Day 10 – Tucson, AZ to Willcox, AZ (88 miles)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

It was hot today. Very hot. My body was completely covered in salt. We started out early, but could not avoid the beating desert sun. We also rode nearly 80 miles on the shoulder of I-10. The interstate, while normally in pretty good shape, can become boring pretty quickly. Also, unfortunately, the mile markers are a stark reminder just how much farther we have to travel. The hotter the day got, the slower the mile markers seemed to tick away…

A large portion of the team stayed behind in Tucson to go to our Solidarity Ride. Only two other cyclists showed up – very disappointing. The rest of us headed out of Tucson towards our next destination point, Willcox, AZ. We started hitting hills around mile 30ish, and after this point, we got completely spread out. Sam, one of our portion riders, caught up to me while I was unexpectedly thwarted by a closed interstate shoulder and was riding on a dirt road (it was the next best option, I guess…), so I was able to ride with him for a little bit.

Fortunately (and, as it turns out, unfortunately), we hit a massive 6-mile, 5% grade descent right after lunch. I maxed out at 42.5mph. Pretty sweet! Although it was fun to go that fast, Sam went even faster and left me in his dust. So I was stuck riding the next 20 miles on my own, which were perhaps the 20 most difficult miles of the entire day. My muscles were aching, my skin was literally baking, and I felt as though I was crawling along the side of the road. I couldn’t seem to figure out why. Until I look behind me and realized I had just climbed a massive hill (the counterattack of the previously mentioned massive descent). Also, I somehow managed to lose one of my arm warmers while climbing the hill. (I have decided that arm warmers are the most amazing invention EVER, but I will explain this at another date). I made it through to our rest stop, but was pretty exhausted, and VERY saddened by the loss of my beloved left-arm orange-striped arm warmer. I differentiate between my arm warmers because, well, each arm is different. Our left arm warmer is white and orange striped and our right arm warmer is fading grey. Sweet uniforms, to say the least. I love the striped one the best so, of course, this is the one that had to fly off of my bike along the side of the highway.

The rest stop was very interesting, to say the least. One of the members of today’s support team, Andy, was incredibly excited about a specific tourist trap along the side of the highway called “The Thing.” We literally saw advertisements for “The Thing” for approximately 25 miles prior to the exit. “The Thing” turned out to be a lame, false advertisement. Not only was it a massive collection of things, not just ONE thing, but many, many things that were a waste of many, many square feet of space.

Sam was definitely by hero of the day. Even though I ate his dust after lunch, he waited for me at the rest stop and literally pulled by tired self all the way to Wilcox. I was so thankful that he was there. The thought of facing another 20 miles on my own was just awful. We pushed the last 20 miles in ridiculous time and were able to relax for a while before the rest of the team joined us.
Brian is my second hero of the day. After I lost my arm warmer, I called some people and sent other texts to look for it on the side of the road. I had very little/no hope of anyone finding it, but I thought I would try. In the middle of an uphill, Brian managed to find my arm warmer in the middle of the shoulder. He brought it back to me and now it is safely and soundly in my possession. I promise to take better care of you in the future, striped arm warmer…
We ate a delicious dinner of salad and pizza bagels (we have lots and lots of bagels – we are always trying to find create ways to use them). Team Strawberry also came through in the end and made us delicious brownies. Yum. We devoured them while they were still burning hot in the pan.

End of the tenth day. And it was hot.