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Sierra to Sagebrush:
Photo journal of a self contained bike tour
Flagstaff, AZ to Phoenix, AZ in March 2000
We slept a little longer this morning, then headed out to get breakfast at a coffee shop down the road.  We saw quite a few cyclists from our seat near the window as we ate our breakfast.  I even saw one of the guys with whom we had been riding in Gila Bend the week before.  We checked out of the hotel, and headed down Grand.   The hotel where we stayed in Wickenburg is behind us.  The towes sticking up in the center of the photo is part of that hotel.  The bridge goes over the Hassayampa River.  Hassayampa means Riverr that runs upsidedown.  It is below the sand, many feet below the surface, but runs along the layer of bedrock.  There are a few places where the river breaks the surface near Wickenburg.  This isn't one of them.
We were flying along.  We had a wonderful tailwind all the way into Phoenix.  I wanted to get back, but in retrospect, I wish we had slowed down and made a few stops at places like the Hassayampa River Preserve.  We were headed back to the auto dealership where my car was being repaired.  We shouldn't have rushed.  It wasn't ready.  The weather was perfect.  The wind was at our back, so we made wonderful time.  I ended up getting very sunburned, but it was my own fault.  I loved the feeling of the sun on my back, so I had chosen a green racerback shimmel for this day of riding.  It felt great at the time, but I was crispy by the time I got home.
I linked the photo you see with the horses because it is the gap that is just ahead of Brian and I in the other photo.  I couldn't get a good shot as we were cooking along with a very nice tailwind.  My camera is nice, but not that nice.....
Brian finally bought a bottle of sunscreen...... too little, too late.  We were toasted.   We stopped at a grocery store somewhere near Sun City and stretched.  We stood outside the store and chatted with a few aging (but still spry) cyclists.  While we drank our gatorades, a couple on nice mountain bikes rode up to do their grocery shopping, and later a gentle looking lady who was probably close to 70 rode up on a cruiser bike with a handlebar mounted shopping bag carrier.  It seemed like it would have been better on a rear rack, but she was quite pleased with her self and her bike.  It was nice to see.  We rode on until we found a good road to take east to 47th Ave.  We meandered our way through town.  I picked fairly good streets.  We had decent lanes most of the way and the streets I chose weren’t to busy with traffic. 
Brian started to bonk at 19th Ave and Northern.  We stopped at Mc Donalds and he had some food.  He was pretty tired, so he layed down and stretched too.  I don’t think he knew just how close we were to home.  It doesn’t really matter how close we were anyway because I bonked once when I was less than 2 blocks from my house!  We relaxed for a while, then realized that we were going to have to go out on the bikes again for dinner.  At least we had different bikes with different seats to take that evening.  It was actually very pleasant riding to dinner.  We ended up eating at Arby’s by the mall.   There were a lot of places that were closer, but we didn’t stop there.  I wasn’t altogether unhappy about that.  I enjoyed riding my new 5500, the position was different, and I wasn’t sitting on the same spots that I had bruised over the past few days.  I knew  that there was a shower waiting at the end, and the night air was delightful!


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