Day 27. Homeward bound

Recap the ride 1250.4 miles 4 rest days 3 rain days (2 while riding) 5 total flat tires 1 argument. Jim & Suzy (who else?) flat tire related I incorrectly told Jim to put the tire on with the tread backwards. Accomodations: 8 motels (2 nice) 7 RV park/rec rooms 6 Campgrounds 3 Backyards 1…

Day 26. Day 7 Texas. Langtry to Del Rio. 59 mi.

The preacher man Ray woke us up this morning with fresh coffee. He visited while we ate and packed. We were on our way by 8am for the final push to Del Rio. He later passed us on his way home to Leakey as we were crossing a big bridge before arriving in Del Rio.…

Day 25. Day 6 Texas. Sanderson to Langtry TX

61 miles. It was rolling, rolling hills today. We had an early start because we were expecting headwinds later in the afternoon. The profile showed a general loss in elevation but due to the wind the last 15 miles were tough. Combination of headwind making us pedal hard downhill and changing counties…therefore new road conditions.…

Day 24. Day 5 Texas Marathon to Sanderson 55 mi

https://youtu.be/NdNky66QyEQ I want to start with this music link:). It says it all. Will only take about 30 seconds to get the drift. We had another fast day in the saddle. Not another town for 55 miles. The deputy in Marathon seemed like he was making sure we left town this morning. He took a…

Riding with the wind

Wow! What a day , free flying downhill, wind at my back, mid 70’s, no traffic , listening to classic rock – cycling bliss! Then the sheriff and Ingrid‘s place. An answer to the question. Now as circumstances would have it , I’m going to look for a rental car in Del Rio. Jim and…

Day 23. Day 4 Texas. 58 mi. Ais 4:07. 14.4 avg mph. Ride like the wind

Super fast, easy day. We had a tremendous tailwind the entire way. It was like superhero on loaded bikes. Fastest average yet…smiling faces😊😊. We rode from Marfa to Marathon, up and over Paisano Pass, through Alpine and downhill to Marathon We had the most casual start today. About 10:45am after fixing Curt’s “surprise wake up…

Day 22. Day 3 Texas 74 mi. Ais 6:37. 7:45-5pm Van Horn to Marfa

Ah what a difference a day makes! Fresh legs, cross to tail wind. Very light traffic, beautiful wide open landscape. Quiet quiet quiet. We had a long way to ride today so we had a pretty early start and rode while the sun was rising. Started with the full cold weather gear but quickly started…

Day 21. Day 2 Texas. 69 miles Day 22. Day 3 Texas. Rest day

Easterly winds for 69 miles. Fort Hancock to Van Horn. Taking the advice of Tyler, an El Paso cyclist, we rode the interstate I-10 all day. It started out very pleasant with a very smooth shoulder, albeit noisy, for 20 miles. Then we smartened up and used ear plugs. That made the interstate noise less…

Day 20. Day 1 Texas. Miles and miles….

How many days will it take to get across the largest state in the USA? We shall see. If today is any indication it will take almost a month. Today’s ride from El Paso to Fort Hancock was 46 miles, really flat. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden 43 miles that are this flat. I…

Cycling through Crisis, week 3

We have our routine, great exercise, scenery, nice and friendly people giving us a thumbs up, a smile and encouragement. All this fun makes watching the pandemic expand seem like it’s happening somewhere else, doesn’t pertain to us. I suspect a lot of people still feel that way because no one close to them has…

Day 19. Made it to El Paso Texas

So it begins….miles and miles of Texas. We rode 67 miles today through two cities and two universities. Las Cruces (NMSU) and El Paso (UTEP). It was a beautiful flat easy ride south out of Las Cruces through groves of Pecan trees. There’s a small farming town about every 5-8 miles along the Rio Grande.…

Day 18. Hillsboro to ?? Las Cruces

We left Hillsboro with a good early start. Breakfast of Starbucks instant coffee( it’s good) and PopTarts (gift from ACA friends). I haven’t had a pop tart since I was a kid but they’re loaded with calories so a pretty good choice for quick exit. Great little RV camp spot with no street lights so…

Day 17. Biggest climb of the ride

So…today we conquered our biggest climb of the entire ride. It was not simple. In 40 miles we climb 4800ft to the top of Emory Pass. Took the better part of the day. Switch backs the last 2 miles. 16mile romp down the other side to a little town Hillsboro. There isn’t much here as…

Day 16. Lordsburg to Silver City

46 mi. Elev climb 3772ft. Ais 4:50. Those are the stats today. I (Suzy) personally had a really good ride today. Yesterday I talked about the “trifecta” and today all those stars were aligned. We had a really long steady climb and then a series of sawtooth ups and downs. To anyone who has ridden…

Day 15. 37 mi. We can ride but we can’t hide

Late start because it was pretty chilly this morning when we woke up. On top of that the time zone changed to Mountain DST so we lost an hour. We entered New Mexico and I have to say the shoulder and highway were really smooth. Traffic was light so it was an enjoyable ride to…

Day 14. 40 mi. 4 hrs. Safford to Duncan AZ

One of the hardest days. We were ambitious and thought we’d make it to Lordsburg (77mi) but that idea quickly diminished as we crawled very slowly up, up, up out of the Gila River Valley. Very light traffic, left all the mining trucks about 7 miles out of Safford and as soon as we dropped…

Week 2

We rode through and stayed in a series of small towns where Spanish was spoken primarily. Very friendly and warm . Not as many questions asked of us as in bigger towns like Globe or like today riding through the San Carlos Apache Land . Beautiful cool day with a bit of rain. Snow in…

