Arizona

As the title of my recent post suggests, my journey has taken me over 900 miles so far and now into my third state, Arizona. I have to say that after a relatively boring trek through Nevada, I was more than happy to cross the stateline into a newer and at least outwardly more interesting state.

Back to where my journal left off though. After Carson City our my team continued 55 miles East to Fallon, Nevada, where we had an amazing friendship visit with Fallon Industries, a local organization that serves people with many different disabilities. We had a great time with lots of dancing as well as singing kareoke with the participants there.

The next morning we awoke and had breakfast together as north and south for the last time together as a whole team. Then we departed in a double paceline north in the left and south in the right until the road split a quarter mile down and the south team continued down to Hawthorne, Nevada, 75miles away. After a wonderful pasta dinner with B.P.O.E of Hawthorne, we took an early night to get some sleep before our 105 mile day to Tonopah.

Apparently Tonopah is the city that saved Nevada's statehood... Thank you Tonopah! In case you were wondering, 105 miles is a very long way to ride on a bike. The small mining town of 4000 is located at 6000 feet of elevation, which has earned it the JOH nickname of "The City on a Hill." it really earns this name too as the last 15 miles is a very slow and brutal climb from the valley floor up to the city which you can see from over 20 miles out and it never seems to get closer. After a wonderful tour of the mines that made to city famous, we had a great dinner with the Tonopah Lions Club and collapsed and all fell fast asleep to gear up for our shorter 95miles ride the following day.

Headwinds are the best way to describe Nevada, and are probably he reason I hate the place so much. The first 70 miles of our trip Beatty could almost be described as easy. However, after lunch a very sting headwind picked up and our pace slowed to a standstill. I have this concluded that Nevada is the only state where you go faster uphill than down because we regularly pulled 12mph down similar hills that we had pulled 18mph up. The swimming pool at the end was nice though.

Now that the hard part was over we had two short days of no real note to Vegas which as toucan read in the previous post wasn't my cup of tea. The following days after Vegas found us on the Arizona stateline as we broiled in 115 degree hear on our ride into Bullhead City. As a contrast Arizona has been quite beautiful as the ride has taken us along the Colorado River. It has been hot though but I feel more in my element.

Currently I am in lake Havasu City, Arizona, where we have had a much needed day off from cycling, which has included a lake day, rich an plentiful meals, and a pool party. It will be hard to leave, but I have been missing the bike a little bit. It feels awkward now when I don't get to ride.