX
1266 Vernon, TX
1397 Ardmore, OK
1545 Idabel, OK
1640 Hope, AR
1757 Farmerville, LA
1881 Natchez, MS
2009 Collins, MS
2132 Grove Hill, AL
2278 DeFuniak Springs, FL
2406 Tallahassee, FL
2526 Chiefland, FL
2628 Mt Dora, FL
2728 Mt Dora, FL (bike festival rides)
2786 Mt Dora, FL (bike festival rides)
2916 Lake PLacid, FL
3047 Coral Springs, FL
Rode from Mt Dora to 4 miles south of Lake Placid. We rode over Sugar Loaf Mt on the way.
Now to start the ride home with pofig-boris.
Another fulfilling lunch at mickie d's.
Did the bakery ride. Took it easy.
Alain reports:
Here's an amusing incident that happened at the Mt Dora bike festival, during the bakery ride. Alain was off to a late start, having been busy fixing a flat (no, not his, this one was Sylvia's). Less than a mile into the ride Ora had a flat, so Ora, Juliet, Kathy and John Stahl pulled over to watch Alain fix it. It turned out that both the tube and the tire needed to be replaced. While this was going on a youngish Mt Dora bicycle cop came by to see if we needed help, and also a second cop in a squad car pulled over to see what was happening.
Juliet turned to the bike cop and said "Is that your police vehicle? That's cool." The bike cop pointed to the cop in the cruiser and said "Yeah, he won't let me have a car". Juliet turned to the cop in the car and said "That's why he's more fit than you are!" Now this remark may have been true (the cop in the car looked to be familiar with all of the donut shops in the Mt Dora area), but it was not very diplomatic. He flipped on the red lights on top of the car, and reached for the mic on his mobile, saying "We may have a possible traffic stop here, possible disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace". Fortunately he had a friendly attitude and a smile, so we didn't need to bail Juliet out of jail before continuing with the ride.
The gang at Mount Dora.
The front group at last stop on esmerelda marsh ride at Mount Dora. Took it easy kinda... And stopped a lot.
The There's a party at the book store.
We rode to Mount Dora, FL. (They will be participating in the Mount Dora Bicycle Festival for the next few days.)
A bike shop! Gotta stop to check it out. Alain wants a new rear tire. This is just south of Ocala.
Today was relativly flat. Alt 27 had nice shoulders but US27 from Ocala to where US441 splits off was no shoulder and heavy traffic. Also the wind was against us. 12mph with gusts up to 20. But hey... We are in Mt Dora! Odometer says we did 2650 miles. It is already starting to seem like the trip is over and becoming a memory. Ah, hot tub. Time to relax and muse over the part days...
Rode from Tallahassee to Chiefland, FL.
Nothin like a couple of hot dogs for breakfast! After enjoying two hotdogs and two buns John and Alain were ready to hit the road.
Alain has another flat... How many is that now. Eight? (Yes, 8)
Once out of hilly Tallahassee and away from traffic the road (Alt 27) was board flat with four foot shoulders. Except for the head-cross winds it was a nice ride. Oh, also note canal bridge crossings had reflectors...annoying.
For getting a proper bicycle glove tan, nuttin beats three weeks of all day riding!
Rode from Defuniak Springs to Tallahassee. US90 was really nice most of the way. Near the end, at Quincy it became busy and no shoulder. All in all a good overcast day. Decided to splurge and stay at Double Tree Inn Downtown.
Oh on Georgia? We are off course! Yikes!
Alain reports:
OK, we are in Florida, so we are done, right? Well not exactly. We are in DeFuniack Springs, and its about 350 miles to Mt Dora. We aren't even in the right time zone yet. We head East toward Tallahassee on US 90. This is a very nice road. There is a cross head wind, but the road goes through pine forests which block most of the wind. The pavement is excellent, the traffic is light, and there is a good shoulder. We have left the hurricane Ivan damage behind us, or so we thought, when we suddenly come to a place where a tornado must have been spawned by the hurricane. Just about every tree in about a half mile stretch is destroyed, as are the houses. This is scary stuff.
About 20 miles from Tallahassee the traffic gets heavier and the shoulder disappears. US 90 becomes Tennessee Ave, which is kind of the main drag through Tallahassee. We use the Dave Marshall approach and take over 1 of the 3 traffic lanes for ourselves. No one seems to mind, or at least they are not yelling at us or throwing things at us. For once we are arriving before the sun goes down.
John has decided to pick a hotel in the center of town. We are on the 15th floor of a building that is on top of a hill, so the view is spectacular. The place has an upscale restaurant. Too bad we have only shorts and tee shirts that we have been washing in sinks for 3 weeks, but they don’t throw us out and we have a nice dinner.
Grove Hill to Defuniak Springs, FL. This day we rode through the areas along US84 which were hit by Hurricane Ivan. Lots of trees down. Lots of logging trucks. At first we thought there was some local lumber industry like in Arkansas, but a local told us the trucks were all clean-up. Here are some pics.
Today is Alain's birthday. What a way to celebrate being an old man!
Nothin beats the heat like a specialty DQ!
Oh i wish i were in the land of cotton... Old times there are not forgotten...
On the quest for the highest point in FLA, where Alain collapses at base of fla high point marker... John at highest point in fla..
We're in fla... Yea. Alright!
Alain reports:
We wake up and get packed. The motel clerk told us to just leave the key in the room, which we do. Alain also leaves his water bottles in the fridge, but no one is in the office and we are close to home, so we abandon the bottles. For the next 70 miles or so we travel through a path of devastation left behind by Ivan. Huge trees have been uprooted, or snapped off like matchsticks. Lots of roofs have been destroyed. One house is in a yard with a couple dozen big pine trees. All but 2 trees have been knocked over, a couple falling within inches of the corners of the house. The only 2 trees left are right next to the house, and would surely have hit the house if they fell. We ponder if this is luck, coincidence, or something else.
