(Photo provided by John)
I started the day worried that I didn't get a sufficient night's sleep. We camped in a community campground where we took a hose shower and set our tents around little league baseball fields. I opted to try out my new hammock. I fell asleep easily enough but woke up to dogs barking, coyotes crying and donkeys bleating. This seemed to go on for hours. The temperature began to drop and I actually ended up in a winter's jacket. It was a rough night. However, the next day I rode 78 miles with more energy than the previous 9 days of riding. I had pasta and 2 beers for dinner so I'm going to attribute my good day to that. The ride today was really uneventful. I rode with the usual gang of Pat, Dick, James and Brian. We look out for each other and we share many laughs.
( Brian is in the tuxedo biking shirt and John is in yellow.)
Brian joined the ride in Tempe and is a strong rider who at times pulls us along. Brian is from Florida and is a social worker. He's a very caring and genuinely good guy as are the rest of our gang. As James would say, "We get along marvelously." John joined us today mainly because he had four flats. He, without a doubt, is the strongest rider in the entire group. John is from Minnesota and is having the time of his life. Someone bought him a selfie stick and he has gotten some of the funniest pictures. He's the first person I know that's taken a selfie with road kill.
We rode through a large Apache reservation that was very depressing to me. The road was littered with literally millions of bottles. 30 miles of broken beer, whiskey and soda bottles glistened in the bright Arizona sun. We had to dodge broken glass and discarded debris to the point that I never looked up to see the scenery that surrounded us. We stopped at an Apache grocery store that had very little in it. Many of the aisles and shelves were empty. Outside of the store I met Shawnie, a woman that had lived on the reservation for her whole life. I asked her if I could have a picture taken with her and she gladly agreed. I was shocked by the overwhelming smell of alcohol as I stood next to her. The whole situation was depressing and I left there with mixed emotions on who was to blame for this hopeless situation these people seemed to be in.
After we left the reservation, the road sides became much less littered and there were 'Adopt the Highway' signs. Large cotton fields lined the road and there were huge farm houses. As we neared Safford, AZ there was an ice cream shop that catered to bikers. There we had mass quantities of ice cream and our picture taken to be added to the Cross County Risers' Wall. We are now officially famous. We had a quick ride to an RV park where we are staying. A former Southern Tier Cyclist surprised us with a great dinner at a restaurant located just down the road from where we're staying. We had an awesome 78 mile day. Cheers from the team!
