Our final week

Hello again everyone, again I have a lot of catching up so I'll try to keep these posts a little shorter.


Day 22
On day 22 we finally got out of New Mexico as we rode about 97 miles to Show Low, AZ. Unfortunately the wind and climbing didn't stop at the border, but it was still a beautiful ride. Chris took his first fall of the trip that didn't occur while stopped. He somehow managed to tumble incredibly well and come out of it with nothing but a little scrape and a bruise. Once i realized that he was alright it took me quite a while to quit laughing. We met a couple of kids at a gas station that were in middle school yet somehow they new all of the terrain that we were going to ride through for the next three days. They were really helpful, but I'm not sure how they would know what they did considering they couldn't even drive.
The town of Show Low had a really interesting story about a couple of guys that used to own a huge ranch in town and played a game of cards for the ranch. One of them had to "show low" to win the game and he showed the 2 of clubs. After that they named the town Show Low and the main street is called Deuce of Clubs.

Day 23
The 110 mile ride from Show Low to Superior, AZ was the most amazing ride I've ever been on. We had miles upon miles of winding downhills through incredible canyons, the most amazing being the Salt River Canyon. The only problem with riding down to the bottom of a canyon is that you have to climb back out. We had about 8,000 feet of climbing today. We also reached our 2,000 mile mark early in the morning. That night Chris decided to hydrate with a huge chocolate milk and spent some time hugging the toilet, but I'm sure you don't want to hear details about that.

Day 24
On our 24th day we had a short ride of only 65 miles from Superior in to Phoenix where my grandpa flew down to meet us. We were in before noon so it actually felt like a rest day for us. Seeing my grandpa was a amazing and he spoiled us rotten putting us up in an incredible hotel and taking us out to a very nice dinner. Just seeing a familiar face was great for Chris and I both and seemed to give us a huge boost. We also had a chance to get in to a bike shop and get some much needed parts such as a spoke for Chris' rear wheel that we have no idea how long it had been broken for.

Day 25
Out of Phoenix it was really hard to leave our nice hotel room so we got off to a really late start. This was a bad idea considering our entire 110 mile ride to Salome, AZ was through the desert. It reached at least 110 degrees on our ride and we had to take lots of long breaks which made getting there even more difficult. It also didn't help that a road that was on our map somehow wasn't there and after a frustrating search for a new route we just rode on I-10 for about 35 miles. We rode our last 40 miles or so after that through the desert in the dark and finally arrived at about 11pm.

Day 26
With a short day of just under 60 miles to Parker, AZ we tried to get up early and get it over with but that was incredibly difficult due to our late arrival the night before. For some reason my eyes just wouldn't open, but we still got on the road at around 10 and got in to Parker pretty early. Parker was right on the California-Arizona border and the Colorado River. We took a walk down to the river and spent our afternoon relaxing.

Day 27
This was an incredibly long, and incredibly hot day. We rode 113 miles, about 95 of which were through the desert with no gas stations or anything to buy water at, and not even any shade to rest under. We each had to carry 2 gallons of water with us to make sure that we stayed hydrated, and we both drank all of it by the time we reached our destination. By about half way through the ride the 110+ degree weather had made the water taste like bath water and when we finally got to our destination of 29 Palms, CA (yes we made it to Cali) we both chugged what tasted like the best cold gatorade ever. The heat made this our worst day.

Day 28
It's my birthday! On day 28 we had a short ride of about 60 miles to Rancho Mirage, CA, right next to Palm Springs. The day was mostly downhill and went by really quickly. It was nice because we were in by noon and spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool having a few cocktails. My dad got us a nice room at Rancho Las Palmas for my birthday and they made a great drink there called a Palm Springs Lemonade. Around three my sister got there to spend the night with us and it was great to see her as it had been about a month since I had seen her last. We had a great dinner at the hotel with a couple bottles of wine and then called it an early night as we all fell asleep watching a movie.

Day 29
We made it! In 28 days of riding and 2,635 miles we made it from Hilton Head, SC to Malibu, CA. It was our longest day at 155 miles and I'll post all the details on this long eventful day soon.

Thanks for reading,
Don & Chris