So last night we had an amazing dinner at the home of Matthew and Marian with some incredible stir fry that he created before our eyes. It was so nice to go to bed knowing I didn't have to wake up at any particular time.
However, my awakening also brought back the memory that I had to once again go out in a strange town in search of someone to fix our car!!!! At this point I'm of the mind that we've pumped so much into this van (about $1800 so far) that we might as well keep since we won't get our money back out of it. Amy hates our dear friend Vannikin and wants to sell it the week we get back - if not sooner.
Anyway, last as we were unloading the van Matthew noticed that our front two wheels were dangerously worn down so today's quest was to get them replaced and the front end aligned if possible. I thought it would be a simple quest and we would be able to take the family to go see a move - either Brave or Madagascar 3. But it was not to be.
To make a long story very short (you know how that goes against my usual proclivities) we couldn't get the Kelly Tires replaced by a dealer because he didn't carry that brand and he said the wear looked like an alignment issue (although the technician in Clinton, OK said he checked the alignment) so it wouldn't be covered by the warranty anyway.
So I went to Discount Tire and had to spend almost $500 to have THREE tires replaced. It seems the previous owner had gotten a hole in the sidewall and instead of replacing the tire, only had it patched and the patch had gone bad and was causing a slow leak. So an hour and a half later I was heading back to Matthew's house.
Then Matthew and I took the car to his mechanic to get the front end aligned to make certain this wouldn't happen again (we hope!). And then back to Matthew's to wait for the mechanic to tell us it was ready. So instead of going to the movies the day was spent working on the website, catching up with e-mails and picking Matthew's brain for ideas on how to promote our Ride Across America.
Last night (in the 100+ heat) I did some work on Pearl and put on the parts I purchased at Performance Bike - Continental Gatorskin Tires and Selle Italia SMP saddle. When we finally got the call that the car was ready ($154 later) I rode Pearl to pick it up and did some more adjustments on the saddle to get it dialed in. Tomorrow's going to be a long ride so I want to make sure it fitted properly.
Amy spent the day doing all the laundry we've accumulated in two weeks and when I got the van back we loaded it up, had a great Pizza dinner with Matthew and his daughters and then we said our goodbyes and headed off to our Super 8 in Wickenburg.
The heat is going to be up around 115 degrees tomorrow and I have 106 miles to ride so I'm getting up at 4:00 to start on the road by 5:00. A cold breakfast (its Super 8 - our favorite chain after all) and I'll be out the door. I've got everything set and ready to not wake up the family - I just hope I survive the day!
And much thanks to Matthew and Marian not only for their hospitality in Phoenix but for all of their brainstorming and scope ideas - we hope we can put them into action soon!
Stay well and I'll update you from the road - if I survive tomorrow!
Miles Ridden Today - 54.32 Average Miles Per Hour - 13.86
So today saw us experience a variety of sights, emotions, musing and thoughts as I headed away from our night’s sojourn in Salome, AZ.
The day began most beatifically with the sun coming up over the courtyard that opened up to our rooms. I don’t know if I really properly described how cool the Westward Motel really is. It’s a small establishment with only a few rooms but its so cool and funky. When you drive up there is an old rusted open top roadster parked in front. The initial thought might be, “I’m staying in a junkyard?” but then you look about and you see the car’s presence in purely intentional. Everywhere you turn there are metal sculptures and other works of art that have been curated by the owner Rande and his lady friend. It really is a funky and eclectic mix and when I walked into the room I shared with the boys the cowskin on the floor only served to enhance the funky cowboy hipster feel.
As I was stirring at 5:00 this morning getting all of my preparations in order I was particularly struck by the fact that the sun was unusually beautiful this morning as my door faced east and I could see the sun rising above the rooftops across the street and the Saguaro in the front yard. (Side note: we went out of town last night looking for the blooming Saguaros only to realize that we had gone out too late and although we could sort of see them blooming, we couldn’t take any pictures because the flash feature wasn’t working well on the camera. Also, James was a bit freaked out about being in the middle of nowhere with the car having 43 miles to empty. After a valiant try we gave up and decided to do it again at an earlier hour when we get further north.)