This is Monday, so the logging trucks are back on the road. We stop at a gas station for a snack. The canopy over the pumps has blown away in the storm, and they are not selling gas. We ask them if the logging trucks are carrying regular trees, or storm damaged trees. "Anyone with standing timber would be a fool to cut it now. Prices are down 25 percent, those are all storm damaged trees."
We have lunch in a 2 building Dairy Queen. In the new building, they make and sell the food. The old building next door is a dinning room. John decides to document this curious arrangement by taking a picture of the dinning room. It is necessary to back into the street to get the correct viewing angle for this picture, but he is careful to do this when there is no traffic.
After lunch we head South, but today there is no head wind so we are making good time. This means we will be able to make a minor diversion to visit the highest point in Florida. As we get close to the Alabama-Florida border, we actually see a "Highest point in Florida" sign pointing down a small road. It might be more impressive if we had approached the highest point from the Florida side, but the Alabama side is a bit higher so we are actually rolling slightly downhill as we cross the border and approach the highest point. There is nothing remotely resembling a hill, so it is not easy to find this thing. We follow the GPS and head down a dirt road, but soon it starts to go down hill, so we back track. We stop some locals in a car, and they give us directions. They also tell us that they think the dirt road is slightly higher than the official high point. The high point is in a park and there is an impressive stone monument to mark the spot. Since it is completely flat in this area, the monument has been placed on a 1 foot high base, making it 1 foot higher than the surrounding area. Ivan has knocked over a large tree near the monument and the fallen tree has lifted up a mass of roots and dirt that is now higher than the official high point, but this seems to be a temporary situation.
Since it took us a while to locate and scale the high point, we are now once again in danger of arriving after dark. We head South on a road with no houses. As it is getting dark, the GPS tells up we have arrived at the hotel. There is nothing here but trees. John calls the hotel, and it turns out that they are down next to I-10 and don’t have any vacancies anyhow. We turn on lights and head down to the interstate. There are a bunch of motels by the interstate, and we find one with a vacancy. There is a restaurant next door, and guess what – they have an all you can eat buffet, so once again we eat all that we can.
Sweet home, Alabama!
Stopped in Grove Hill, Alabama. Should be in Florida tomorrow...
The hot coffee was so-so.
Churches are big in Mississippi. (editorial: heard of the bible belt?)
Hw84 in Louisiana had good shoulders at times, but in Mississippi and Alabama it was shoulderless and often twisting, hilly, and two lane.
Crossing the Tombigbee River on US84 in Alabama...
Alain reports:
Heavy fog again as we leave Collins. The fog burns off in only an hour today, and it gets warm but not really hot. There are rolling hills (good for sore butts since you can stand up both climbing and descending), and flat stretches (good for making time). We are looking for post cards, and try about 4 stores before we find some. It’s Sunday, and most stores are closed. We stop for a rest at a closed gas station with a coke machine and a bench in front. While we are sitting on the bench drinking soda, a guy drives up to buy a drink. He gets to talking and tells us this joke:
A blind guy walks into a girl bar and asks if anyone wants to hear a blond joke. All five women in the bar are blonds and they are big. The bar tender says "I'm a blond. I'm also 6 feet 1 inch and weigh 210 pounds". Another customer says "I'm a blond, I'm 5 feet 10 and I'm a weight lifter", and so on for all five women. After this the bar tender says "Now, do you still want to tell your blond joke?" The blind guy says "No, I guess not, not if I'm going to have to explain it 5 times".
We cross the border into Alabama, still on US 84. This road does not have shoulders in most of Mississippi. In Alabama it either does not have shoulders, or when there are shoulders they have cut rumble strips into the shoulders, making it impossible to ride a bike on the shoulder. There are some small farms, but mostly it is forest. It’s Sunday, so there are no logging trucks on the road. This is a good thing.
Once we cross into Alabama, we start to see evidence of hurricane Ivan. There are lots of downed branches and trees, and some people tell us they were without power for almost 2 weeks. We get to the small town of Grove Hill just before dark and find a roach motel. John takes a picture of a roach to prove this. The motel sign has blown away during the hurricane. There is no place to eat near the motel, so we ride back a couple of miles to a Burger King and eat there. We return to the motel in the dark.
Today we crossed the 2000 mile mark!
Fixing broken spoke... Shoulda tightened it when it was just loose... Ah hindsight...
Alain reports:
We left Natchez in a dense fog. It took close to 2 hours for the sun to burn through the fog. The Louisiana side had been flat, but today we are in rolling hills. During a rest stop on the side of the road (US 84) John notices some of his spokes are loose and makes a mental note to tighten them up tonight. Soon after one of the spokes breaks, and John tightens up the remaining ones enough to straighten out the wheel enough to ride on.
We head to the bike shop in Brookhaven. It is open from 10:00 – 1:00 on Saturdays, and we get there at 12:40. Brookhaven has a nice old downtown, and the bike store is right downtown, next to the train station. The bike store is pretty bare. John had been thinking of borrowing the truing stand to fix his wheel, but there is no truing stand. They have about a dozen road bike tires. Alain has been running 25 mm tires, but the only 25 they have is very light. Alain gets a somewhat heavier 23, puts this in front and shifts the front 25 to the rear. John has been talking with a guy restoring a vintage bike with some interesting bearings. By then it is aleady a couple of minutes after 1:00, but the bike store guy is in no hurry to close.
The bike store guy recommends a Mexican restaurant for lunch. This is on the other side of town, near I-55. The old part of town has a lot of character, the new part by the interstate looks like any other interstate town in America. The restaurant has an all you can eat buffet, and we proceed to eat all we can.
As usual, we arrive at out destination (Collins Mississippi) just as it is getting dark. The hotel rooms have ceilings that are at least 12 feet high, but as usual the shower head is about five feet high. Next door to the hotel is a restaurant with an all you can eat buffet with all kinds of crab, frog legs, shrimp, crawfish, etc. Everything is breaded, and we aren't always sure what is what, but it all tastes like Chicken anyhow, so who cares.
