Prostate Cancer Awareness Ride Blog

    Early to bed, early to rise. The early bird gets the first worm. Whatever, we were up early and on the road before daybreak, having learned the lesson from the day before. So as the wind got worse, we learned the only way to beat the wind was to get up by 4am, and hopefully be on the bikes by 4:30.        
    As we left Imperial valley, Redding reminded my this is the most inappropriatly named place in the world. Nothing Imperial about Imperial valley! Hot, dry, dusty and nowhere to eat! It was lunch time before we got to Ocotillo, and as we walked inb the windsweep diner on the side of the road, two fellas said "Well you made it ! We passed you a couple of times  as we did our morning chores. You fellas always seemed to be in about the same place."
    Sympathy for our plight spread, and soon a nice enough guy offered to drive us to the top of the 10 mile interstate climb. "As ,uch as we appreciate your offer, we must kindly refuse." I couldn't believe the voice I has just heard, but yes, the integrity of our long bicycle journey was at stake.
    So after a long brunch, a liter of Pepsi, and a sip of fortitude, we began the long journey on  the bike lane up the side of Interstate 8 where California reaches to the sky.Averaging under 4 miles per hour, we crawled along . Sure enough, the wind decreases and becomes a nuiance from every direction in the mountains, but it was definetly no longer a headwind in our face, and the changing terrain assured us the top was getting closer. 
    Jacumba is a beautiful city, on the mexican border and the home of natural mineral springs. What a welcome site when the only hotel there came into site. A great dinner at the hotel, some ice cream in the room, and an early to bed left us only one day from San Diego.

    Before I forget, there are a couple of special thanks that need to be extended. Thank you Mary at The Bicycle Barn in Phoenix. You changed our tire, sold us a great jersey, brought our supplies up to date, and most importantly, you were willing to ship our excess baggage home through UPS. You have definitely won our number one bike shop award on the southern tier for 2009! Thanks again. And a word about Horsepatality. This wonderful RV park in Wickenburg, Arizona provided the most grass f...
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    The hot springs south of Thacher seem to have healed all of our aches and pains. We set out in the early morning hours from the hot springs with hopes of reaching Globe. As the day bore on the sun rose higher and the winds picked up. After 85 miles of trudging through the outskirts of the Apache reservation we came across the Apache Casino. We were exhausted from our long days work and decided to stay there for the night. After glancing at the mountains in the distance we realized that on...
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Day 18 - The head wind is 10 to 12 mph, the arizona sun sits high in the sky, there is no shade or cover forever, and the road points uphill for the next 8 miles -- so this is riding against the wind. When we left Silver City we progressed nicely through the day, but so did the wind. By the time we were on the hill to Buckhorn, New Mexico the winds had started to change our mind about the doability of this ride. When we reached the USFS campsite just inside the Arizona border, we were thrille...
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    Day 15 - so how did we end up at the manhattan bar in old santa rita eating breakfast burritos at 9am on June 4th 2009 ?
    Wellll, we left El Paso on Monday, and were we ever glad to see another state without the name Texas. The head winds were severe, but we got a break when the pecan trees would line the roads. Huge pecan orchards that would be flooded by the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Thank God there were enough of them to create a unique passage thru the back roads to Las Cruses. ...
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    How do I explain the challenge, the fear, and the trust that it took for a father and a son to cross 74 miles of barren Texas desert knowing there would be no filling stations, no restaurants, no country stores, not even a tree. Our supplies consisted of ten full waterbottles, two unopened gatorades, two tin cans of tuna, a bag of mango slices, an apple, and a cliff bar. We started at six. By ten we were leaving Valentine, Texas; the 34 mile mark. By noon we were leaving the last marked r...
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    Comstock, Langtry, Sanderson, Marathon, Marfa; the last 72 hours has rolled through our lives with as much force and thrill as the thunder that filled Seminole Canyon. You see, after our last blog, we barely got our tents secured with pegs before the worst storm we have ever experienced came at us from four different directions. You didn't have time to say one, one thousand. Three and a half inches of rain drenched our campsite over the next hour. HAHA, but we survived! 
    The pattern of...
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    Lost in Kerriville, a sharp right hand turn at the end of the day if missed would have sent us miles in the wrong direction. A mother in a lexus whose daughter and diabetic grandson were to ride the next day in an Austin to San Antonio fundraiser stopped and guided us in the right direction. Thank you to the angel in the white lexus. The Kerriville state park was wonderful. All of our neighbors had harleys!
    The roads from Ingram to Leakey were the most intense mountain passages we hav...
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    We arrived in Austin earlier than expected and wanted to begin our trip right away! Getting started was a little challenging in that we needed to prepare our bicycles for the trip. Thanks to Kenny Athley at the REI in Austin, we were able to rather timely get our bicycles ready.
    We didn't begin day 1 of the trip until about 3:30 in the afternoon and our first challenging feat came right away with trying to meander our way through downtown Austin. Once we were outside of Austin the roa...
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Joe at Habersham Bikes is the man with the plan. We took the bikes to his shop to get them ready for the trip. Joe is going to fit both bikes with panniers and give them a tune up. The trip is right over a month away! Give him a call at 7068942453.
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