As I started to go into the kitchen (yes, you get a full kitchen for your use at the Westward Motel which we availed ourselves of last night as Amy made meat loaf and black bean burgers) Rande handed my a cup of the strongest jet fuel I have ever had the pleasure to consume. He promised me that this crank would get me to Wickenburg in no time. After breakfast I had the greatest conversation with Rande finding out about his interesting life as a roadie for rock bands, how he and his partner ended up in Salome (of all places), and what the future of the valley holds for those who live (and winter) there. It almost made me think people like Rande have it right, just drop off the grid and live a simpler existence - but then I thought about the 115 degree temperatures and realized that was just stupid.
But finally it was 5:45 and time to push off for the last ride before a rest day and the shortest ride so far. I was pumped. Again, I had the experience of being the only moving thing on the road and enjoying the freedom of being “king of the road” at least until the first semi came along.
I also had a more important purpose for my ride today. Although our Ride Across America is raising money for Sunrise Day Camp, today I was riding for someone else entirely. One of my students contacted me last night to let me know that her mother was having surgery on Friday. Her mother had contracted a non-invasive form of breast cancer when my student was seven and she had beaten it back then. Now ten years later she was facing the fight again and this time she will be having surgery on Friday to remove the cancer and to have a double mastectomy. It really sucks because after five years you figure you’ve beaten it! I love this kid and her family have always been so supportive of what we’ve tried to do with Connor’s Army so I promised her that this ride would be for her mother. So today, as I rode I constantly thought of the energy I put into the pedal strokes going into the universe to be directed towards this woman. As I’ve often said before, don’t have the money that I wish I had to give to the cancer community, but I do have my strength and my energy and today it all went to somebody who is going to need as much as I can give tomorrow morning. Her surgery is scheduled for early in the day and she’ll be in most of the day so if any of you can remember, please send her your energy too - we’re all in this fight together.
In between my thoughts of this valiant woman, I found myself engaging in other musings. The thought that kept coming to me over and over was of that Keep America Beautiful commercial from the 1970’s with the Native American who looked out upon the landscape of garbage that our nation was accumulating and the final shot was of him with a single tear rolling down his face;
As I rode this stretch of Arizonian back highway it seemed that I couldn’t ride fifty feet with seeing another piece of trash on the road - mostly quart sized beer bottles. Considering I’m now in the land of Jan Brewer one of my other thoughts was this is how she views her state - one large garbage dump! And in more extrapolative musings I thought this is how so much of our culture has come to view our country - just a place to throw our stuff and refuse. It’s truly saddening to see what could otherwise be such a beautiful, pristine desert marred by so much detritus.
I am usually thinking of the kids of Sunrise when I ride and today I ruminatined long on how today they are enjoying camp for the first time. How I’ve only been teaching there for two years but how they seem like my own kids. How I miss being there and playing the introductory theatre games with them that I would be playing with them right now. How I will be missing some of thosse familiar faces that I have grown to look forward to seeing each summer.
And after much ruminating and profound brain things inside my head (and after a much needed rest stop with the family 18 miles outside of Wickenburg) I finally rolled into Wickenburg. I knew we were supposed to meet at the Super 8 where we'll be lodging on Friday night so I went there and gave Amy a call - only to be met with the message that I had no network coverage! This is not good! If I can't readch her in a town as large as this, I could be up a creek ( a very dry on mind you) without a paddle. - I could end up on the side of the road to Kayenta looking like this;
(New Jenny Craig Weight Loss System?)
Turns out there were enjoying the Desert Cabelleros museum and lost track of time but we went to a lovely restaurant and had an amazing lunch and headed back to the museum so they could show me their favorites. They also had on display a Penny Farthing (otherwise known as a "bone shaker") and the way my rear feels from the last few days I might as well have been riding one of those! Its amazing to think that people actually did what I'm doing on one of those back in the day.