Rode from Farmerville, LA to Natchez, Mississippi. Crossed the mighty Mississippi. We made it to Mississippi!
Alain has flat six... Bad valve...
Alain got another flat (7). Bad patch job... Alain grimaces as he fixes his fourth flat of the day.
Cave man discovers miracle of modern technology... "hey i'm in range... I think i'll send blanco (webmaster) a page..."
Alain reports:
Woke up, packed up and prepared to hit the road. Oops, Alain has another flat, base of the valve. Changed to a tube that already has 2 or 3 patches - oh no, guess it needed 3 or 4 patches. Changed to a new tube and hit the road.
The wind was out of the South. Basically we have been traveling East and occasionally North, but today was our day to start heading South. The good news was that after 15 hilly miles, the route became as flat as a pancake all the way down the Mississippi valley. But the wind was ridiculous. It was like one of the Miramar rides when you turn from Arvida onto route 84 and realize you should have skipped 84 because of the wind, but now you are stuck fighting the wind all the way to Indian Trace. The problem today is that we have over 50 miles of this head wind.
In the afternoon, we stop at a combination grocery store / hardware store. Three guys are sitting around on the HW store side. John brings in his broken tail light and starts describing his problem and discussing potential solutions. These are guys who have spent a lot of time patching together repairs on farm equipment, and soon there is some serious male bonding going on. They devise a solution to repair the light that involves shaping a flat metal bar. They would have preferred a solution involving welding, but time was limited. Meanwhile, Alain was on the grocery store side eating a pint (or was it a quart?) of ice cream.
Eventually the HW team has a solution that works, John's tail light is back in business, and we are back on the road. We are going past cotton fields all day, and we collect some cotton for souvenirs. Our goal is to cross the Mississippi river to Natchez before it gets dark, and its going to be close.
The two major check points on a cross country trip are crossing the continental divide, and crossing the Mississippi river. A couple of weeks ago as we flew to San Diego we were like eagles, looking down on a shining ribbon that was the Mississippi river. Today we are like ants, crawling painfully slowly towards the river. We don't see the big picture, the river and dozens of surrounding ox bows. Instead we see cracks in the pavement, fluffs of cotton on the road, and lots of miles in front of us.
Just as it looked like we were going to make it to the river before dark, one of the ants had another flat tire. This tire is getting really worn, the belt is starting to show through the rubber. The other ant has really sore legs. Sure enough, after the tire change it gets dark as the ants crawl to the edge of the mighty river. Luckily, there was an excellent shoulder on the bridge and we make it across the river. The hotel is on a bluff overlooking the bridge, so we are done for the day.
We check the yellow pages. There is a bike store in a town about 65 miles East of Natchez called Brookhaven. Hopefully it will be open tomorrow (a Saturday) and we can get a new tire.
Another text message says John's leg is now OK and he only took 7 Ibuprofens today.
Alain reports:
This is probably the most scenic day of the trip. The GPS has found a lot of quiet, low traffic back roads. We don't appear to be making any net forward progress, but we are enjoying wandering around Arkansas and Louisiana. Lots of forest and small farms. Looks a lot like North Carolina, and later when the woods are all pine looks like Georgia.
Every town in Arkansas has a huge Baptist church. If the town has a population of 200, the church will seat at least 400. John did find a non-bible belt anomaly - Bin Laden condoms for sale in a gas station bathroom.
Louisiana drinks come full of crushed ice, with room for only a miniscule amount of liquid. At lunch our order got mixed up with people at another table. We ended up with cheese fries. We figured maybe that's what you get in Louisiana when you order fries, until we heard the guy at the next table asking where was the melted cheese on his fries.
As we got close to our destination in Farmerville, Louisiana, disaster struck. John has a super-bright light on the back of his bike. I am not sure how many candle power this thing is, but some of the regular Monday/Wednesday evening riders carry 3 sets of glasses: sun-glasses for day, clear glasses for night, and welders glasses for riding behind John's tail light. We will need to get Boris to check the official Russian transcripts to verify this, but while waiting on line to buy Gatorade we saw a supermarket tabloid story that a cosmonaut on the international space station has seen a strange pulsing red light near area 51 on an evening when we had been traveling in New Mexico.
Anyhow, this tail light is quite heavy (probably due to the shielding for the nuclear reactor that powers it), and after 2 weeks of bouncing over potholes, the I-beams that attach it to John’s bike rack gave out. John had to take the light off. We were lucky to make it the Farmerville just as it was getting dark.
We enter Arkansas! We are unarmed.
Alain sends a text page saying John has some pain in his right leg and took 14 Ibuprofen. No one is sure if this is supposed to be funny or real. Alain may not even know.
Road condition comments... US60 good shoulders on most segments. Some places road or shoulder is rough. Some areas rode on road. Very low traffic. US70 this was a surprise... Expected no shoulder and lots of traffic, but from Texas to Ardmore, OK this road was super. After Ardmore it sucked.
Alain reports:
Made it into Arkansas. Hills and woods all day, which we expected in Arkansas. Lots of dead armadillos on the road, and lots of logging trucks ensuring a continued supply of dead armadillos. We see lots of feathers on the side of the road, and occasionally a truck full of chickens passes by.
There are starting to be more choices of roads, and John’s GPS is becoming more useful. We take some smaller roads that twist and turn and go up and down. We stop at a post office in Ozan, population 81, to mail some post cards. John decides to mail home his camera (the camera phone has been taking excellent pictures, so why carry the extra weight?) and an extra pair of biking cloths.
We got to Hope, Arkansas early, and had time to visit a Walmart and relax.
Alain reports:
We finally actually got an early start, leaving just before sunrise. There was already some traffic in Ardmore, and John almost had a close encounter with a car that did not see him, but we got out of town OK and back onto route 70.
