Advertisement
Published: October 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Crossing the line
Goodbye California! Shawne says...
Day 8
Mileage Today: 55.4
Total Mileage: 328.2
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 4
We didn't sleep well again. Being so close to the water meant there were TONS of bugs. I have so many bites...I was scratching all night. It was hot and muggy, and I felt bugs crawling all over me. It sucked. We rose early and joked about knocking at the door of the fifth-wheel across the way that woke us up last night. We crossed the bridge over the Colorado River, and we were in ARIZONA!!! State #2!!! We stopped at the Flying J truck stop for breakfast. We filled up with ice and took off. We now had to enter Interstate 10. With traffic whizzing past us at 70+mph, we started climbing. We took so long eating and getting ready at the truck stop, it was already hot. A few miles up the grade there was a rest area. We stopped to stretch and drink some water. There, may curious people stopped and asked about our travels. One older man has an extended conversation with us. He was a retired Marine who travels often because his pension is nice. We enjoyed his stories about
Riding on Interstate 10
The breeze the big rigs created when they roared past actually felt good! his military career and his family. He offered us a large road atlas as he left, but I had to refuse. We have our Adventure Cycling maps and that Atlas was much too heavy to pack with us.
We had yet another amazing ride into Quartzite, AZ. As we wheeled down the main drag, we saw an old man on a bicycle with his dog standing on a board on the back rack. Jo said, "That's a good dog you;ve got there!" The man replaied,"Eh...he's alright...most of the time." We laughed and snapped a quick picture on the fly. Later we saw a 40 foot tall fighing pole made of scrap steel with a metal fish handing from the line, which was braided steel cable. It was at the entrance of an R.V. park, so we decided to get a closer look. The entire park was full of odd sculpture made of scrap metal. It was really neat that someone made all of this art from scrap. We snapped a few more pictures and went off to find the library to finish our blog entries.
We found the library after taking a right at some old fighter jets that were
The Ocotillo
Jo's new favorite plant. laid to rest in a corner lot near a park. We updated the blog and were leaving when another older gentleman stopped us and told his stories of bicycling through Mexico and Central America. We stopped at yet another gas station for lunch (microwaved burritos and ice cream sandwiches) and headed up I-10. We started noticing a large amount of perfectly good black rubber bungee cords all over the shoulders of I-10. If we had stopped to pick them all up, we would be set for life! The only shade we could find was in the shadow of a large green metal sign that announced the next exit in one mile. We parked our bikes in the dirt, off the shoulder, and took a water break in the shade. We started stretching, getting ready to ride again, when two State Patrol cars pulled up next to us. We waved and they looked at us and our gear, and simply pulled away. The only thing we could figure was that someone called the State Patrol when they saw Jo sitting on the ground and me running towards her. I was only running because I had the camera on it's tripod and
Check this out!
What a cool dog! acivated the 10 second timer. I ran to get into the picture with Jo! Someone may have mistaken the scene and thought Jo had collapsed and I was running to help her. Who knows? It's nice to know that people out there were concerned about us.
We finally made our way off of I-10 and onto Hwy 60. Another stop at a town market (if you could consider Brenda, Arizona, a town) got us more questions and more confirmations of the group of cyclists ahead of us. We purchased dinner fixings (frozen ground beef, frozen fried chicken, noodles, and spaghetti sauce) and pushed on to the last 15 miles toward camp. The road was speckled with homes here and there; their yards were full of old broken down vehicles...some of which I would love to have and restore. One sign we passed read, "Beware Bad Oder and Flies Ahead"-we had to get a picture of that!
The last five miles seemed like it would never end. We arrived at our campground and were peased with the $7.46 fee to pitch a tent. And, once again, we were told the store of the 14 cyclists from Adventure Cycling ahead of us.
I made a delicious spaghetti dinner and we gulped it down. Now, I am off to shower and sleep (Hopefully).
Jo says...
The evening was beautiful. As the sun sank into the Western sky, it was if the jagged mountains cut open the sun. We watched as it bled over the horizon until night's bandages covered the wound, and it was dark. The stars here are beautiful. We pondered the lives of the snowbirds that spend their winters here in their R.V.'s. What an interesting life they must lead, but in Hope, Arizona? Who even knew this place existed? It's so quiet here you can here the earth rotate on it's axis. The night air was cool, and I'm thankful I didn't send home that sleeping bag.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0383s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Debi
non-member comment
The Water Cooler Crowd is Getting Bigger
I now have everyone at my work wondering when we will get another blog. When we do, the work stops and everyone wants to hear the latest. Jo, please let the man get some rest as his fingers are becoming dislexic. We look forward to the next episode of the Days of the Martinezes!!!!