Day 13. Are you ready to Rumble? 78mi ais 6:25

Globe AZ to Safford AZ Hey it’s Friday the 13th! It was a cool day temps made it into the 60’s. Never took my leggings off but did abandon the headband and warm gloves after the first climb. We did encounter one rainstorm right before lunch that we had to suit up jacket and pants.…

Day 12. Too much motel time

Woke up prepared to ride again. The forecast was 80% chance of rain all day with flash floods….again. So we stayed in Globe…again. Long day, walked around Globe. Mostly antique junk shops, cool old historical buildings. Lying around on a motel bed reading kindle novels, following the hot bed of Clovid-19 news. In a word…looong…

Day 10 & 11. Rest day in Mesa AZ Mesa to Globe

The best laid plans….woke up early prepared to make the ride northerly to Roosevelt Lake then southerly (is that a word?) to Globe. On this route it is mostly forest service land with just a couple of towns, most without motels. We had planned to “dry camp” but Phoenix area is having a monster rain…

Day 9. Taking a diagonal across greater Phoenix 68 miles

Unusual evening nights sleep at our campsite on Lake Pleasant. I heard clomping outside my tent. It was a beautiful nearly full moon night so I had the tent fly open wide. When I looked out I saw two wild burros standing just along our campsite. Apparently this area is famous for them. Later in…

Day 8. 65 mi. Some downhill

Funny how 60 miles can change from day to day and road to road. Nice stay at our City park in Aguila. Cold morning so we didn’t rush to get started. Went back to the Coyote Den for breakfast since they gave us a free meal last night. Same daughter server, young teenager. She’s not…

Day 7. 66 mi. Ais 6:10

Quartzite to Aguila Ride…eat…sleep repeat. Lots of eat and ride My body is not quite ready for multiple days of 60 mi yet. It seems my butt hurts or my carpal tunnel on my right hand is numbing or the knife is in my shoulder blade. It alternates but mostly it’s the saddle. However, the…

First Week

Good arrival with all bikes intact , put them together and test rode them. First day in San Diego was challenging with traffic, detours, and climbing, but got it done though short of target. Next day had me thinking a lot of questions, did I choose the wrong bike or just haven’t ridden it enough…

Day 6. 47 mi. ais 4:29. Palo Verde CA to Quartzite AZ

To everyone that I horrified yesterday today was calm and quiet! Easy morning Rise and shine on the banks of the Colorado. Neighbors camping for the winter ( they move every 14 days back and forth) were from BC,Canada. So you know they were Canadian friendly😊. One guy told us a back way to Blythe…

Day 5. 67 mi. 2000 ft climb. Long, scary day

Longest day in the saddle. 6:23. Brawley to Palo Verde CA Started out pretty simple rolling thru the Imperial Valley farmland. Good shoulder, some truck traffic. After about 15 miles we climbed out of the valley and into the desert To the left we’re the chocolate Mtns and straight ahead was the Imperial Sand Dune…

Day 4. The Imperial Valley ride

Taking Dave’s advice ( see Dave day 2) we took the Interstate 8 for 10 miles to cutoff about 12 miles. It was a rough bumpy shoulder, similar to Montana frost heaves. A butt killer for sure. A border agent helicopter was flying low along both sides of the interstate for several miles. Back and…

Day 3 Up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down

Today was a really good day. I hope/wish they will all be like today. But…it’s not my first bike ride! Curt had a really good day so we are thrilled! He had to walk a few steep sections but he was thrilled and we didn’t see him until lunch break. He is encouraged that his…

All uphill

26.8 mi. 3926 elevation gain. AIS (ass in seat) 4:07 Predominantly all climbing today. Weather was cooler, not sunny. Good for climbing really. Occasionally raining but we lucked out and were eating lunch at Albertsons so we missed most of it. It was a rain jacket off and on type of day. Off for climbing…

No more planning. Today we ride!

32 mi. San Diego to Lakeside CA We officially started riding today. The start point on the Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach, San Diego. But first we had to ride from our hotel to the beach. Within the first 4-5 blocks we had an extremely steep hill to get up and over. I would have…

Arrived San Diego to sunshine

Easy plane flight to San Diego. Mia (Curt’s wife) gave us a early early ride to the airport. We were at the airport 4:20 (6:10am flight), no line. With our 3 large bike boxes the Delta desk crew had some work to do! First time they had bikes (or so it seemed). They had to…

Almost ready

6 days to Launch

Flying to San Diego on Saturday Leap Day 2/29. Launching from the ocean shore in San Diego on Sunday March 1. Preparations are wrapping up. Panniers are packed and weighed. It’s like a puzzle… organizing the gear by usage and then packing for weight distribution (side to side and front to back). We’ve been told…

A Pause in preparations for the ride

Overall I’m pretty much there, just fine tuning. Late in getting here, Jim and Suzy have been way ahead in getting ready just as I expect they will be for the rest of the way. Getting in good riding shape will have to happen along the way. I can blame January and February in Montana…

Sorting and Packing

It has taken a few months to collect the necessary gear for this trip. We have it all assembled and sorted by usage. Bike clothes, non- bike clothes, bicycle tools and accessories, miscellaneous items, camping gear, minimal cooking gear. Next step is to load the panniers for weight distribution and balance. Figuring about a /60/40…

The beginnings

We decided to set up a blog to document our journey and provide a means for friends and family to follow our adventure. It is our intent to share our experiences, including the good, the bad and the ugly. Two touring bicycles, one recumbent, 10 panniers, two handlebar bags, and a recumbent seat bag and…