I've been riding for a week now, during that time the Google software I use to maintain the journal was interrupted by a user and password name change. I've got that fixed now and am going to attempt to catch things up in one entry, and begin posting daily updates tomorrow. Instead of recording previous days' activity separately, I'll just make the one entry today.
We rode down to the west coast beach at Costa Mesa early last Sunday morning and dipped our tires in the ocean before beginning the ride east. During this ride over to Palm Springs I got very overheated in the 90 degree weather. I'd been training in 35 to 50 degree weather in Charlotte. I'm sure the kidney stone problems I had with two surgeries also effected my preparation. I really struggled the first few days with the heat and got dehydrated. I had to go to the hospital Tuesday night in Wickenburg, Arizona to receive two bags of fluid. The doctor told me I was dehydrated and to take about 4 days off, of course I didn't; I got up the next morning and rode 103 miles. The first few days were thru the deserts in California and Arizona, then on the forth day we rode to Cottonwood, Arizona. This was a spectacular ride in that we climbed 10,000 feet during the 103 miles. A typical day on this tour has about 4,000 feet of climb. You can imagine "climb" being walking up 10,000 steps while on the hundred mile bike ride - it's a measurement of how often your bike is pointed up, while you are riding. During the ride we climbed two mountains, and had rain, sleet, and finally snow. We were so cold we stopped at a store and bought Playtex rubber gloves to cover our hands from the moisture, since our normal gloves were wet. During the ride one of the cyclists got hypothermia and we had to call for an ambulance. Since April 21 we have been at an elevation of 6,500 feet or more, which means it is cold here. Yesterday we rode over the Continental Divide.
We are in Albuquerque, New Mexico today. We rode 260 miles on Interstate 40 East the past two days, thru the desert, to get here. Interstate riding is unusual in North Carolina, but the tour group I'm riding with has a permit which allows us to ride on the shoulder of interstates in different states. In states like Arizona and New Mexico, there is a lot of open desert without normal roads for us to ride on. It sounds dangerous, and it is, but it's the only way we have to make it thru here. One of the high-points of my ride was coming back from a 138 mile ride to Gallup, New Mexico Friday and finding a fruit basket had been delivered to me from my friends at EDA. What a great surprise!
I may look a little fat in the picture at our hotel lobby, that's because I've got every layer of clothing on I brought with me, including a vest I made by tearing the arms off a sweat shirt. It was 28 and then 30 degrees when we left at 6:30 am for the past two days of cycling. Tomorrow we leave for Las Vegas, New Mexico. A 135 mile ride with 7,800 feet of climbing.