Resting in the 'Mile High' city

We’re no religious folk y’all understand (no offense intended), but today we observed Sunday as a day of well-needed rest and didn’t rush to get up out of bed. Cycling last night in the dark was pretty scary and we hope never to do that again.

It was lunchtime when we finally left the hotel room to have a quick tour of the town. First of all, we went to the local coffee house for a caffeine and pastry fix. Whilst there, we took advantage of the wifi signal and posted yesterday’s blog. We also met cyclists Lynda, Teresa and Tom, who looked very 'pro' in their team colours with their ultra-light racing bikes. Shortly afterwards, we took a stroll to the Bisbee Bike Brothel, had a chat with Ken the proprietor and bought some new gas canisters and inner tubes. Around 3pm, we visited the local Food Market & Café where we met Payton (we believe she’s the proprietor) who coincidentally had also toured the perimeter of the US, starting in New York and going clockwise, on a bike …Motorbike! Walking away with our purchased bottle of Jacobs Creek fizz, Rosemary & Olive bread, Chicken Liver paté and Fromager d’Affinois we got back to our hotel room happy and content.

Bisbee Arizona aka the “mile high city” is a bonanza of refreshing quirkiness. Very different from any place experienced to date, we’re pleased to have a rest day in a truly cosmopolitan city. Gone are the marketed personal experiences Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks et al and instead a plethora of local businesses line every street that more than adequately cater for your every gastronomic and artisan need.

We had an early dinner tonight and plan on getting an early night; we’re facing more headwinds and steep hill climbs tomorrow.

Us x

"Come on Boys, we don't want any trouble here..."

We saw some stunning views today. The sort that you expect of Arizona, including expanses of desert, cacti, large rocks perched on top of on another, mountains etc. It’s just that today was one of those very few days where we would have preferred to see them through the lightly tinted window of a White Chevy Suburban rather than sitting on Trusty and Steed. Let us enlighten you.

To explain today, we really need to start by going back to last night in Willcox. We were staying in a hotel which really ought to have been perfectly respectable, but turned out to be a complete “Norman Bates” motel: groups of guys “loitering” outside and, worse, partying in the room above us until around 3am. Not good, considering we had set the alarm for 6am, knowing that we had a long ride with a lot of climbing, and the wind forecast was not looking favourable. You know what’s coming next people…

…yes, we overslept. The alarm went off, we switched it off and promptly slept through until 7.40am. Rushing a quick shower, pulling on our cycling gear and bolting down a hurried breakfast, accompanied by coffee out of cups that had been washed in bleach and not rinsed… we dashed to reception to check out. Only to be charged a $2 “security” fee because apparently they employ a security guard to keep things in order and check that cars are not being vandalised etc… obviously a deaf security guard, given the noise levels. We refused to pay the charge on principle and huffed and puffed as we set off to join our friend the I-10 for the first leg of today’s trip.

The ride started well, with a goodish road surface and only a mild side wind. That was until we hit a stretch of road, which went on for several miles, where the shoulder of the interstate had been “groomed” but not yet re-tarmac’ed. Still, we beetled on, and soon found ourselves climbing up into Texas Canyon and the truly fabulous views we talked about at the start of this blog (see photos). Descending into Benson where we would have a short break for lunch, everything seemed hunky dory. We had a pleasant break outside a gas station on the edge of Benson, where we met Chris and Floyd, a lovely couple who were interested in our trip and even made a donation to MS. Thanks Chris and Floyd!

Then we set off into the wind. And the rain started too. Big, warm rain drops blown into your face by the strong head and side winds. Luckily the rain didn’t continue for too long, but the winds certainly did: relentless draining wind, accompanied by the most powerful gusts you can think of. Teetering on the strip of tarmac in the shoulder between the white line and the rumble strip, we found ourselves frequently pushed off the road or onto the rumble strip. And of course, we were making very slow progress. By around 4pm, we eventually pulled into Tombstone, AZ, just 25 miles from our destination, Bisbee.

Tombstone, AZ, the site of the gunfight at the OK Corral…and the location of our first puncture of the day. Having fixed Trusty’s tyre, stocked up on liquid, and receiving another kind donation at the gas station in Tombstone from Denise, a lady who spoke to Anthony while he fixed the tyre, we set off again, with the sun quickly falling in the sky. And in the true spirit of today’s offerings from the man on high, a couple of miles from Tombstone, Steed got a puncture. So, there we were, on the side of the road, oily and dusty, being buffeted around, and watching the sun start to set, with still around 23 miles to go.

As the sun set, and it got darker and darker, it became more and more difficult. We didn’t know whether to be more scared of the cars and trucks passing us at night (though we were well-lit), or the wild animals that were clearly present in the area: not only did we see the chubby backsides of a couple of wild-boar type animals darting through the long grass at the side of the road, but we also observed the road signs warning us of the animals that we might encounter as well. The last 15 miles in the pitch black, climbing over 1,500 ft to an altitude of 5,890ft, seemed to go on forever; and we really mean forever. It took us over 1h30 of being disorientated, scared and tired before we finally saw the “Welcome to Bisbee” sign and started descending into the town, almost 10 hours after we had set out from Willcox this morning.