Yesterday Oklahoma looked like what we expected – flat plains with farms (without irrigation, it would probably be flat plains with dust bowl). Today it was all rolling hills and forest. Logging trucks were everywhere, and we passed a couple of paper mills. We stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast and a bunch or retired guys were sitting around having coffee. One of them told us how he would go to Arizona as a kid in the 40’s to pick cotton, since there was no work in Oklahoma at the time. Some of the guys had been truckers and knew the roads we had traveled pretty well. They wanted to know if we had visited the cat house in Casa Grande Arizona ("them trucks was thick around there").
We got to Idabel just before dark, without turning on our lights. The pavement over the last 20 miles was really rough, which for some reason makes John ride twice as fast as smooth pavement. The clerk at the hotel was a mountain biker from California, and gave us bottles of water as soon as we walked in the door.
Alain reports:
By now the pattern was familiar. We decided to leave early, and ended up leaving around 8:00. Once again we found ourselves heading into a headwind, but we were feeling pretty good after making it through the day before. An hour or two after we entered Oklahoma the wind because a cross wind, or even a cross tail wind and we started making good time. The day got hot (100 degrees), so we took a lot of breaks to drink.
At the last drink break at a grocery store about 25 miles from our destination, we were sitting outside with our shoes off letting our dogs breath, when a crack reporter from the local paper came up to get some personal interviews for an important local new event (us). This was a classic small town, where the reporter knew every single person who drove up to the store and said hello to all of them. In fact, Oklahoma may very well be the friendliest state in the union. Quite a lot of time passed by the time we had provided the requested background information and pictures had been taken for the upcoming article, so once again we ended up finishing in the dark.
Tomorrow we have 150 miles to do, so the plan is to leave EARLY!!!
Alain reports:
Day 12 was slated to be a long 160 mile day, so we decided to run lights and start at 4:00 in the morning. After a 3:30 wake up call, we looked outside and found it was raining. The thought of another day in the rain, but this time twice as long as yesterday, was enough to send us back under the covers and back to sleep. This was a good strategy, by around 8:00 when we got going the rain was gone, and the roads were not too wet.
We headed East on US 70 across Texas farm country. The farming had started just around the New Mexico - Texas line, with a little bit of irrigated farming on the NM side, but not much. We went past cotton, sorghum, corn, watermelon and pumpkin fields. Many of the fields have an irrigated circle in the middle, with additional non-irrigated crops planted outside the circle. Everything looked green and healthy to us, but a local farmer told us that a hail storm had come through last Friday and destroyed much of the cotton, which was about a month away from harvest.
The day was overcast, and we could often see rain to the sides, and passed through places where it had rained minutes before, but we managed to avoid the rain and stay cool under the cloud cover. There was an unrelenting head wind all day, and at one point Alain actually rode down in the drops, a first for this (or any other) trip.
Most things in Northern Texas are square. The roads are square (locals giving directions talk about a curve in the road that may be 20 miles away or more), the fields are square, and the counties form a checkerboard of squares. On entering Lamb County, John announced in his best don't-mess-with-Texas accent "Lamb??? This is cattle country!!!" When we got to Motley County, a sign said "Welcome to Motley County, foothills of the plains". That sounded like an oxymoron, but sure enough the flat cropland disappeared and we were in hilly country. We figured a 2800 foot hilltop was probably the last time on this trip we would be over half a mile high.
This day was a kind of psychological hump we needed to get over to get back on schedule after the short rain day ride. If we could make it 160 miles, we would be set up for a series of ~130 mile days with hotels at the end of each day's ride. If we didn't make it, we would be scrambling to find good destinations during the next week. In the morning John was feeling discouraged about making it that far, especially with that killer Texas head wind. 30 miles from the end it got dark, and Alain was ready to bail out and stay in a motel 30 miles short of our goal, but by now the wind was dropping and John was determined to push on. The shoulder for the last 30 miles in the dark was about 12 feet wide and in great condition, which made the ride fairly safe. When we got to the hotel, it was Alain's turn to pay for the hotel and John's turn to pay for dinner. But it was after 10:00 and most places were already closed. Even Pizza Hut refused to deliver pizza that late when John tried calling them. John started muttering something like "jar of miles, jar of miles, jar of miles" and disappeared off into the night on his bike. Half an hour later he returned with some McDonalds hamburgers, fries, one chocolate shake, and 4 more miles on his odometer.
Alain reports:
We woke up in Clovis, only to discover that it was still raining. We decided to wait a bit to see if it would clear up, with a drop dead departure time of 10:00 rain or shine, since we had to cover 90 miles to get to Plainview Texas.
Sure enough by around 9:00 the rain ended and we got going by 10:00. But this was not to last. Soon after we got to the Texas border the rain started up again. The rain lasted just about all day, but once you are wet you are wet, so we kept going. The traffic was light, and the shoulder on US 70 was excellent.
On the other hand, it is possible to get colder and dirtier as the day goes by, and we were pretty miserable by the time we made it to Plainfield. Please note that at the same time we were complaining about a light rain, category 3 hurricane Jeanne was bearing down on our families and friends in South Florida.
When we arrived at the hotel in Plainview our bikes were too filthy to bring inside. Fortunately there was a hose in front of the hotel and we were able to clean them up. That night we actually used the hotels washing machine and dryer, instead of just washing our cloths in the sink. As you can imagine, personal hygiene on a trip like this is a bit sketchy, and more sensitive readers will probably want to skip the rest of this day’s entry.
Washing our cloths in the sink is not the real problem. We pull out our little baggies of laundry detergent, fill the sink with suds and go to work. The critical resource is the air conditioner, since if it isn't blowing on the cloths through the night, they won't be dry in the morning. The problem is, there is only enough room for one set of cloths on the air conditioner. John uses his superior mental abilities to consistently get his cloths on the AC. About half the time the sink is in the main room instead of with the shower. In this case, John will say "Hey man, you were really working hard today. Why don't you go ahead and take the first shower?" Translation: "While you are in there I will wash my cloths and put them on the AC". In other hotel rooms the sink is in with the shower, so John will say "Hey, last time you took the first shower, do you mind if I go first this time?" Translation: "While you are out there I will wash my cloths and put them on the AC".
