Ride 89 Day 14

100.65 miles, 1,591 feet of gain

For the past few days, we have been staying with my Uncle Gene and Aunt Danalee near Prescott. We’ve appreciated their hospitality and enthusiasm for this ride.

We said goodbye to them this morning and drove to Kirtland Junction to continue the ride. It started raining pretty hard as we drove to our starting point. Luckily it stopped by the time we got there. I was pretty tired this morning. Yesterday we found that my recovery meals had gone bad. Then we visited the Granite Mountain Hotshot Memorial. As we started up, I felt dizzy and weak after all the climbing and the lack of recovery meal. I walked back down to the car, ate three peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches and fell asleep. Right there on the blacktop.

My point is, that between all the climbing the previous day and my lack of immediate recovery meal, I was not feeling great.

The first 13 miles of this morning were rolling, but generally uphill. It took me almost an hour to finish the climbing. As I reached Yarnell, it started to rain. Just past Yarnell is a long descent to Congress. I had been looking forward to this particular descent, but I didn’t want to do it when it was raining. So I got in the car and waited for the rain to stop. Once it stopped, I got back out and started pedaling. Just as I got to the descent, it started raining again.

I had been praying hard about the weather and my safety. I had been hoping that the result would be a dry descent. But as I approached, I saw a rainbow and remembered how it was God’s promise to Noah not to destroy the earth again. Essentially a promise of safety. I decided to put the same confidence in God and started down despite the rain. I braked on the straight parts and rode through the turns to increase friction. I made it down just fine.

Because the rest of the ride was generally downhill or flat, I made good time. The drivers were generally polite and sought to give me space as I made my way down the road. As I was rolling down Grand on the way into Phoenix, Annie was behind me since there was no shoulder. A guy rolled up to me and handed me a dollar. When I asked why, he told me that it was for our cancer fundraiser. That was so nice.

As I got into downtown (around 11:30), the temperature started going up. Hannah handed me a tube sock full of ice to drape around my neck. That kept me comfortable until I finished in Tempe.

Thoughts from a bicycle seat

I drove through Surprise Arizona. There’s a hospital there. I’ll bet it’s a great place for labor and delivery. Probably not so much for oncology or other illnesses.