Cycling Ellen

62 miles today
291 total

It will take another day to get this on the internet as Salome is not exactly luxury living. My roommate tonight flushed the cockroaches before I got here. The shower was great though, lots of hot water and a tall spigot.

This morning we headed out into the sunrise headed for the Colorado River. We had to carry our bikes up to the bridge to cross over into Arizona, our first state line. That means a margarita party tonight here in Salome at 5:30 p.m. We had a great ride on Interstate 10 up and up on the wide shoulder. One thing I learned was not to trust bungy cords, especially the black rubber ones. They were all over the shoulder. It was my first interstate rest stop on a bicycle. There were signs for cars and trucks but where do the bikes park? We are in the land of saguaro cactus, the big tall ones with arms like Spike’s in the Peanuts cartoon. Across the street here is the cactus bar with a big one out front.

We stopped at Quartzite for Sweet Darlene’s, a huge pie shop with delicious apple pie. Rumor is that we’ll have more pie tonight with dinner. Fine with me!

We headed back onto the interstate. I rode alone up and up some more but a gradual climb. At one point, I looked up to see a wide load lead car just as I was getting to a bridge. I stopped to let some huge oversize trucks go by. The lead one gave me a big honk on his horn. They are really loud!

At exit 31 we headed onto our first chip seal road which is basically gravel with asphalt on top. It’s very rough and with a rumble strip as well, not fun riding. This is the land of RV parks and in Brenda we stopped on the edge of a big park. You can see people riding around in 4 wheelers and golf carts. What do they do all day out here in the desert?

In Hope, Sue, Carol and I stopped at the gas station with the best music selection. They were playing 60’s music which got us dancing outside. The frozen strawberry pop really hit the spot as the temps were up in the 90’s. The breeze was with us today though for which we were all grateful.

Now we are beyond Hope, here in Salome. Check out the spelling on the sign.

Which reminds me to tell you that each day I am posting new pictures. Check out the link to the right and scroll down to see the newest ones (with captions!). I only post one or so a day in a small size since Vermont has a lot of people on dial up. I’ll start a new album for Arizona. One state down, seven to go!

After dinner, before our map meeting, a couple of us decided that we should have some entertainment. None of you from Marlboro will be surprised that I pulled a pair of black cycling socks from my pocket and led a rousing rendition of Black Socks. We even did it as a 4 part round. Alright, it wasn’t very good in 4 parts yet, but we’ll keep working on it.