Alain has a couple of responses to the lack of AC drying space. One is to use the in room hair blower to dry his gloves, since he only brought 1 pair. The noise of the hair dryer drives John crazy. It is conceivable that Alain derives some perverse pleasure from this, but if so, he is careful not to show it. Another noise that drives John crazy is trains. Many of the small Western towns we have stayed in have train tracks (Union Pacific or Santa Fe), and the trains rumble through at night sounding the horn. Alain lived for years a block and a half from busy train tracks and finds the noise comfortable. John has been on the look out for a pair of ear plugs.
Another technique Alain uses is to hang damp clothing on top of his bike panniers, or on his camelback. On a dry day this is an effective way to dry out clothing, plus you have to figure that with a bunch of socks and such hanging on the back of your bike, the other guy is going to be motivated to spend more time pulling and less time drafting.
John has a morning ritual for preparing his feet. He takes wads of tissue paper and stuffs them between his toes. He also applies liberal amounts of a lubricant called "body glide" to his feet. He also has some kind of strange saddle preparation involving the use of tarantula hair...
Alain reports:
We decided to leave Vaughn early so that we would have plenty of time to get to Clovis. Too bad we had coupons for free breakfast at the diner, and ended up leaving at 8:00. The day before the sky had been completely blue without a cloud all day. Today there was low cloud cover - so low that at times we were in the cloud. The clouds were moving rapidly, and we were not happy to observe that they were being blown by a cross wind instead of by a tail wind.
We started off in rolling hills with cow pastures on either side. Kind of like Wisconsin, but with beef cattle instead of dairy cattle, and without a tavern every 5 miles. These rolling hills are great for getting up out of the saddle and taking a butt break, and we had our leap frog protocol working to perfection. After a couple of hours the rolling hills flattened out and the wind changed from a cross wind to a cross head wind. Our target for a lunch stop was Fort Sumner, but about 10 miles before we got there we decided we needed to stop to rest our bottoms at the top of a small hill. When we got to the top we found that the hill was not small on the other side. In fact, it was pretty much down hill all the way for the 10 miles into Fort Sumner.
The afternoon ride was flat and by now the cross head wind was pretty strong. Our spirits were low when we took a break in Melrose, with about 25 miles to go to Clovis. Things started looking up after the break when the wind suddenly died down, plus we had the pleasure of reaching the 1000 mile point on the trip. We reached this point 2 miles apart, even though we had travveled together for the entire trip due to slightly different calibration in our odometers (at least that is the claim of the person who's computer is showing 2 miles less than his traveling companion).
We had lost track of days of the week and didn't realize that the weekend was upon us. Most of the hotels in Clovis were full, and we ended up in a smoking room (the smell was not too bad) about half a mile from the nearest restaurant. The walk over to dinner was nice, but a serious thunder storm moved in when we were ready to head back. We waited in vain for half an hour for the rain to pass before calling a cab for a ride back to the hotel. No wonder Mr. Frugal considers us whimps...
After falling down to 4500 feet we clawed back to mile high. Also, this was the last time we expect to ride interstate. Approx 26 miles on I25. Made it to Vaughn before sunset.
Alain had the fourth and fifth flats. Met another trekker, Mitch, on his way to Socorro.
Alain reports:
Alain woke up to discover flat number 4 due to unknown causes on his front tire, so by the time it was patched and we were on the road it was close to 8:00. For the first 25 miles we were still on US 60 (our route across the entire state of New Mexico), but it was running along with I-25, so we were on the shoulder of the interstate. Bikes are allowed on this stretch of I-25, but unfortunetly so are headwinds :(
When US 60 turned off from the interstate we stopped at a gas station, which turned out to be closed. A cyclist named Mitchel came out from under the bridge, pushing a moutain bike loaded with gear and with a flat tire. He didn't have a pump, but his tube had slime in it, so we were able to get in pumped up for him. When we asked him where he was heading, he replied "I don't know, just taking it as it comes". That's a pretty good philosophy, and allows you to see many sights previously unknwn to mankind.
We headed East on US 60 and started climbing. Soon we were next to the Burlington Nothern Santa Fe (BNSF) train tracks, so we figured the climbs wouldn't be too steep. However, even though the road appeared to be fairly flat, we were really struggling as we headed to a town called Mountain Air. This was the half way point for the day, but it was already 2:00 when we got there, and we were resigned to a night time arrival in Vaughn. But at this point the road started going down and our speed doubled. It was still a long day, but we made it into Vaughn just as the sun was setting.
For unknown reasons the small town of Vaughn has about 20 motels. Ours was the furthest one, but it was worth crossing town to get to because if has a cool old fashioned 24 hour diner in front with good food.
We rode 107.8 miles from Quemado, New Mexico to Socorro. Today was big... We crossed the continental divide... And in the cibola forest we hit the high point of the trip... 8100 feet... From there we dropped several times into the plains to around 4500 feet... Morning temp... 33F...
It is 33 degrees and Alain decides to play sock puppets to keep his hands warm. John decides not to shake Alain's hands for rest of trip...
This is Eagle. He is on his way to LA... Started in up-state new york... We met him at breakfast this morning...
We met Pat and Cat near the VLA. They were the front two of a group of ten or so with van support. They been on road a few days at this point. They were on they way to Quemado, NM then to Malpetas Lava fields... They do lots of west coast touring...
Total miles to date... John 769 alain 767
Alain reports:
In the morning we went to the Largo restaurant for breakfast (surely anyone can make coffee and eggs). We met a West bound cyclist (NY to LA) named Eagle. He already had 2800 miles under his belt, and was thinking of heading back East when he got to LA so that he could have tail winds for a change instead of head winds.