With huge relief, we arrived safe and sound at our hotel for the night, the Letson Loft, which is absolutely lovely, and so cosy. We were also thrilled to find a proper little town with sidewalks, restaurants, shops and coffee houses etc. Joy. It wasn’t long until we were in the Bisbee Grille with a large glass of wine, and some yummy food. Who needs a Chevy Suburban?! And we realised that we had, today, passed the 5,000 mile threshold (only 9,000 to go).

A well-needed rest day tomorrow in Bisbee, where we plan to meander around the town and do as little as possible.

Us x

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Umm …Hi everyone, how was your day today? Ours was pretty bland. Just scorching hot weather as we headed south toward Bisbee filling time, as we’re no longer going to visit the Grand Canyon.

Tonight we’re staying in Willcox and will complete the 85 miles into Bisbee tomorrow.

…we’re really sorry guys but today was just a simple 45-mile cycle in the bright sunshine, on great roads surrounded by majestic mountains (see photo).

Us x

Pressing the Big Reset Button

Bliss! An early night last night, and a lie in this morning. We’re still feeling beaten up by the last few days, but this has helped towards our recovery in a big way. We had a great rest day here at the Olney House B&B in Safford, AZ, starting with a hearty breakfast and fascinating chat with Chris and Deborah, the owners, including many tales of high jinx in High Wycombe and its environs…

The “stay as far South as possible without crossing the Mexican border” approach to route planning was also implemented, and we now have a cunning plan to get us from here to San Diego. We will explore Southern Arizona, including travelling through Tombstone, Bisbee and Tucson, before we head back up to Phoenix, and join up with the ACA cycling maps again to take us into California, and on to the West Coast. Sounds like fun, and we’re demonstrating our faith in the weather by putting our cold weather gear to the bottom of our panniers, and dusting off the short sleeved tops, which have been screwed up in little balls in the bottom of our bags for a very long time now. Good news for the share price of U.S. sun-block manufacturers we think. Buy, buy, buy. (Add disclaimer statement here!)

Trusty & Steed have also had a proper wash and brush up, and are gleaming like dressage horses ready to do their criss-cross steps elegantly across the paddock. And we’ve made progress with finding a place for them to have their half-way “check-up” on the West Coast to make sure that all is in order.

For our Eat the Borderline fans, who may have thought that we had gone rather quiet recently, we should let you know that we had a fantastic Mexican meal tonight. Wonderful chicken fajitas cooked the proper way, washed down with a large Rita. And just you wait for tales from Bisbee and Tucson…we’ve already checked out the restaurants in the guidebooks that we found here at our B&B.

A relatively short hop tomorrow to break our journey to Bisbee. More then.

Us x

Six degrees of separation

It was a short relaxing ride out of Clifton today: we cycled 44 miles from Clifton to Safford, which is 165 miles ESE of Phoenix. Phoenix is also known as ‘The Valley of the Sun’ and this aka did not disappoint today. The sun was so bright and hot today (let’s not talk about Sunday’s weather experience) it put us in such a great mood that the prospect of spending the first 2 hours of the ride climbing 2,000ft out of the valley did not faze us. The ride was ‘really cool’, you know one of those days where nothing goes wrong and burning calories is a pleasure and not a chore. Only the one photo was taken today but it’s pretty awesome!

An interesting fact about the Clifton area: the neighbouring town of Morenci has the largest open-pit copper mine in the US and one of the largest in the world. The mine produces around 30% (approx $2 billion) of the US total output of copper and is so big it can be seen from space …so how come we missed it? Sorry guys, the photos would have been grrrreeeat! Oh and one other thing! It is believed that Geronimo, the famous Apache Warrior, was born in the area.

Arriving at Olney House Bed & Breakfast we met the owner Chris Gibbs, who before living in Safford, AZ lived in High Wycombe for three years. That’s right! The very same place in which Anthony spent his formative years between the ages of 5 and 18. Chris then waxed lyrical about one of his favourite pubs in Flackwell Heath. That’s right! The very same Flackwell Heath in which Kat spent her infant years between the ages of 0 and 2. It also turned out that he and his wife worked for the armed forces, with his wife working at the same place Anthony’s dad worked. Who would have thought that after flying 3,000 miles and then cycling 5,000 miles we’d meet someone from Buckinghamshire …six degrees of separation people!

Before we retired to our lovely little cottage, Chris informed us of the local history involving ‘Billy the Kid’ making his first kill not too far (just over the hill) from our room. Apparently he shot the local Barber who was the town bully.

So we’re just chillin’ out in front of the TV with a remote control that doesn’t work. To switch channels we now have to temporarily stop stuffing crisps and cookies in our mouths, get up out of the sofa and push the channel button on the front of the TV. Who would believe it! How did we cope in the 70’s before the invention of the common infrared TV remote? But imagine our excitement as we flicked through the stations and saw in full view on the Cathode Ray Tube, an advertisement for a new series to be aired on the Discovery Channel; ‘Who Framed Jesus? Was it the Jewish authorities, Pontius Pilate or maybe Judas Iscariot?’ We can’t wait to see the first series and have put money on the mild-mannered janitor!

