Day 19

Dalhart, TX to Guymon, OK (74 miles) Today was a good day in terms of no catastrophes occurred! The ride from Dalhart to Guymon was a long, straight, flat (for the most part) road and the ride itself was pretty boring. The highlight of today was that we crossed our 4th state line today from Texas into Oklahoma. At the Oklahoma state line, mile 50, a nice couple from around Oklahoma City set up a "welcome to Oklahoma" SAG stop for us with homemade cookies, brownies, banana nut bread, popcorn balls, etc. Don and Helen went across the US in 2006 on a tandem with Crossroads and ever since then have been welcoming Crossroads riders into their state with delicious refreshments and friendly conversation. Upon leaving that rest stop, I looked down at my tire and discovered I had a flat. It was a good place to have one because the SAG vehicle was right there and Pat, our "kiwi" s taffer, willingly changed it for me when I promised a neck and shoulder massage later -- a great negotiating tool! The four sick riders from yesterday stayed behind at the hotel in Dalhart to recuperate a little longer and should be joining us around dinner time. We will only be in Oklahoma one night and tomorrow we will cross our next state line and stay in Liberal, Kansas -- a state I'm sure we'll be sick of because we will be in it for seven nights!

Day 18

(Tucumcari, NM to Dalhart, TX - 98 miles) Looks like I'll be handing out a few more refunds. I made it to the first SAG stop at 9:30 am and had to call it a day. As it turns out, I wasn't the only one struggling. A bout of food poisoning was going through the group and we were dropping like flies. Only about 8 people made it the whole way and I can't begin to explain how difficult a day it was even without the illness. Yesterday's ride was 110 miles and it was one of the hardest days so far in terms of distance and head wind. However, yesterday we had a few occasions where the wind was at our side and that gave us a bit of break. Today, though, was a different story. We crossed into Texas today and lost an hour when we changed to the Central Time Zone. The leaders thought, since it was going to be another long day and the winds usually increase as the day goes on, that it would be better to start an hour earlier. Bags had to be outside and loaded on the truck by 6 am. After a breakfast stop at Denny's about 3 miles from our hotel, four of us started out riding together at 6:45. Today's ride to Dalhart was northeast for the first 20 miles, then directly north. Had we had yesterday's winds, it would have been a tolerable day. But no, the winds shifted during the night and came out of the north dead in our face all day long. It took my group 2 1/2 hours to go 31 miles, the first SAG stop. I was barely able to get off my bike (thanks to Rich for helping me with that) before I just laid down on the ground where I stayed for the better part of an hour. Other riders were vomiting and running behind scrub bushes to take care of other matters. As for me, I was just shivering and dizzy and just plain felt awful. The vans shuttled people in to the hotel all day long. Five people went to the hospital for IV' s where it was confirmed that they had a low-level food-borne bacteria. There were some troopers among the group, however, who rode all the way in. Janie Bender from New Jersey, my original riding partner at 6:45 this morning, just came in the door at 7:30 pm. That's over 12 hours riding time! Even the strongest riders, Don and Damien, only averaged 10-11 mph all day long that's how strong and constant the wind was. My friend Paula from Sacramento, CA said (on her way to the hospital at 6:30 am) that her main objective before leaving home was to make it through the whole trip without having to go to the hospital. That's how naive I was -- it never even occurred to me to have that as one of my objectives! Hopefully, this bacteria will exit our bodies as quickly as it arrived and we'll all be back to normal (albeit exhausted!!) by tomorrow. We cross another state line tomorrow, Oklahoma, for a distance of 77 miles. Oh joy, a short day!

Day 16

Santa Fe to Las Vegas, NM (74 miles) -- Today was perfect in every way. I started out riding this monring with two good friends who live in Santa Fe, Kim and Alan Simpson. Lee and I met Kim and Alan about 3 years ago when we did a ride in New Zealand. Alan makes me laugh so much! He's originally from New Castle, England and is a physicist working in the Santa Fe area. Too bad he's not smart or anything! Kim is a webpage designer (and a former handbag designer) and they came to visit us last year for the inaugural Big Dam Bridge century. We love getting to spend time with them. They rode the first 15 miles with me and turned around when we were getting on the interstate to ride over Glorietta Pass, the highest elevation on the whole tour -- about 7,300 feet. The weather was just perfect: clear skies with white puffy clouds, winds out of the SW at 15-20 mph and tempe ratures in the 60's when we started and near 80 when we finished. One couldn't have ordered up better conditions than today. Alas, a great day in every way. Alleluja! Today is the first day of our longest leg of the tour without a rest day -- nine days in a row. Tomorrow (Memorial Day) is a going to be a long one -- 109 miles from Las Vegas to Tucumcari. We'll surpass the 1,000 mile mark tomorrow! Tuesday we'll do 95 miles and cross into Dahlhart, Texas for one night. Then one night in the Oklahoma panhandle and the next 6 nights in Kansas.