It was cold when we left and within a mile or two Alain's fingers were freezing and he stopped to put them in his sweat shirt to thaw them up. John came puttering up with one hand in his packet, pointing out that it wasn't so cold if you just take it a bit slower. He also announced that the current temperature was 33 degrees, and did admit that his toes were about to freeze, even though he had on 2 paris of socks.
Alain dug out a pair of socks to use as mittens, and John used a couple of bike rags to stick inside his cycling gloves, converting them into full fingered gloves. Luckily the sun was getting higher and the temperature was rising, so these pathetic attempts at finger protection were not put to a severe test. After a couple of hours it got warm enough for bare fingers.
We arrived at the continental divide at a place called Pie Town, but did not stop at the pie store for a pie. A bit later we arrived at the highest point on a route, at about 8100 feet.
We then arrived at a stretch of US 60 that was ruler straight for more than 20 miles. We could see a small hill on the left, and a ridge with bushes on it in front of us. We met a couple cycling the other way and stopped to chat. They were the vanguard of a group of about 20 cyclists doing a supported ride, and for the next 10 miles we passed groups of 1 or 2 or 3 riders heading the other way.
Still on the straight stretch, we passed through the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. The VLA is composed of a bunch of individual radio telescopes spread out over several miles in two intersecting lines. Combined, the resolution is the same as one giant telescope stretching for miles would produce. It took us over 30 minutes to pass through the VLA. By now the small hill on the left was looking pretty big, and the bushes on the ridge in front of us had turned into trees. But once we made it to the top of the ridge, the road into Socorro was mostly down hill, and we arrived in good order.
Alain reports:
Our plan called for a 160 mile day from Eager, Arizona to Socorro, New Mexico. The clerk at the Eager motel told us that the road was hilly (we know this), and that there were some motels in a place called Quemado that was only 50 miles from Eager (we didn't know this, since the motels were unknown to mankind, hunting lodges are not motels but they will do). We had 2 extra contingency days built into the scedule, and decided to burn one by breaking the leg to Socorro into 2 days. (Later this would prove to be very wise as if we had tried to go the whole way we would be coming into Socorro very late and possibly going down a very long and steep grade into the city in the dark! And as it turned out finding a hotel in Socorro was tough, imagine if we had done so at 10PM!)
This meant we had a very laid back ride on day 7. Climbing hills is quite enjoyable when you are not pressed for time. By now we had perfected a leap frog protocol, with John going ahead on descents and Alain going ahead on climbs, and traveling together on flat stretches (and of course for important events like crossing state lines).
Quemado had 3 motels, but was not doing well (from what was now known to man), with lots of boarded up stores. As we came into town, we were met by the entire high school, jogging down the road in the opposite direction dribbling basketballs. We stopped at a motel across the street from a restaurant the clerk back in Eager had recommended, but no one answered when we rang the bell at the office, so we doubled back to the Largo motel, were we got some rooms.
We had been advised not to eat at the Largo, so we walked up to the recommeded lunch place, which turned out to be quite good. We discovered Sopapilla, a kind of pastry shell that you can fill with honey for desert, or meat and veggies for a meal.
That night it got cold, so we decided to check out the Largo restaurant. The advice we had received to avoid eating there was dead on accurate, but the did have a cool Elk head mouted on the wall, which looked to be the size of a horse. John's meal was OK but Alain got the chicken fried steak which looked like boiled meat wrapped in a thick film of lard with soggy bread crumbs encrusted.
Alain reports:
We left Payson early, with a light rain (almost a mist) falling. A few hundred feet from the hotel a cop had the through lane blocked, but we were turning right so we proceeded into the right turn lane. Then we heard a chain saw, and saw some guy cutting down a dead tree near the intersection. We did a quick U turn, just in time for the cop to look up and notice us, and give us a lecture about bikes following the same traffic laws as cars. Since he had appeared to be blocking only the through lane, we would have done the same thing in a car, but were wise enough not to point this out to the officer.
John's GPS database has a list of every hotel, motel and bread and breakfast known to man. There were none for at least 70 miles after Payson, which is why we had decided to make day 5 a short day. In the first 30 miles out of Payson, we passed several lodging places that apparently were unknown to mankind. (Note that most of them were not something man would want to sleep in... Perhaps cave man)
We came to a category 1 climb, up to "the rim". The views on the climb were spectacular, and although it was cold enough to see our breath, we were sweating from the climb. At the top we stopped to put on a sweat shirt (Alain) and jacket (John). The rim is in a national forest, and we saw some Elk. The trees blocked the wind, but in the afternoon the forest gave way to grassland, and a strong crosswind threatened to blow us off the road at times. After 70 miles of this brutal cross wind, we came to a sign saying "cross winds next 7 miles". Thanks for the warning guys.
In Show Low we considered stopping early, but fortified by some Burger King burgers, we continued on to Springerville/Eager. Darkness fell just as we were getting into town. We passed a motel in Springerville (not sure if it was known to man, or beast, or not), proceeding in the dark to one a couple of miles off of US 60 in the town of Eager.
Rode 62.9 miles. Today it rained. Waited until 8:30 to leave. Lots of Six percent grades. Three really long climbs to Payson, AZ. Topped off at 5014 feet. Rain likely tomorrow... Alain got two flats (2,3).. Bits of wire. SR87 had nice shoulders most of the way. Wet roads made it a bit tricky on the three 6% downhills. Temperatures hovered in mid 70s.
Alain reports:
Day 5 was set up as an easy day, with only about 70 miles to cover. We left Fountain Hill (home of the worlds highest fountain, which we didn't bother to check out the day before because it was raining) and headed North. There were almost no flat stretches all day, and although overall we were climbing, there were lots of big descents. The day started off cloudy, and some of the higher passes took us up into the clouds. The vegetation changed from cactus in the lower elevation to pine forest as we got higher.
