Cool article in Draft Magazine about the ride

Tucson is cool, and in cool cities you meet cool people. Take Andy for example, he found out about the ride via a local bike blog, wrote me a message offering up his couch (much better than a picnic table) and now we are brothers, I bought him a nice Mexican dinner to show my appreciation.

He even woke up way earlier than normal to ride out with me this morning. He also has about 100 bikes filling every crack in his house and backyard, see video. Hooray for Andy!

Anyway, today I pedaled my bike, just like every day, and it was great, just like everyday.
This is what I ate:
Hard boiled egg and a banana for breakfast, then a peanut butter Power Bar an hour later, then two Long John Custard filled donuts in Benson at about 10:30am, then I ate a 6inch Egg and cheese sub, and three chocolate chip cookies, a few hours later I stopped in for a chocolate milk shake…YUM!

I love doing these rides, I can eat whatever I want cause I know I’ll burn it off, but my teeth might fall out of my face if I don’t watch my sugar intake.

I’m in Willcox AZ now, nice town, they have a Taco Bell, I’ll probably go there and eat some burritos…Life is good.

It got windy last night in the desert, so windy that my tent turned into a giant kite. Usually I love to fly kites, but it’s hard to sleep in one.

After a bit of midnight wrestling, I managed to get the tent folded up and put away.  Nothing to do but sleep on top of a picnic table. The sunrise was amazing this way, no yellow tent walls to get in my way of the spectacular view!

Head winds are no fun, today I got my first taste of the prevailing winds from the south. I was traveling at about 8mph and it was frustrating, slow slow slow…I can deal with heat, but not hot head winds in my face that prevent me from attaining my comfortable cruising speed, boo wind!

Luckily I wasn’t going far today, just 40 miles to Tucson. I met up with Adam from an awesome bike co-op called Bicas. I got a tour of the facility, HUGE! and was thoughtfully inspired. These people have been in business helping the community for 20 years now, so cool.

From there I met Mike and Andy, two bike maniacs who wanted to sit and chat with me in a hot cafe. We chatted about bikes, about routes and about how Mike has lost 115 pounds in the past year since getting on a bike! wow, Go Mike!

Now I’m with Andy, my new friend in Tucson. He has about 100 bikes in his backyard, Why? Cause he loves bikes that’s why!

We ate Mexican food for dinner, what a surprise. I cant fall asleep without beans in the tummy.

It may have been about 100 degrees today but I didn’t care because I was surrounded by awesome people! 10 bike lovers came out this morning to ride with me toward Tucson. What a treat! I didn’t have to talk to myself like usual, I had REAL people to converse wtih, hooray!

We did have one little mishap though, my buddy Zack, a childhood family friend, went over the bars and snapped his handlebars in half and got all sorts of fun blood decorations on his forearms. We were coming down a hill and out the corner of my right eye I saw a car flying toward us on an onramp, I freaked, hit the brakes and Zack smashed into me. Total bummer Luckily his nice dad drove down and picked him up.

I was on the saddle for 10 hours before I found the best camp site ever at Pichaco State park. They have showers, power and cold water fountains..ahhhh.

I don’t know if it’s gonna cool down tonight, the wind is even hot. I’m sleeping on top of a picnic table, good night!  Tucson tomorrow morning!

Huge thanks to everyone who came with me today from T.B.AG., Bike Saviors, Matt and Zack

I Met up with about 20 bike and beer lovers last night at a great bar called Boulders on Broadway. They had about 30 bikes in the lobby of this place, very bike friendly. This two day furlough has been a great rest for my body and most importantly, my bootie! Time to ride to Tucson!

Oh, and I know that it looks like I’m going way too far south, way off my original route, and yes I am! But have no fear, I’ll be heading north again soon, I just wanted to get as much authentic Mexican food near the border before heading into the Midwest.

By the way, most of the riders in the Race Across America whom I started with last Saturday are already finished….wow!  I’ve got some catching up to do, but I’ll finish, and all finishers are winners

This morning I met up with some super cool bike advocates in Scottsdale and we had ourselves a mini cruiser ride through town on some great bike lanes.  And no cruiser ride is complete without a little beer stop…at 11am

T.B.A.G. Tempe Bicycle Action Group (Awesome Name) is all about getting more people on bikes! I also met with Reed from the city of Scottsdale and he is responsible for creating more bike paths and overall bike friendliness in this city. Scottsdale is a ‘Silver’ bike city as recognized by the League of American Cyclists! Way cool.

It’s always fun to meet like minded bike people in this world! Happy Friday!

You too can meet my new friends, check out the video below.

Check out the article in today’s DailyCamera

So for the past few days I’ve been debating my route, go north on the RAAM route and head into the huge mtns or head south and skip the hills but stay in the intense heat.  I made the decision to go south, I can deal with melting in the sun, but not climbing mtns AND melting, double whammy!

I rode Inerstate 10 all the way to Scottsdale from the border, it was a bit sketchy because as I got onto the on ramp, a sign cleary said, “No bicycles” It actually said something to the effect of no vehicles without motors…and I say I have a motor, my legs!

Interstates aren’t all the bad actually, the shoulders are wide, leaving about 10 feet of space between me and the truck drivers.  And truck drivers are cool by the way.  Everytime I pull into a rest stop, they all come out to check out my rig, we have a brotherhood, we’re all toughing it out on the same hot roads.

I camped last night off the side of a highway at a rest stop, I hid my tent behind some trees and fell fast asleep to the soothing sounds of traffic in the distance.  And you won’t believe this, but I awoke to the sound of rain drops on my tent, not many, maybe about 4 drops total, but it was rain!  The rest of the day was cool (96 degress) and overcast, a nice day to ride a bike in southern Arizona.

I’ve eaten a lot of bean burritos so far, probably about 10 in the last six days.  And two of them were free, bought for my by some nice folks I’ve met at different cafe’s.  Bean power is the secret my friends! It’s the magical fruit!

My butt is really sore now, I rode 110 miles and was sitting on my saddle for 9 hours, the Duzer bootie needs a rest, and that’s just what I’m gonna do, I’m not going anywhere today.  I’m just gonna enjoy time with my childhood friend Matt and get cozy in his daughter’s pink princess bed

110 miles, nine hours on the bike and 3 gallons of water! I’m in Scottsdale and not goin anywhere tomorrow. Video and story tomorrow.

Have you hugged a saguaro today? http://yfrog.com/18vtoj

Forget solar, I’m going nuclear power now! http://yfrog.com/6uwl5j
And here I am, http://bit.ly/jj5uU

Arizona sunset! I like it when the sun goes down:) http://yfrog.com/6591ij http://maps.google.com/?q=33.611619%2C-113.645303