Fun in the sun...

So the past few days of cycling have been quite a challenge! The day we left Tempe, AZ we rode to Globe, AZ which was about an 85 mile ride. The second part of the ride was some pretty steep, long climbs. The sun was also blazing down on us the entire day, which completely drained me. We spent our 4th of July in Globe. I went with four or five guys to the gas station where we all bought slurpies and ate at Jack in the Box listening to fireworks in the distance! It was a pretty exciting night.

After an early wake up and late getting our stuff to the vans (meaning we have to wake up earlier the next day) on July 5th, we made our way to Lakeside (Show Low) AZ. Now this was the suprise of the trip so far. Immediatelty after leaving Globe we began a tremendous climb up mountains for 95 miles! Of course I knew that there were mountains in AZ, but I didn't realize that there were beautiful forests and an elevation high enough where there is snow in the winter! We got to the top of the mountain to Lakeside about 7,000 feet and it was absolutely beautiful. There were some amazing views where we biked today. Of course at the same time it was an extremely diffcult day. We were speaking to a guy during our sponsored dinner and he said we probably climbed about 10,000 feet because we climbed and dropped so much. One of the most shocking parts was we got to a ledge at one point and dropped about five miles down into a canyon! It was one of the most exhilerating and exciting rides of the trip, but at the same time speeding down a canyon and looking over the guardrails seeing the straight drop was extremely scary. And also what goes down must come up. So we climbed five miles back up the canyon where the crew met us with lunch which was a relief. Once we were finished with dinner me and a few guys put our air mattresses outside and slept under the stars. It felt amazing outside and I felt like I was back in WV during some summer nights sleeping outside on my trampoline. We had a 4:30 am wake because we had a 105 mile day to Zuni, New Mexico. We were all pretty excited to finally get into a new state, but not really excited for century ride. It turned out that the ride was not bad. It was pretty flat, the only thing that was bad was of course the sun beating down on us all day. Zuni was an interesting town. I am pretty sure it was an Indian resveration and the majority of people leaving there were Indians and many living under the poverty line.

Today we rode 75 miles to Grants, NM. Once again, I was shocked by the scenery of NM. In Zuni there were giant plateaus in the distance and was what I imagined NM to be like. But today we climbed up a few hundred feet, where we rode past the continental divide. Right now we are in the cool mountains. It was another beautiful ride today seeing a different side of NM than I thought. Tomorrow we ride to Albuquerque. I hope that everyone is enjoying the blog so far. I can't believe that we only have a little over a month left of the summer. Time seems to be flying by!

-Joey H.