John takes steep descents about 15 mph faster than Alain, so there were lots of separations and rendezvous. Coming down one steep section there was a sign for a rest stop at the bottom. As John came flying by, we agreed to stop at the rest stop for a bit. Seconds later Alain got a flat (number 2), and stopped to repair it, which took a while since it was a hard to find wire. Meanwhile John pulled into the rest stop, which was 1/4 mile off the road, and when Alain didn't show up, decided he had decided to skip the rest stop and took off. So now Alain and John were both traveling separately, both thinking the other was in front. Within a mile or two, Alain got flat number 3. Since this was a dry spell, he decided to glue on a patch, so by now John was way up the road. He had the good grace to pay for the room and leave a key waiting with the front desk clerk for Alain. With some creative use of the air conditioner and a blow dryer, we were able to dry out shoes and such. Professional shoe drying rack.
Arrived at Fountain Hill, AZ, 10 miles east of Scottsdale. Started to rain. 80% chance tomorrow... Not sure about Payson tomorrow. At least we can say goodbye to the 102 degree Arizona desert! Temp not like yesterday. Clouds kept it cooler. Winds head or cross. End of day just got to hotel before rain... Min altitude 890 max 1890?
Alain reports:
This is the last day we expect really hot temperatures. We have been fighting a head wind for 2 days straight as we headed East across California and Arizona, but now we are turning North and the forcast calls for winds from the South, so we should finally get a tail wind. The day before we planned to leave at 4:00 am to beat the heat (OK, so we didn't actually leave until 5:30). Today we only have about 90 miles to go, so we have time to chow down on breakfast at the space age motel before we leave.
As soon as we leave it becomes obvious that we have a head wind again. John decides to draft behind Alain so that we can carry on a conversation. John's drafting distance is about 6 inches, Alain's tends to be about 100 feet. We see a sign announcing road construction for the next 15 miles. We have had our share of bad pavement already, so this does not seem good, but it turns out they are expanding the road from a 2 lane to a 4 lane road, and are currently just putting in the bridges for the 2 new lanes. It seems funny to see several bridges per mile on a road across flat ground in the middle of a desert (total rain fall so far this summer 0.00 inches), but when they do get rain it tends to flood.
We are looking for a place with some shade to take a break. We pass a prison and a landfill, but these don't seem like good candidates. Eventually we come to a small town called Buckeye with a convenience store. None of these small stores seem to have benches anymore, apparently everyone travels by car instead of on foot.
Soon we are getting into the suburbs of Phoenix (Glendale). The Phoenix metropolitan area is huge and spreading almost before our eyes. We are in heavy traffic for over 30 miles crossing the city. Stopping at a gas station to ask about a better road than the one we were on, Alain discovers a mexican soft drink made with milk, rice and cinamon (Horchata). This stuff is awsome, John decides to steer clear of it - no sense changing his routine in the middle of a long ride. He is still unhappy that he really bought cashews the day before when he wanted peanuts.
We don't like the idea of doing only 90 miles, so instead of stopping in Scottsdale, John plots a new destination a few more miles down the road in a place called Fountain Hill. It turns out that they have huricanes in the Pacific, and one called Javier is moving in to Arizona. There is an 80 % chance of T storms today and tomorrow. As we pass through Scottsdale dark clouds start gathering. From there we have a big climb up to Fountain Hill, and it looks like a tight race between us and the rain. The winds are gusting at over 20 mph, and we get to the motel just before the rain, but we are dry.
We head next door to Denny's for dinner - nachos for an appetizer, followed by some kind of grand-slam egg and pancakes thing. John is feeling cold, so he goes back to the motel for his jacket and orders hot tea. He is also feeling thirsty, so he pours ice water into his tea. Alain is feeling hungry, so he snarfs down the fudge brownie ala mode.
After dinner the conversation turns to what to do about the ride to Payson for tomorrow. Up to 1 inch of rain is predicted for the 19th, and there is a flash flood warning. It is 62 miles to Payson. Alain want's to wing it and just start cycling if it is not actively raining in the morning. John is more concerned about long term survival and urges caution. Stay tuned for further reports to see what we decide to do - if there are no further reports it is likely we took Alain's advice.
Rode 117.6 miles. At a rest stop met driver who met gump at a MS150 ride a few weeks ago. Made good time today. Got to hotel at 5pm. John at 302 miles, Alain at 301.
Alain reports:
We didn't like running out of water the day before, so we decide to stock up big time. John breaks out a second camel back bladder (100oz, the first one is 50oz), and fills both with ice and water, plus John has 3 water bottles (28oz each) filled with gator aid. Alain only has 1 camel back (100oz) of ice water and 2 water bottles (28oz each) of gator aid, so he straps 2 big bottles of water onto his rack (1 liter bottles) and puts 2 more bottles of gator aid in his bags. Hmmm, still one more bottle of gator aid left, but don't worry, John has plenty of bungy straps. Alain straps on the last gator aid bottle on top of the water bottles. John informs Alain that he has done it backwards "The bottle is going to fall off the back, not the front". Under Johns guidance, Alain rearranges the bungys.
Some people told us the night before that the road to Gila bend is flat as a pancake, so at least we don't have to worry about climbing with all this extra weight. About 10 miles out of Yuma we come to a 600 foot climb. Guess it was a lumpy pancake. The road goes through a pass that is so narrow that the Eastbound lanes go underneath a bridge carrying the Westbound lanes. After a 2 mile descent we get to the flat as a pancake part. We hit a bump in the road and that last bottle of gator aid springs loose and rockets into the back of Alain's legs under the force of 4 bungy cords. John stops to pick it up and we drink it on the spot to celebrate surviving.
From there it is smooth sailing all the way to Gila Bend. We have plenty of water, and it turns out there are lots of places to stop for more (note that the distances are around 20 to 26 miles between stops). At a rest stop we meet a woman who has done several MS 150 rides and gets advice from John on buying a new bike. She tells us about a guy she met at the end of a MS 150 ride who was on his way from Tennessee and seemed to be starving, so they gave him all the left over food from the MS 150 ride. We show her a picture we took the day before of Mr Frugal, and she confirms that it was the same guy.
