We began riding fairly early today, and covered a lot of ground very quickly. Thanks to a gentle downhill and neutral winds, over 30 miles of road were behind us before 8am.
The next stretch was a little more difficult, and included rolling hills through an Indian reservation. The shoulders were narrow, and littered with debris. Jake caught a flat tire from a 1/2" piece of glass, but it gave me an opportunity to check my tires and take some photos. During my tire inspection, I found half of a staple and two other pieces of glass embedded in my Marathon Plus. Hooray for super beefy tires!
Oh yeah, the scenery was pretty great too.
We continued on, and reached the town of Globe by 1pm. It was very nice to cover that much ground that early in the day. We felt good, so we decided to ride on to the next town, Superior. This involved riding up and over a big hill, but from there it was all downhill to Superior, and the next day to Phoenix.
The climbing was not too strenuous, we simply found a gear that worked and kept spinning. There was always a good shoulder, and most of the climb had a passing lane which permitted plenty of space between us and the automobiles.
Until... the descent.
We crested the top of the hill and began going down. The Queen Creek Tunnel lay ahead, several thousand feet below us. A 7% grade is tough to ride up, but very scary to ride down. The shoulder was much narrower, and a rock face was within feet of the shoulder. Avoiding debris in the shoulder is pretty easy to do on an uphill, there is plenty of time to see and react to the rocks/branches/tires. On the downhill, it's not the case. A few trucks tried to pass us (much too close for comfort), and the resulting wind gusts were equally terrifying. Eventually, I looked over my shoulder and saw a nice looking trucker, gave him a wave and pulled smack into the middle of the downhill lane. The yellow curvy road signs suggested 30mph, and we were easily doing 25-30mph. In theory, we weren't slowing traffic down too terribly, and the 'business' of the downhill was only 4 miles long.
Zooming into the tunnel was another challenge, the visibility was not great because we had sunglasses on and the ability to switch just isn't there like being in a car. Add to this a few jerk-face drivers who passed the nice trucker shielding our path and the tunnel felt like a pathway to impending doom.
As soon as the grade eased and the shoulder widened, we immediately returned to the shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. A hearty wave to the trucker as he drove by made us feel thankful for his patience. Unfortunately, not everyone had that patience. Eight or ten vehicles later, we heard a horn blaring. Not just a tap on the horn, but a full on fifteen second blast. A big blue bus came ripping down the hill and buzzed us by riding on the rumble strips. Holy Schneikies!!! Talk about miserable. I gave him my best one finger salute and wished he would stop his bus. There would have been some choice words and I might be in prison right now if he had stopped. I was furious.
Anyways, we pulled off the next exit into Superior and found the grocery store. We walked around looking for food and drinks, jittery as can be, and lamenting how one or two jerk drivers can spoil an otherwise awesome day of riding. Oh, how quickly a near death experience can change emotion from great to terrible.
Luckily for us, we stopped long enough to hear the music in the store. I couldn't make this up if I tried.
We cruised down to the RV park and set up camp. After a not so exciting dinner, we called it a night, and looked forward to the city driving of Phoenix.
Day 62 - 99.70 Miles
Trip to Date - 3527.89 miles
Coast to Coast - 2525.44 miles
Glad you guys are still with us!
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