Day 12
Get out of Phoenix day
Today we left Phoenix behind and are now putting New Mexico in our sights. Today was a low mileage day, only 37 miles. We definitely are easing back into the tour after our day of rest. The ride today was uneventful. There was some confusion getting out of Phoenix in Tempe, because a bridge that is on the route was closed for repairs and we had to figure out an alternate route. Once that was accomplished, the rest of the route was uneventful.
We bought groceries four miles from our campground. Trail Boss asked is someone would pick up a cooler bag for hauling cold items, which I did yesterday. That made me the person most likely to be selected to haul the cold items, since I was carrying the bag. That’s kind of how it works. When the cook team finished shopping they came out of the store with 4 lb. of potato salad. 2 - 1 lb. containers of coleslaw, a large yogurt, and a quart of milk. All-in-all, close to 10 lb. of items to go into the cooler bag. I loaded the items, tied the bag to my bike, and started for the campground. The campground was 4 miles away, uphill all the way. I was a little disgruntled at first, but I eventually got over it. At lest I can carry the weight, which makes me happy, once I realized that being able to carry that load is a privilege (it means I have gas in the tank where others may not).
I got to the campground and asked the Ranger if they had ice, he said “no.” I dumped my stuff, pitched my tent, and headed back down the hill to get ice. I don’t like warm milk in the morning. As long as I was at the store, I picked up a 6-pack of beer. That was a big hit. I got 8 “bonus miles” and lots of thanks for going back down the hill and up again,
Tomorrow we will cover almost 70 miles with close to 7,000 ft of climbing. I thought the real climbing test was over, but it looks like we are going to get hit with a test that might be the biggest challenge yet.
Miles: 45
