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Published: October 12th 2006
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Shawne says...
Day 14
Mileage Today: 24.5
Total Mileage: 571.6
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 16
The hair on my head was wet when I awoke. Our leaking tent was to thank for that. I rose and tried to get the soaked campfire to reignite. It took a few minutes, but I managed to get it going. Jo was still passed out, and I wanted her to sleep in today. Yesterday was pretty rough on her; well, it was rough on both of us. We needed to let the morning rush hour mining traffic pass before we got back onto this terrible road. I put some water on the stove to make coffee and oatmeal. Jo awakened and we enjoyed breakfast by the campfire.
(Jo interrupts...My face and my hands keep swelling really badly at night. I don't know if it's an allergic reaction of some kind, or if my body isn't processing fluids correctly. Shawne said he didn't even recognize me this morning, and would have been really confused if I hadn't been wearing the same clothes as last night. He said I look like an overweight Asian woman. My face is so swollen, it cracked my lip, and
Swollen Face Jo
Where did ya' come from, Swollen Face Jo? I can see the flesh around my eyes (without the help of a mirror). Shawne took a picture of me this morning so he could show me what my face looks like. I looked at the picture and didn't recognize myself either. After three or four hours, though, my face is back to normal and my hands work properly again. I don't know what is causing this. If anyone has any ideas...sent me a comment please!)
A new storm was churning in the distance; we could hear it's thunder echoing through the hills. We overheard a woman at the Celtic Campground next door telling her fellow campers, "The sheep got gutted. Anybody need any more innards?"
We'd joked the night before, wondering aloud if they were going to sacrific a goat in some sort of ritual. We thought at the time that we were kidding, but hearing this, we doubled over laughing. (Jo interrupts again...we could hear what sounded like a bone saw running periodically all morning! Poor sheep!)
We locked into our pedals and climbed the hill out of the campground. Once back on the route, a decent shoulder would appear, then disappear as we climbed up and coasted
Strange plant
We call it the "Fuzzy Pepper". Anyone know what it is? down the rolling mountain road. We were glad that we didn't take Jim up on his offer to transport us and our gear to Globe, AZ. The road seemed to be getting better. The grade was not as steep as yesterday, and there was less traffic. We reached a small town at the summit named 'Top of the World'. There was an abandoned store that resembled the dining car of a train and a run-down gift shop with weathered, hand-painted signs out front. It was getting cold, and we had to don our raincoats to block the wind. We headed directly into the blackness of the storm ahead. We started the descent, and again were forced out into the road because of the lack of a shoulder.
We came upon another bridge spanning a deep canyon. Stopping in a dirt pullout, we waited for a break in traffic, then shot across the bridge. Halfway across, a group of cars passed us but gave us more space than on the previous bridge. Just as we made it across, a big rig passed by...GOOD TIMING! Farther down the mountain, the roads were wet and slick. Cars kicked road mist all over us.
Piles of fresh hail began to appear on the sides of the road. We must have just missed a huge hailstorm by just a few minutes. Toward the bottom of the grade, we saw a sign that read, "Welcome to Miami". Yay, we made it already!
Well, it turned out that we were still in Arizona. Miami, Arizona. We stopped to snap a picture. As we pulled off the road, a convoy of big rigs came roaring by with their jake brakes growling. Wow! Today has been nothing but good timing! We missed the hail storm, and we've been stopped at the side of the road whenever big rigs came by!
We stopped in Claypool to eat and went to Wal-Mart for supplies. (Jo interrupts...We bought Scotchguard for the tent, too!) An older Native American man stopped to talk to us. He grabbed my hand and began to pray for us. He told us, "Jesus will watch over you during your trip, you will be safe, and my tribe has a nice Casino on the way out of town that you should stop at." (Jo interrupts...He also said, "You must follow the Son. You will always get your strenth from
the Son. Put your faith in the Son, for that is the source of the power you find in life. You will know this because it always rises in the East and sets in the West." It wasn't 'til he finished that he meant the SUN, not the Son.)
We hit the library in the city of Globe and updated our blog. Today was a short day as far as mileage. We found the community center that was listed on our maps as a place to stay. We thought we would be staying inside a building...similar to our experience in Brawley, CA. Instead, we had to set up in the park next to the playground equipment, which was fine too. As the sun fell, the temperature dropped quickly.
We set up camp and decided to use the Scotchguard for the tent in case it rained again. After treating the tent, however, the fumes were so bad, we couldn't get in the tent for about three hours! (Jo interrupts...So, I asked Shawne to run to the store and get some beer, and since I twisted his arm...yay beer!) We just sat around and killed time. Vehicles kept coming in and out
Welcome to Miami!
Here already? But we missed the Chihuahua races! of the parking lot. A couple of pickup trucks pulled in and parked facing us. The occupants kept getting in and out of the trucks. We thought it looked like a drug deal. They sat there for over an hour before finally leaving. Then, two guys dressed in solid black with hooded sweatshirts entered the area, whistling on blades of grass or leaves. The whistling went on for about 45 as they wandered around and around the park. (Jo interrupts...so I called the cops, and they said if we didn't like it, we were welcome to pack up and go to a motel! Thank you ever so very much!) We finally approached the pair (mace in pockets-fully prepared), but it turned out to be a couple of teenagers trying to call coyotes with their whistling. We told them we were camping, and they settled down. A police officer approached us just a minute later. As he wandered into our camp, he put his hands up and shouted to us, "Don't shoot! It's the Police!" He just wanted to check on us, and then went on his way.
It was finally peaceful, the tent was no longer smelly, and the beer was gone. We made our beds and went to sleep.
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Des
non-member comment
OMG!!!!
So I was looking at the pics and not reading and I saw the Swollen face and was like. WHO IS THAT!!! OH HONEY!!!! I dont like it. I hope it was just something you ate! LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Be Safe!