Day 4, April 23, 2014

Since the three Amigos and the two Germans (henceforth, Freider (62) and Kai (52) arrived first yesterday, we left the parking lot dead last this morning.  (The staff wanted the faster riders to go out later, so that there support would not be as strung out along the road).  We started picking off the slower riders before Jere had to take his 2nd pee of the morning (today, Jere had a good day, we only had to stop for him to pee 10 times; in all fairness, at least 2 of the group of 5 also par took - the Arizona high country will bloom with flowers with the watering it got).  About two hours into the ride, we passed Monique, one of two women on the trip (she's the Sheila from Australia).  On a down hill, Jere and Dave decided to pee, but not far enough ahead of Monique rolling down the hill.  As she passed, I told her to her to look away (it was obvious what the boys were doing), her quick, witty response in an Aussie accent was; "there's nothing to see".  

By lunch we were back toward the front of the pack.  

Today had the most climbing of the trip.  The climbing, while long and challenging, offered frequent opportunities to get out of the saddle and give the behind a break.  The rewards for the slow grinds were long, twisting descents.   About halfway through the long decent into Cottonwood we stopped in a town built into the side of the mountain (reminded us of a Swiss town), called Jerome and ate in a cliff hanging establishment called The Haunted Hamburger.  Since the reminder of the ride was all down the mountain (reached my max speed of about 48 mph), and no peddling required, we all ate giant burgers which increased the mass for the rapid decent.  We rode the least amount today at about 106 and the slowest, but considering the amount of climbing, it was as challenging as any so far.

Tomorrow's ride is advertised at about 106 miles into Winslow, AZ.  We'll get pictures of "standing on the corner of Winslow Arizona" and we'll look for the girl in the flat bed Ford.

Till tomorrow ...