On The Road Again

Day 10 we hit the road again. Mesa to Globe, AZ. The guys rode 70 miles and I rode the last 45 miles. We were on Highway 60 for the whole day. Shoulders were small and rubble strips were big. It was very stressful with trucks and lots of traffic going fast. Could not enjoy the beautiful scenery. Not my idea of a good ride. To make matters worse, we had to climb a mountain pass higher than 4000 feet. Russ figured our cumulative elevation gain was 4000 feet. It was slow and long and included a half mile tunnel which was very scary, especially the noise in the tunnel by the passing vehicles. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get any speed and finally figured out that my front brakes were rubbing the wheel. So I took off my brake and it was easier. Before the long downhill, I put back on my brake. I would say it was one of the hardest days that I have ever ridden. To add salt to the wound, when we were on top of the pass, the temperature dropped to the low 40's. By the time we decended the 7% grade we were freezing. We hadn't brought along coats and gloves (won't make that mistake again.) Russ said he got up to 40 mph. It started to rain our last 4 miles so we just pushed faster to beat the storm. We were so cold already that a few drops didn't make much difference. Never been so happy to end a day.

Here are a few pictures. I haven't figured out how to put captions with pictures yet. The red golf cart was at the RV park, the bikers we met in Superior, AZ (They thought we were nuts) and then us up on the pass.