Since I had finally had enough and knew I needed at least one new tire we decided to head off to the Peoria Performance Bike shop to get me some saddle relief and some heavy duty tires. We ended up with two Continental Gatorskin tires and a Selle Italia SMP saddle but I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the service here. The shop mechanic was friendlier and more helpful than the salespeople and seemed so much more knowledgable. In the San Diego shop the young man there was great and helped us get exactly what we needed - here, not so much.
And then we finally headed off to Phoenix to visit one of Amy's oldest (not in age mind you since I know he reads this) and dearest friends. He and his family (wife Marian, twin daughters Jordan and Claire) opened their arms (and home) to us, made us welcome, fed us (Matthew made us an unbelievable stir fry meal!) and let the boys take over the Wii for the evening. Sarah and the girls bonded (she rendered them in her unique manga style drawing). I did my much needed bike maintenance and we got the kids to bed. After talking to Matthew for a while I finally had to hit the sack while Amy stayed up until almost 2:00 catching up.
Oh, and during the evening we discovered that the two new tires we bought in Clinton, OK are already worn out. WE ARE NOT HAPPY! But that will be a blog for tomorrow as we go in quest of fixing said tires.
And the reports for today (we may be trying something after this post - showing pictures of some of the detritus I find on the road!);
FFR - 1 Possum, 1 Squirrel, 1 Horny Toad (I didn’t know it was dead until it didn’t move when I rolled three inches from it), 1 UFO RRL - 1 Toilet Bowl (mostly intact), 1 mattress, 1 cooler (they seem to be everywhere out here), and although I usually don’t include clothing - 1 enormous (I swear it was the largest I think I've ever seen) bra.
First of all, for those of you who have been keeping up with our continuing saga, you'll notice from the posted date and time that I have skipped a few days. I've tried very hard to keep the daily blog going but for now I'm going to have to skip Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's blogs. There has just been so much going on here in San Diego every day that by the time I get the chance to sit down and write I can only get a few lines down before I get too tired to write any more. I've started a post for each day and I've only got about a paragraph written about each day that doesn't begin to touch upon what happened that day. However, I will come back to each of those blogs and update them. I'll post on facebook (click on the link at right if you haven't already like our facebook page or just click here) later on that I have updated those entries. For now, here is a BRIEF rundown on what happened each day;
Wednesday - Got here in GREAT time and when we arrived at the Travelodge our room wasn't ready yet. Need parts for Sarah, James and my rides so we went looking for a bike store. After some bad GPS directions we ended up at Performance Bike, otherwise known as Mecca. We managed to walk out spending less than $150! We then went to a burger/malt shop and had what James described as "the best vanilla I've ever tasted". We checked into our room, swam in the pool and ate Thai food watching TV.
Thursday - We surprised the kids by taking them to Legoland. It was a bit of subterfuge to pull it off. We were supposed to meet my friend Shannon McNulty but she's competing this weekend in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and she needed to pack so she couldn't meet us. It ended up being okay as we found a nice little town called Solana Beach where we took the kids to play in the Pacific, we took in a little music and bought dinner at a whole foods supermarket - which we took home at and ate in front of the TV.
Friday - Sarah turned 13!!!!! To celebrate we took her to the San Diego Zoo and we all walked ourselves ragged. Sarah discovered a new group that is now one of her favorites - mainly because she covets the singer's Steam Punk goggles - called Steam Powered Giraff. Here is a sample of their music;
We then had sushi at a great little place in University Park and follwed it up with frozen yogurt at the Golden Spoon.
Which brings us to today. The original plan was to have a "do nothing" day but that really meant we weren't going to travel in the car for long distances. I got up and got Pearl ready for a recon rixce and we headed off to Ocean Beach to scope out the start point of this 3700 mile journey. While there, I found out that there was some sort of festival happending in Ocean Beach so I thought it might be fun for us to scope out the start point as a family and maybe hang out at the festival for a while. I knew we only had until 6:00 because at that point we were supposed to meet James"Jim" Connor for dinner.
Jim is related to us through a common ancestor William Alexander Connor and he got in touch with me some time back through my sister Alina. He saw that we were coming out here to San Diego and he lives out here so we've been e-mailing and facebooking for a few weeks. We were so excited because we were finally going to meet this nice individual live and in person. Alas, it was not to be, but more on that later.
