A Day of Firsts

I think Thom and I agree that the Arizona desert is a little more interesting than the California desert. It will be interesting to see how the New Mexico desert ranks. Speaking of deserts, today I saw my first prickly pear cactus of the trip. 

Today started out with Claudia driving us back to Crazy Fred's Truck Stop and you know what to begin the ride. We had a rather difficult climb on Route 66 back to the motel for a quick break and then we were off on I-40 for the rest of the day.

Actually I should have pointed out that Thom and I first had to repair my front tire. Fortunately Thom found the little bit of wire (probably from a radial tire) that was embedded in the tire and had cause the flat the last 2 days.

One we got on I-40, we were on our way, we thought. You don't realize how different the shoulder pavement is on the interstate highways. Right now Arizona wins the prize for the most varied shoulder pavements. For the first 10 miles on I-40 it was miserable, just like the beginning of yesterday. My shoulders and arms were very sore. Then for the next 5 to 10 miles there was a little strip of smooth pavement just to the right of the rumble strip marking the edge of the right hand travel lane, neither the trucks nor Thom and me particularly liked us riding there. Finally the smooth pavement in the shoulder started after 16 miles.  However whenever we got complacent about the shoulder quality they would throw in a few miles of really rough pavement just so you remember who was the boss. The final 9 miles which were mostly downhill with a cross wind were particularly brutal. I'm happy we are starting tomorrow on Route 66,

Another feature of today's ride were some very long and steep climbs. My bike computer has all this nifty information about the percentage grade, miles left in the climb and total feet climbing. I can't figure out what classifies as a climb and why some climbs end where they do. Thom has a relative who may join us with a friend in Kansas. The friend works for Garmin. I hope she is ready for lots of questions.

I read some article about a cross county trip where the person from New England knew they were close to home when they saw their first Dunkin Donut. At mile 66 on I40 in Arizona I saw my first Dunkin. I don't care what the progress chart below says, we must be close.

Here is tonight's dinner spot. It was recommended by a friend. I went with Fried Chicken and not anything that was killed crossing the street.

Here is a shot of typical climb.

Here is today's ride on Strava for the biking nerds.

 

Finally here is our progress to date:  Our aspirational goal tomorrow is to reach the eastern edge of Flagstaff. As an FYI, the time listed is moving time not total elapsed time. For instance today I was moving 6 hours and 47 minutes but the elapsed time from when I started the ride to the end was 8 hours and 37 minutes.

Say Goodnight Gracie!