Day 15

REST DAY in Santa Fe.

Day 14

Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM (67 miles) - I work up to find my rear tire flat. How I made it all the way in to the hotel without having to change the tube is hard to believe. At 5:15 am Lee helped me change the tube and get ready to get on the road by 7:15. The forecast for today was for intermittent showers with temperatures in the high 40's to low 50's. About 10 miles out of Albuquerque the rain began and never stopped. I only thought that yesterday was as bad as it could get. At least yesterday, the hail and sleet let up and the rest of the ride -- including a 5-mile interstate climb -- turned out to be a walk in the park by comparison. At mile 18, our friend, Alan Simpson from Santa Fe met me to ride the rest of the way into Santa Fe. After about a mile, I had another flat on the same wheel. I sent Alan ahead and called Lee to come help me change out the tube and the tire. We never found the rea son for the flat but assumed there was something hiding in the tire causing the trouble and changed it out to be safe. My feet and hands were as cold and wet as I've ever experienced on a bicycle. We stopped at a neat restaurant in Madrid (about 25 miles outside of Santa Fe) for a warm beverage and some lunch. After drying out and warming up a bit, we went back into the rain and finished up the ride about 2 hours later. We did quite a bit of climbing today. We actually looked forward to the climbs so our bodies would warm up enough to generate some heat. I had no feeling in my fingers at all so braking on the descents was very challenging. Alan turned off to ride home about 2 miles from the hotel so I braved city traffic and road construction to get to the hotel. After cleaning up my filthy body I tackled cleaning my filthy bike. What a job! We had dinner at Los Petrillos with Alan and Kim, Karen Powelson and her husband, Jean-Francoise and Bonnie Bishop and her boyfriend, Larry. It was a great way to end a yucky day.

Day 13

Grants to Albuquerque, NM (76 miles) - This morning looked ominous from the first peek outside at 5:30 am. It was cloudy, cold and already windy -- great! After pedaling about 5 miles the fun began: hail, sleet and more wind. The ride became dangerous, in my opinion, so I decided to hop in the van and get a ride to the first SAG stop just to get out of the weather. For all of you who pledged a penny a mile, I guess you're entitled to a 25 cent refund! I kept thinking that as badly as I wanted to see my husband that day in Albuquerque, I didn't want it to be from a hospital bed, so I swallowed my pride and got in the van. I'm no longer in contention to be an EFI-er (short for "every fabulous inch"). There are only two females left who haven't SAGged and my hat is off to them for getting through the worst weather (or so I thought) I"d ever ridden in. Day 13 proved to be an even greater adventure!

Day 12

Gallup to Grants, NM (68 miles) -- I should know better than to hope for a short day. Here's a good example: the ride was only 68 miles today (I remember when that used to be a long ride!) so I thought I'd be in by 12:30 or 1:00. But once again, my constant companion, Mr. Wind, made sure that didn't happen! Approaching the Continental Divide was pretty uneventful -- no big climbs as in the Rockies -- so after a quick SAG at the top, we began a delightful, gradual descent pedaling at around 20 mph with little effort. That's when I began to think I'd be at the hotel early for a change. Of course, the wind picked up and the hard work and slow pace commenced. Crossing the Continental Divide was the highlight of today, and I had a 3-day visit from my husband to look forward to the next day which renewed my enthusiasm!

Day 11

(Holbrook, AZ to Gallup, NM -- 88 miles) Today was one of those days you just get on the bike, ride and get it over with. It was pretty coming into New Mexico around the state line but other than that the past two days have been pretty boring. I pushed myself harder today than the other days just to get finished as quickly as possible. I came up on three men riding together who have collectively crossed the US by bicycle 6 or 7 times! They were very kind to let a girl ride along since they are having a guys' trip reunion ride. I was glad to have someone to talk to which helps the time and the miles go by a little faster. I also knew we'd be losing an hour because we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone when we entered New Mexico. We had to take a 9-mile detour off the interstate so I didn't get to sprinkle sand at the state line. I did get a picture of the big "Welcome to New Mexico" sign from the side road, though. We've come 723 miles so far, crossed two states and a time zone. I think that inself is worth celebrating!