So, I took off on my ride and riding along the first five miles was so incredibly pleasant. It begins on a bike path that parallels the San Diego River Floodway before breaking off into the city. Of course, I had a VERY frightening moment when I was almost the victim of a drive by squirreling as one of our furry friends darted right in front of me and I missed him by mere inches. I had visions of this flashing before my eyes;
(he won't try that trick again!)
I had visions of my Ride Across America ending before it even began with either a broken bike or a broken me. Of course, a broken bike would be okay as it would only mean another trip to Performance Bike - hey, maybe I can find that squirrel tomorrow!
Anyway, I continued on to try and make it to the halfway point of my journey tomorrow and I got awfully close. I hit a few 6-8 percent rises that were a tad long but nothing major. Of course, that will all hit me tomorrow when I least expect it!
I made it back to the hotel in less than two hours after logging 42 total miles (26 out and 16 back) ready to have a fun last day in San Diego with the family. After cajoling and convincing William that it would be fun, we headed out to Ocean Beach Park to scope out the place where I'll be departing tomorrow. Of course, the only problem wih that was it was a gorgeous day, it was a Saturday, and this is Southern California where 80% of the population goes to the beach. So we sat in traffic for a while. It was while in traffic we came up with a brillant idea - the kids are going to ride with me along the bike path for the first three miles. Once the path ends and we start on city roads I'll load up their bikes, they'll head up to Lakeside and I'll ride up on my bike.
Okay, here is were I'm going to vent a bit. You see we have gotten a lot of offers of help from various sources over the two years we've been talking about this ride to benefit Sunrise Day Camp. Unfortunately, too often that help has either dried up or failed to materialize at all after the initial contact. One such individual had offered to help me connect with local riders to perhaps ride with me the first part of the journey. Despite numerous attempts at contacting them, I've heard nothing from that first offer. We get offers from people who have offered to either sponsor or donate to Sunrise - nothing ever happens. It has started to wear on Amy and I becuase we feel like we are alone in this endeavor, that although people think it is an amazing thing we're doing, they don't want to help.
However, trying to be more like Brian and looking on the bright side of life, we have gotten some amazing help from Gina Nemo with some press contacts and there have been many recent offers of help that HAVE come through. "Live It Up! With Donna Drake" has offered to come aboard as our official media sponsor and we have had some amazing offers of free nights from some of the hotels that we have contacted along our route. We're hoping now that some media attention about our ride will help generate some funds for the campers of Sunrise and that's what this is all about.
Okay, off the soap box. After we finally found a place to park (using Amy's patented parking karma) we headed to the beach and the festival. It turns out that part of the festival was a chili cook off! The kids weren't in the mood for chili (damn!) so we headed to a funky little cafe instead where we had an amazing light lunch and I had the best tomatoe basil soup I've ever had!
We headed back to the beach where the kids proceeded to run in and out of the waves until William backpedalled himself right into the water. We had to curtail the highjinks for a bit but then the whole family eventually got into building a sand castle before heading back home. We packed up a bit, got everyone showered and prepared to go to dinner and meet the other James Connor.
It was while trying to get to Ortegas that we realized the other part of the festival was this HUUUUUGGGGGEEEEEE street fair. Amy's karma kicked in again and we ended up parking a block and a half from where we needed to go. Unfortunately, Jim never got there so we have yet to meet him. However, I had some amazing Mexican food - and THE best chimichanga I've ever eaten. While eating the thought hit me that this was my last supper before starting on this epic ride and that led to me thinking about the Last Supper and despite my Catholic conversion, the only thing I could think of was this;
But, I know its just the start of a new adventure - one that I hope will make a difference in the lives of some very deserving young people. If you're reading this for the first time, welcome. If you ARE reading it for the first time, I would invite you to go here and give whatever you can, no amount is too small, to help us help the kids of Sunrise.
Well, its now 10:45 PST and that means its only T minus 9 hours 15 minutes. Time to get some shut eye. Tomorrow's post will be from Pine Valley, CA.
