ARIZONA HIGHWAYS ARE AMAZING

Riding from GLobe to Safford in Arizona on HIghway 70 Monday March 17


     Just so you know it's not perfect bike riding, there are too many trucks and campers and large vans on the road if they're going to allow bicycles to ride in the bike lane because it is really too narrow and not smooth enough. To divide the traffic from the bike land, they have put uneven bits of concrete so your bike vibrates when it goes over them. Not ideal. However, we are all getting used to it - and we  ignore the rude drivers who sound their horn and appreciate the truck drivers who move into the far lane.
      Today, there were beautiful highway roads rolling ups and down in the middle of a Native America Reservation with no buildings, no factories, no gas stations, nothing at all but miles and miles of scrubby land with cactus and rocks and some very small ants we saw when Jo and I had our sandwich along the way. In the distance are some striking tall granite mountains still dusted with snow - which I think are the southern end of the Rockies leading to New Mexico. They are spectacular against the deep blue sky and the sun didn't get too hot until the afternoon and I was at the Days Inn in Safford by then.
     It was a challenging ride for the uphills but wonderful rolling downhills and the key is to get enough momentum going down that it carries you halfway up the next up. Deep purple low mountains in the distance, rocks and scrub and a sense of being at the end of the world, miles from civilization. When we sat and ate our lunch, it was intensely quiet as we looked at the low hill in front of us covered with saguaro fingers stretching to the sky and low scrubby bushes. We talked in quiet voices because of the intensity of the stillness.
      It's a different landscape from Colorado because the mountains are lower and less gray and stark in the distance. I heard some birds, and I saw a hummingbird at the hotel. But otherwise nothing lives above the hot desert land though there are insects and animals who can survive the summer heat.
     It is unexpectedly hot here for Spring so no-one is ready for it this early.
     The bike road is not entirely ours. There's a British guy from Doncaster with a nice Yorkshire accent who is taking the Southern Tier route for his late-life adventure. His bike is loaded down with all his stuff - no sag wagon - and he joins us for rest stops and days off with ease. He has a three month visa so he has to get to Florida in time and he admitted he might quit a bit early "because I had no idea it would take so long." No, Keith, this is not riding across the British Isles in a week. He passed me today when I was walking up one hill that proved to be Too Much, and then I rode past him resting under a tree when he had had enough.
     Then there's the heavily laden bike and trailer a man was pedaling yesterday when he saw us getting out of the Sag Wagon. He was wearing traveling clothes, and a helmet with a big wide rim on top to keep off the sun. We called hello and he waved back and he asked what we were doing, so we told him. He planned to ride off into the mountains an stay there. When he heard we had a Sag Wagon, he called: "Amateurs!" as he pedaled off into the distance. SO there's a hierarchy here too.
      Another day, another 48.5 miles - and I've actually totaled more than 200 miles so far. I don't think my grand total will be 3,100 this year - though one New Zealand woman who is a triathlete and has done Iron Man races will probably do the whole thing without breaking much of a sweat. Yes, she is a little younger too. Today, three of us 70 year olds together at a picnic area were laughing at the fact that we'd chosen to do this and not sit in our armchairs knitting. Who knew getting old could be this much fun!