5/22/2011, 2:07 p.m.
Jack Sinodinos
We were supposed to stay in Palo Verde last night, but we were on such a roll, we decided to push through to Blythe. I fell asleep early last night, but had trouble sleeping. I was psychologically out of it this morning, and wasn’t looking forward to today’s ride. It didn’t help that I woke up with a bloody nose (probably because of this dry heat). But today’s ride was definitely a morale booster.
Jim and I started riding at 6:30 a.m. to try to get an early start. We were jammin’! We crossed the border of Arizona 10 minutes into our ride, and I definitely got back into the zone. In only a couple of hours, we climbed 2,000 feet! Jim and I completed 37 miles this morning and Athen and Rick have a 50 mile ride right now. We decided we should ride a third leg today as well (probably another 37 miles).
Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It’s been SO hot! I’m glad we took off early today because we beat most of the heat. Only the last 45 minutes of our ride started to heat up – and Athen and Rick are definitely experiencing it right now.
Most of our day is spent riding, and working out kinks in our trip. We’re waiting for our bodies to get used to the ride so our daily treks aren’t such a struggle. We’ll get across one way or another… I’ll walk if I have to!!
Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Driving in the RV to Aguila (where the guys are meeting with us to switch), we were about 10 miles out, and we ran into Jean Paul (the experienced cyclist on his way to Canada) on the side of the road! We pulled over and talked with him and he helped us with our maps in trying to navigate the next stretch. He was running low on water, so he was really appreciative we could share ours with him.
Athen just called and they’re about 14 miles out. Rick is struggling a bit. It’s pretty hot outside so the heat is probably what’s getting to him. Earlier, we drove by the guys a couple of times. Athen was a little ahead of Rick, and Jim and I gave them pep talks about keeping together. Ha, and to be funny, Jim chucked a corn nut at Athen. Athen turned around on his bike and looked back at Rick, confused, thinking it was him!
So after the third ride of the day, we’ll stay in Morristown tonight (I think that's the name of the city). We’ll be 58 miles from Tempe. We want to get there early tomorrow, so hopefully we can spend the day hanging out. My dad is supposed to be meeting us in Tempe to pick up Jim, but we still need to coordinate with him.
