March 16, 2013 Saturday in the Best Western in Gold Canyon AZ where there is a huge Renaissance Festival this weekend to that the cars are packing the highway in front of the hotel as people come and go. As I got ready to leave this morning with everyone else, I pumped up my tires and the front one made a strange hissing noise. I checked with Carol: it had a flat because of the valve had broken. I whipped out one of my two inner tubes, and she most kindly helped me change as everyone else was leaving for the morning ride. It's fine now and I only have one inner tube. Because I left after everyone else, I biked along following my cue sheets - and it was fun.
What I learned from today was that I love flat riding. We left our hotel in Phoenix and rode along quiet Scottsdale roads - an affluent suburb - with neat houses set back behind large cactus gardens. There were good bike lanes, and I even spotted Real Arizonites out on their bikes in bike pants and shirts , enjoying a weekend ride. I looked just like them but they didn't know I'd started in San Diego. We ended up at a lovely park, for the Sag Break, and then pedaled along a bike path that wound around lakes and parks and people fishing and three white herons contemplating from the banks of the river, and a man who caught a large mouth bass - which is definitely A Large Fish - and families with children setting up picnics and playing Frisbee and two teams starting a game of rugby= which excited our New Zealand bikers - and dogs out for walks sniffing happily and other people biking on cruiser bikes on the path and the cloud-shaded sun providing the perfect temperature for a day outside in the park.
Then we road along more industrial roads with traffic - not much fun. I stopped for a snack and the sun decided to come out the temperature soared to the 90s. I had a snack and then pedaled on to the first restaurant with air conditioning I found - a pizza place that wouldn't sell me one slice but redirected me to Burger King where I had a chicken sandwich, fries, iced coffee, unlimited air conditioning and the use of a bathroom.
The next route direction was to go left on Broadway Road for 18 miles and when I started down, it felt oppressively hot. The Sag Wagon was at 10 miles - because I called - and feeling hotter and less able to go on pedaling, I arrived to find most of the others taking a break too - except for the zip-off=-and-get-there-really quickly who were probably at the hotel. After a break, water refills and a lot of discussion, three of us agreed to take the Sag Wagon back for the last 14 miles and the rest were ready to roll on. However, hardly had we got organized and left, then we saw one of them tapping her helmet to say she too wanted a ride. We loaded her bike on the roof rack and tried not to feel too aggrieved because it's to load a bike on the roadside.
Tonight's dinner eating outside in the warm evening air under the stars at this excellent Best Wtern,was Moroccan stew with some chicken not fish and rice and peas and pineapple chunks. Delicious.
TOMORROW is a Challenging Day because we are going to cross the Continental Divide's mountains (gulp) and go other climbing up and down, and go through a tunnel. I shall see how much I can do. We are going higher for the next couple of days so not as much to d O\Lov
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