The Space Race: April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Two silhouettes against the sun

We are in Las Cruces, our last night in New Mexico. We are camping on the front lawn of Matt our warm showers host. After reaching the Rio Grande yesterday we rode along it today and cris-crossed over it multiple times. We are in the historic La Mesilla part of Las Cruces which has existed since the 1500's.

Future Post #2: Riding Into Superior

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Rio Grande

This morning we ate breakfast with Embree 'Sonny' Hale, an artist who is is taking a picture of every petroglyph in New Mexico. Last might we watched a movie about him called In Place, Out of Time. There is a website for the documentary at: inplaceoutoftime.com

Future Post #1: Tempe to Globe

Some hills in Arizona are covered in Saguaros they appeared as soon as we crossed the state line and we haven't seen one in New Mexico!

Approaching Superior

Our RV Park campsite in Superior at sunset.

Climbing up out of Superior we went through a few canyons with high rock walls.

Here is another one.

On the safe side of the Queen Creek Tunnel.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

We've decided to stay in Kingston for the day working on bikes and seeing the sights so we'll be one day behind the schedule from the Emory Pass post.

We're reached Emory Pass, the highest point on our trip.
8,228 feet! What a view. We head down the hill with 72
switchbacks. Kingston is right at the bottom of the hill.
We'll stay with a Warmshowers host tonight!

The two guys on the left are gearing up to race in the
Tour de Gila! Apparently Lance will be racing too! These
guys are from "Texas, Texas" they say. One of their racing
bikes weighs 10 lbs!!!!!

Our host, Pat, give me a handful of donkey cookies to
feed to Mouse the donkey and Dorie the mule.

The Continental Divide! Not much is going
on here.

More Eagle Photos Etc.

OOOOoooo. The sky is ominous and we think it might
rain. That night we camp on some unnaturally green
grass in front of a ranger station. Pat puts up the rainfly
on the tent in case of rain. In the middle of the night, we
hear water falling. It's the sprinklers! They stay on all
night! We are in the desert! In any case, it still hasn't
rained and Patrick and I have a bet. No rain til New
Orleans. The wager is a slice of pizza.

Or bird watched Ken drops us off in Peridot,
Arizona , halfway through the Apache
Reservation. We are hoping to make it off
the reservation by night so we can camp
somewhere. Camping on the reservation
requires a permit.

At the Observation Point, Ken sets up the
scope for the Eagles nest and Pat eats an
orange. Ken plans to cover the roof of the
OP with dried Ocotillo (a desert cactus).

The roof of Joan's van is covered with old photos of
cowboys and native americans. Her green VW bus is called
"the pickle". It was given to her by some old ladies who
knew she'd always wanted one.

Jeremy, our new bike friend, looking very colorful with
his gear.

Joan, one of our Eagle Monitors, spots a flock of
unidentifiable birds on the lake.

The Eagle tree! The eagles are roosting in a dead
Cottonwood tree. You can see the 8 week old eagle in the
nest flapping. It's preparing to leave the nest by
strengthening its wings. The nest is about 6 feet in
diameter.

Lake Roosevelt before Sundown. Joan has taken us out
in her boat to see the nest.

Arizona Photos

The Bargain Barn has opened a new branch in Globe, Az!

Here we are in Globe with our new touring friend, Jeremy
Couts! He is cycling from Austin, TX to Berkeley, CA.
We're getting ready to make the big climb out to Lake
Roosevelt to visit the Eagle Monitors that we met the previous
day.

Patrick looks like a duck in the Easter bonnet that
Theresa Casanova gave him. I have a matching lavender
one. Thanks Grandma!

New Photos from Stef's Camera

Sunset in Brenda. Az.

We're left California. We're on a bridge and somehow we
have managed to fit both of our faces in one photo!

Our Warmshowers host sees us off from her Bait and
Tackle shop in Blythe. We spent the night before in a
open air bachelor's pad that was underused and covered
in an inch of dust.

Pat enjoys the bachelor's pad and wood burning stove.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Emory Pass

We are now leaving from our Warm Showers host Pat's house near Hannover, NM which is just East of Silver City, NM. Tonight we stay in Kingston, NM with another Warm Showers host Robert. Then we will be in Las Cruces, NM two days later. Thursday April 30 we will be in El Paso, Texas! Maybe pictures from a Kingston computer since we have a short (but steep!) ride over Emory Pass today.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Silver City

We are in Silver City for lunch. Later today we will in a bit farther to stay with our warm showers host 20 miles further. There is a big bike race this week here called the Tour of the Gila and so there are lots of pro bike teams in town. I think there are some racers staying at the same house we are tonight. Tomorrow we will in over the last big hill and them it is down hill from there to Texas.