We get to Gila Bend early and check into a motel with a space age theme.
Rode 136.7 miles to Arizona. John broke a spoke on rear wheel. On a really crapy section of old US80 we bailed and illegally went back to I8 to save the bikes and our butts!
Along the way, we met Forest Gump on a bike . This guy says he is on his way to san fran to see a publisher. He is doing a book on his travels... He claims to rode 48 states and canada. He was repairing a flat. He said he did not eat for four days. His bike is stuck in lowest gear. He asked for a few bucks for food. I gave him a twenty when we left to his delight... He said 'food for two weeks!'
Alain reports:
Day 2 starts with a short climb, followed by a long descent. John is cruising down at around 35 mph, Alain is following at around 15. This gives John time to play with his GPS while he waits at the bottom. We are now entering a desert, and it is getting hot. Just outside of a place called Plaster City (no city, just a gypsum mine and a sheet rock factory), we meet a guy who is a ringer for Forrest Gump. He has long unkempt hair, a beard long enough to support an entire ecosystem, is dressed in rags, and has tons of stuff scattered around his recombant bike. Forrest is fixing a flat, but tells us not to worry, he has a spare tube. He tells us he has been on the road for 3 years and 114 days and is writting a book called "Extreme Bicycling for the Frugal". He has visited the lower 48 states and 2 Canadien provinces. He is on a 12 year quest to visit all countries in the Northern hemisphere. His bike is falling apart, and is down to 1 gear (the low! est). He has not eaten in 4 days. We estimate that he has not had a bath in 3 years, 114 days.
"Mr. Frugal" remarks that we are travelling pretty light (our bikes are about 50 lbs.). John tells him we are staying in motels. He calls us whimps. He asks if we can spare a buck and John gives him $20. He is delighted and mumbles something about being able to eat for 2 weeks on that.
We get to El Centro (of nothing) in time for lunch. By now it is super hot. After lunch we get an extra gallon of water and set out again. It is over 100 degrees and we need to pour water on our heads periodically to keep from overheating. After a while we run out of gator aid and start loosing salt and electrolites. This is not good. Later, we run out of water and its hotter than ever. This is still not good. Fortunately, we are now close to the Arizona boarder and our destination. We find a gas station, and get liquids.
Flew to San Diego, rebuilt bikes, as easy as 1, 2, 3, and we're done. Then off we rode into the sun for 47.6 miles. Alain had a flat (1) (at the airport). Along the way, we saw the pacific. We made it to Pine Valley Inn.
Alain reports:
Ora & Juliet drop Alain and John off at Ft Lauderdale airport around 8:30. There is almost no line at the Southwest counter, and no one seems interested in searching our bikes, or the boxes of cloths and tools we have brought along, so we have a ton of time before the flight leaves. Once we get on the plane, a video sceen drops down in the row in front of us so they can show a few "important safety announcements". The guy in front of us is bending over getting something out before he puts his bag in the overhead compartment and does not see the screen. He straightens up and bashes his head on the screen. He is in considerable pain, and John is immediately concerned we will be delayed when the flight attendant asks if he needs to see a medic. The guy says his head hurts (its bleeding and swelling, so this may in fact be the case), so John whips out an unmarked bottle of pills from his pocket and gives the guy a couple, and we are clear to leave.
During the flight the guy starts to get worse. They clear us out of our seats so the guy can lay down across 3 seats and suffer horizontally. They make an annoucement asking if there are any doctors or nurses on the flight. At least they are not asking if there are any undertakers on board. Eventually we make if to Phoenix and the guy is met by a team of paramedics. Meanwhile the pilots for the next flight have been delayed and are not yet in the airport, so we are delayed for an hour. We get to San Diego and collect or bikes and tools. John's box is completely smashed up and covered with "inspected" tape. Probably his GPS looks like a detonator.
Just to initialize the flat counter, Alain has a flat tire to fix while still assembling the bikes. By the time we leave the airport there is not much light left. A couple of blocks from the airport we come to a block with a 20 % hill. John struggles up. Alain ends up pushing his bike up. We leave San Diego on University Ave. A bus driver stops at a red light and opens the bus door to let us know that more bicyclists are injured on University Ave than any other road in San Diego.
It soon becomes obvious that our plan to get to our first stop before dark is hopeless. We get out of the built up area at twilight and start our 4000 foot climb into the hills. The only places open are bars and liquor stores, lots of each, so we know we don't have much time left for safe biking. As we climb into the hills we get above the smog and the stars come out. There is Scorpio on the right and the big dipper on the left. The temperature has been dropping, and its getting cool. Cool.
We were following US80 and
eventually it would end and we would need to get onto I8. This
was apparent from two indications. First the signs at the ON RAMP
would say NO PEDESTRIANS without the inclusion of NO BICYCLES.
And there would be a big spray-painted "R" with an ARROW pointing to
the ON RAMP. The painted "R"s as we would later summize were the
markers for the Race Across America route that we kinda followed all
the way to Vaughn NM. So anyway we would switch from US80 to I8
and back as dictated by the BIKE MUST EXIT NOW signs, the "R" arrows
and the GPS beeping when it was OK to get back on I8. It was
actually a pleasure to be on I8 because it was a smoother grade than
US80, a straighter road (shorter) and the shoulder was wide and there
was very little traffic.
Eventually we get to the motel at around 11:30. The manager calls his buddy who runs the restaurant/bar next door and he agrees to save us some tacos. He tells us that "that bicycle champ" has just decided to do a tour in the area and stay at his motel. "Do you mean Lance?" we ask. "Yeah, that's the guy". We are in room 3, and ask him to put Lance in there when he visits so we can say we slept in the same bed as Lance (or at least Ms. Crow).
