Friday, June 28, 2013

Crazy hot

Day 4  Where to start? 
Last night we stayed in a community Hall in dessert centre. They opened the pool for us so we could cool down. That was nice. We were in a trailer park but the funny thing was no one was in the park except us. More on that later. 
We got up at 415 am , no that's not a typo. After packing up our stuff we were on the road by 530. The sun wasn't up yet. As we reached the highway the sun started to rise over the mountain ( sorry no pic). On the shoulder of the interstate we road. It was already hot but we were motoring along. 126 km today. Stan , Eva , and I rode together. Eva is Stan's daughter . As we were about 15 km into the ride I got my first flat. This time I had to change my own tire. It went well , I had a piece of wire in my tire from the blown tires that were strewn all over the shoulder.sometimes it was like riding an obstacle coarse. About 20 km later Stan got a flat too. Those were our last flats, we found out later the group had over 30 flats. By the way that's a lot. It warmed up quick today. About 10 riders were worn out from the heat yesterday so they didn't ride and helped at the sag stops. The support crews did an awesome job today in keeping us cool. Today I was better in tune with how hot I was thanks to the day before when I overheated. I'm learning but I don't think this is normal. By 3 hrs into the ride the temp was 108. That's just the air temp, not the reflective temp coming off the pavement. A few early riders that parked there bike in the sun when they got back had tires blow. Just from the heat, in the sun. Back to the ride. After a few sag stops we got off the freeway  for while and took a rode that paralleled the hyw. It went through believe it or not farm fields. Not sure what they were growing but they had these irrigation canals. Kind of  like a bit of home. Weird to see green in the middle of the  desert and the stuff actually grows in 110. As we came along that road I was getting hot. This time I knew I needed to cool off so we stopped at a canal and dunked our shirts. It felt great. Wondering where all the water came from? Turns out the state line between California and Arizona is the Colorado river. See pic. Pretty much after that we had a big climb into quartzite. As we were climbing i needed some motivation. Misty wasn't going to do it for me hear. Was that a Big Mac I smell.Now we're talking motivation        . So to the top we went and were treated to another sag stop. Man they were awesome. They cooled us down one last time, feet in ice buckets and wet towels around the neck. On we went down the hill into town. Guess what was at the exit we had to take, the love of my life. Mc Donald's was right there and I couldn't resist. Wait that didn't come out right. At the exit was the last sag truck with the best sag driver ever. You guys didn't think I saying that mc dee was the love of my life. I do have will power, and is like to think I'm  smarter then that. (See pic) that's enough for today see you tommorow    Len oops I forgot to mention we collect a new member to team weigh more ( as in weigh more awesome ) Sara and I are now a subdivision of team w m , team putter. Follow my buddy Stan's VLOG on youtube by searching restorative1. He plans to post regularly and he needs a sidekick so I fit the profile 

5 comments:

  1. Love your blog Len - Keep it up! and prayers continue.Praying the heat will lessen over the weekend as you start again on Tuesday. You still have your great sense of humor :) Love to Carrie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Its a cold and wet July 1st long weekend back home, so if we send some of our weather there and you send us some of your hot and dry...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoy reading your blog Len. Keep up the pics and the updates on your adventures. Love the Big Mac commentary I can see how that would motivate you. If you needed some extra training outriding the "Mistys" on the road, I could have lent you my 2 goofs to chase you around! Maybe when it gets hot you can try to remember the bone-chilling days of the winters (might help for a second anyways). Cheers and happy riding!! Hugs to Carrie !

    ReplyDelete
  4. Enjoy following your blog posts. Praying daily for health, strength and endurance for all. Look forward to joining in Grand Rapids, MI

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hallo Len, we follow your blog and we are very proud of you that you do this tour. We love you.

    ReplyDelete