Day 10

Flagstaff to Holbrook - 95 miles Today was an uneventul day really except that "I was standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona -- such a fine sight to see." -- from a song made famous by the Eagles, of course. The rest of the day was spent riding along Interstate 40 from Flagstaff (7,000 ft elevation) to Holbrook, AZ (about 5,000 ft). It was a good day because we were going down in elevation and we had a tailwind from the west which was great! This was our first tailwind day since the second day when we had a few casualties. We will cross the New Mexico state line tomorrow and stay in Gallup tomorrow night -- mileage for the day will be around 85 -- about the norm, it seems! I had two flats which wasn't fun but I had good help, so it turned out fine. More later!

Day 8

Cottonwood to Flagstaff (48 miles) - I guess you'll think I've been loafing around for the past 2 days since we've only done 50 miles or less compared to the 85-115 mile days we had in the beginning. We are in the mountains now and it takes twice as long to do the same distance when you're climbing, of course. I got a little too excited about day 6 when we had the nice climb into Jerome (a Eureka Springs-like town) and then a steep, fast descent into Cottonwood. I think I said it was a 15 on a scale of 10 in terms of quality of riding that day. As good as it was that day, yesterday was even better. We left Cottonwood at our regular time (7:15 am) and enjoyed a nice rolling terrain along a 4-lane road into the beautiful town of Sedona. Those red rocks are just breathtaking. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The skies were crystal clear, the temperature was about 65-70 degrees and the humidity was about 15%. After a little stop in Sedona to enjoy a little rest and take in the view at a coffee shop, we headed north through Oak Creek Canyon toward Flagstaff. We had about 25 more miles to go but this is the where the climbing came in. The road through had a slight uphill grade as we pedaled along the river. At about mile 37 we hit the switchbacks and had 2.2 miles of steep climbs to reach the summit. I must be getting stronger because I didn't even dread the climbing. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. I have to admit that my determination to lose weight this past year was driven by this very thing: climbing! When you weigh less, climbing is just easier. The view at the summit was spectacular. The last 12 miles into Flagstaff was still uphill but more rolling. We encountered some headwind again but we didn't mind too much because we knew that once we got to Flagstaff we'd have a full day off tomorrow. YES!!! After this tough week, we all need it.

Day 9 was a rest day in Flagstaff.

Day 7

Prescott to Cottonwood - 48 miles. Today started out just like yesterday with the promise of being a beautiful, calm day of cycling in the high desert but one can be so wrong! However, before I start complaining about the wind (again), let me say that this day of cycling was a 15 on a scale of 10. We began by leaving Prescott and riding out of town to climb Mingus Mountain. Just like yesterday, the long supposedly FLAT road was, of course, a 4-5% grade and straight into a 25 mph headwind. So, long story short, it took us 2 hours to go about 15 miles. Once we began the ascent up the mountain, the roads turned to switchbacks and the mountain blocked the wind for the most part. The steeper climb was actually easier than the less steep approach! At the summit (7,023 ft.), we celebrated with snacks at the SAG truck, took a few pictures and began the descent which was SPECTACULAR! It mad e all the work leading up to it worthwhile. After going around a curve, a panoramic view unfolded unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The visibility was crystal clear and across an enormous valley we could see the red rocks that Sedona is so famous for and the snow-capped San Franscisco peaks behind them about 50 miles away. We descended into the historic hillside town of Jerome where we enjoyed one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever had at the Haunted Hamburger. A few of us took an optional loop to explore the Tuzigoot Indian Ruins which were very interesting. A short 5 miles later we arrived at the Best Western in the little town of Cottonwood where we are tonight. All in all, this day has been the best so far!!! Tomorrow we are off to Flagstaff which will be a very difficult climbing day, but I think my legs are finally getting used to the routine as it's actually becoming a little easier every day. A much anticipated day o ff awaits us on Sunday where this massage therapist will have a much-needed massage herself! After close to 600 miles in 7 days, I think I've deserved it.