Us x

Raising Arizona

When we woke up at some ridiculously early time this morning, every bone in our bodies was telling us that getting up and cycling 90 miles was a bad idea. We were still suffering from the events of Sunday. However, we decided that if we left early enough, and took it easy, we would not only get through today, but might actually enjoy it.

The first part of the ride was an absolute joy. After a short, steep climb out of Silver City, we spent the next 20 miles or so descending pretty much constantly, and were at our morning break in the shake of a lamb’s tail. Bolstered with a cup of coffee and a snack, we knew the next 30 miles of our journey would be predominantly uphill. But we had the excitement of reaching the Arizona State line to look forward to: another significant mark of progress in our journey.

Thinking that we were past the days of open fords and flooded roads, we were a little shocked to find that poor old Trusty & Steed had to cope with 5 more dips in the road during our climb, flooded with fast flowing water. These torrents always look worse than they are, however, we are getting more used to just riding through them slowly, confident that we will come out the other side.

After stopping for a further break at the state line at an elevation of just below 6,000ft, we could not have been any more impressed with the views that were just around the corner: spectacular panoramic vistas down over canyons, and in the distance chains of mountains silhouetted against the sky. We managed to take a few snaps… And, even better, 20 straight miles of descending down the most crazy switchbacks that you can imagine (see photos) – we thought of our friends in the auto industry and that they would love this stretch of road for a really cool car advertisement.

We had to go about 9 miles off route this evening to find a motel for the night, as there’s not much around here. But we arrived feeling exhilarated by today’s ride, and excited about the next stage of the trip, including planning a new route that keeps us far enough South to reduce the risk of Sunday repeating itself. Talking of which, we managed to bump into Rick when we were out picking up take-out Mexican food for supper, and a few beers from the local liquor store. Rick had lots of ideas for us for an alternative route, and has invited us to eat breakfast with him at his restaurant tomorrow morning (he owns the Gold Panner Grub restaurant in the historic centre of Clifton, AZ, the town in which we find ourselves tonight).

Despite Anthony having overdosed on tortilla chips tonight (!), we’ll be there, and are looking forward to tapping into some local knowledge.

It’s a moderate length ride tomorrow although, you guessed it, starting with a 5-mile 1000ft climb! And then we have a rest day to recharge, and finalise our plans for the next couple of weeks.

Us x

Licking Our Wounds

One can never say thank you too many times! So before we get started telling you about today’s unplanned rest day; we, and on behalf of our friends and family, would like to say THANK YOU AGAIN Bob and Susie for what we can only describe as saving us from a potentially very dangerous situation. We have added a photo to the gallery, sent to us today by Bob and Susie, which accurately depicted our situation 11 miles from our hotel.

In life we come across many idioms “Once bitten twice shy”: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me”: “Better the devil you know”: “Never eat yellow snow” (to all those literal genii out there, some of the above examples are technically not idioms). Following yesterday’s experiences, we find ourselves taking heed of “Once bitten twice shy” and have now decided to adopt more of a risk-based approach to completing ‘The Epic Journey’. No longer will the Grand Canyon stage be an option! The results of our risk analysis show it’s very likely we’ll face more snow. By removing the Grand Canyon loop we now have some extra time to play with and we’re discussing the possibility of adding a Yellowstone National Park loop when we reach the Northern Tier. So rather than face the perils of massive snowfall and freezing temperatures, we’re going to cycle into a Super Volcano and a bunch of steaming old geezers instead.

… sorry where were we? Ah, today’s blog …that's right!

Had a long lie-in today and woke up slightly concerned as to why we still couldn’t feel our fingers. Listening to our less adventurous but more sensible side, we called down to the hotel reception and booked ourselves in for another night, in the hope that our bodies would have recovered enough before attempting tomorrow’s 90-mile ride into Clifton, Arizona. This was a good call, as we managed to do 4 loads of washing (could have done 2, but Anthony has OCD …don’t mix gloves with shoe covers etc. etc.), make some urgent changes to hotel bookings and IT Support aka Badge managed to fix the photo gallery.

We did take a short 6-mile round trip to the local bike store to get some essentials and nearly bought a Helmet Cam, but Anthony’s OCD kicked in again and refused to buy the Helmet Cam because it didn’t record in 1080p format (High Definition). Anthony did manage to buy some new cycle sunglasses, replacing the ones he lost during yesterday’s tumble in the snowy jungle.

Before clocking off for the night, we would like to mention Russ and Laura once more; the couple we met in Van Horn, Texas who are cycling around the USA in the other direction. These guys are embarking on a crazy project and have posted a very nice photo of us on their website. They regularly record Ustreams and conduct radio and newspaper interviews whenever they can …check out their recording.

So, it’s with warm fingers that we wave goodnight, god bless and good morning.

Us x