Day 6

Wickenburg to Prescott (60 miles). I know what you're thinking -- 60 miles, is that all? I know that's what I was thinking but I quickly discovered why it was almost half the mileage of yesterday. It was all uphill and into a ferocious headwind all day long! I would have never in my wildest dreams thought a 60 mile ride would take 6 hours, but at times I was thankful to be going 6 mph on what looked to be a flat road -- called a "false flat" I've since learned. I've also made it more difficult for myself by giving up coffee to cut down on bathroom breaks -- sorry, too much information! But that does lead me to a point I'm trying to make: Caffeine withdrawal is real and I noticed it about halfway through today's ride. I was very tempted to throw in the towel and take the "SAG" (short for support and gear) vehicle, but my pride just wouldn't let me. After a Mountain Dew, a bag of Peanut M&M's, half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some Cheetos I was good to go and the rest of the ride was spectacularly beautiful. We are in the mountains now and the climbing is slow-going but the trade-off is pretty scenery. This new diet is hard to get used to after following Weight Watchers for almost a year, but they say we're burning between 3,000 and 4,000 calories a day so I'm not going to worry about it. Prescott is where we are tonight and the elevation here is about 6,000 ft. Tomorrow we're heading toward Flagstaff and stopping for the night halfway in between at a town called Cottonwood. We'll pass through a quaint little town called Jerome which overlooks the red rocks of Sedona so we were advised tonight at "route rap" to stop and smell the roses!

Day 5

Blythe, CA to Wickenburg, AZ (115 miles). Today's ride was LONG! Not only was it 115 miles, but it took me 7 hours and 40 minutes to finish it. Today we crossed into Arizona, our first state border crossing. We were given a little film canister of sand at orientation and told to sprinkle a little at each state line, so we did that for the first time today. Tracy, the tour leader, said it would bring good luck and less flats so we weren't going to take any chances! The first 38 miles was on I-10 like yesterday, but then we got off on Route 60 East and headed for Wickenburg, AZ. We had to constantly pour water over our heads and shirts to stay cool. Temperatures were reported to be in the 100's but it's hard to tell because there's no humidity. We climb uphill all day tomorrow from Wickenburg to Prescott (60 miles). More tomorrow.

First Update - Days 2, 3, and 4

Day 2

Pacific Ocean (Manhattan Beach) to Riverside, CA (78 miles). You could call this day "Tour of Los Angeles" because, even though the cities changed names, it was just one long, continuous city ride for several hours. Riverside is a pretty small city down in a valley. It had the best frozen yogurt I've ever tasted. Glad the first day is behind us because we'd all be nervously anticipating getting started. Now we can start to get in a "groove."


Day 3

Riverside, CA to Indio, CA (87 miles). Parts of this ride were the best I've ever experienced and the part some of the worst. At one time we had the most incredible tailwind I've ever ridden in. We were riding 35+ mph without even pedaling! However, when the wind shifted from west to northwest, we were blown all over the road, sometimes into the path of cars. As we were coming into Palm Springs, two riders in our group, Jose and Cindy, crashed when the wind literally blew Jose off his bike and Cindy, who riding behind him, went over the top of him. After a visit to the Palm Springs ER, Jose had had a concussion and advised to drop out. Cindy had a big scare and some major road rash, but otherwise OK. A few others got tossed around by the wind and had minor scrapes and cuts, but are still hanging in there.

Day 4

Today was a long day and tomorrow will be even longer! We rode 100 miles from Indio, CA to Blythe, CA. There is NOTHING between them, just desert. We rode on the shoulder of Interstate 10 the whole day. The first five miles leaving Indio weren't too bad but then we started a long, gradual 11-mile climb. As the day wore on, so did the wind and the temperatures. We didn't enjoy the tailwind that we had yesterday and riding on the interstate with a strong crosswind was extremely scary at times. The constant truck traffic sucked us in toward them and then after they passed the wind nearly blew us over. From behind, the cyclists looked like they were leaning to the left at a 45 degree angle just to stay upright to counterbalance the strong wind blowing from the north. I was determined not to become dehydrated so I drank almost 5 gallons of Gatorade/water mixture in my camelback. I'm glad I did. Four people went to the hospital at the end of the ride today due to dehydration and overexposure. You don't sweat in the desert like you do in Arkansas so it's hard to tell if you're drinking enough. We were advised to wear full-coverage head sweats and keep them wet by pouring water over our heads while riding. I thought I was in Arkansas about 25 miles outside of Blythe when I could see twisters out in the desert -- sandstorms! Riding through a sandstorm is a cheap way to have microdermabrasion and it stings like crazy! I felt very fortunate to have gotten through the day without a flat tire. About half the group had at least one flat and some people had two or three. Tomorrow will be every bit as hard and probably harder. The temperatures will probably be in the 110's and the ride is 15 miles longer. We will cross our first state line tomorrow and stay in Wickenburg, AZ tomorrow night.