In Three Way, AZ

Yesterday we rode from Geronimo, just East of the San Carlos Apache Reservation, to Three Way, which is possibly not a real town. We are at the intersection of highways 191, 75, and 78. Last night we found out why the grass in this 'campground' is so green even though we are in the middle of the desert when the sprinklers went on at 2 in the morning. Luckily it had been overcast earlier so we had put the rain fly on and didn't get too wet. From here we in over another mountain, today we climb to about 6000 ft. Them tomorrow we will get to Silver City.

Friday, April 24, 2009

At Safeway in Safford, AZ

We are at the Eastern edge of Arizona and tomorrow we will cross over into New Mexico. Starting here when we leave Safford we will be crossing the continental divide. Now we are at an elevation of about 3000 ft and our highest pass is around 8000 but we will be going up and down quite a bit so there will be a lot of climbing. Not sure when reception will but out but it will probably be spotty through the mountains. Phone seems to be working fine now though.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Bald Eagle picture through telescope

We are getting a ride back to Globe after some eagle observation from the land. We also saw some archeological ruins from the native american civilization that lived in this area 700 years ago.

At Lake Roosevelt

Today we biked to Lake Roosevelt from Globe and them got a ride to the other end of the lake with eagle watcher friend Ken. When we got here we went for a swim and then went out on the lake in a boat to see the eagles. The nest has 3 baby eagles that are 8 weeks old. When we got there the mother was there and the make returned around sunset. Although bald eagles are on longer endangered nationwide the population in Arizona is specific to this area, has adapted to living in the desert and there are only 40 breeding pairs. Eagle pictures from Stef's camera to come later or maybe tomorrow from the phone. There was reception when I started writing this but now there isn't so I'll send it in the morning again.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Globe and eagle watching

We met up at the Globe library with another biker that was staying with the same warm showers host and then some people who work for the forrest service doing bald eagle watching came over and invited us to their private forrest service campsite so now we are going to take a detour and go visit them. The phone seems to be working all of a sudden but who knows if it will stay that way. We will bike up to Lake Roosevelt to see the eagle watchers and either stay one night or two and then continue on in the direction of Safford.

For anyone interested in knowing more about the route our host in Tempe showed us the website www.crazyguyonabike.com. On it there are a collection of journals that people have done while they were on their bike tours. Here is a current one of an 82 year old who is only a week or so ahead of us. Here is a list of all the journals of the Adventure Cycling Souther Tier Route West to East, some have many pictures and are updated every day.

Yesterday we rode from Superior, AZ to Globe, AZ which was only about 25 miles but was a total about 5,000 ft. climb, but we decended back down to about the same elevation. Lake Roosevelt is back to the North-West area and another climb.

If anyone wants to send us mail in about 3 weeks we will be in Van Horn, Texas:

Patrick Weaver
General Delivery
Van Horn, TX 79855

Stefanie Wolf
General Delivery
Van Horn, TX 79855

Let us know via phone call if you send anything so we can know to pick it up.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Phone is being weird

My phone is not saying that there is no service but also displaying that there is service, but I can't use it, not sure if this is just a central Arizona weird thing or of something is wrong.

Tempe to Superior

Today we rode out of the Phoenix area. After about 25 more miles of suburbs we made it back into the desert. First we rode into the Superstition Mountains and them climbed over Gonzales Pass. Now we are in a town called Superior and are camping at an RV park. Tomorrow is another climb, but not too many miles into Globe. This picture is of Picketpost Mountain which rises above the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park. There is on service now so I will send this in the morning.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Camera Pictures (in no order at all this time!)

In Arizona there are cactuses everywhere!

Desert Center is a tiny town at the edge of California.

Here are some mountains.

Cans in the ground at our campsite in Chiriaco Summit.

Tanks behind the General Patton Museum at Chiriaco Summit

A train next to the road.

Stef hi-fiving Paul McCartney

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Biking through Phoenix

I think we are actually now in Scottsdale and tonight we will stay in Tempe. The Phoenix area is huge with many cities running into each other and streets that run for 30 miles. It is very hot here and it will be nice to get into the mountains.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Phoenix

Long day, in Phoenix with warm shower friends David and Erica.

In response to the question about Joshua Tree, we went right by it in the south on I-10 but decided not to go in because it was late and there was a big climb to get into the park. We did see quite a few joshua trees going through Arizona today though!.

Friday, April 17, 2009

In Aguila, AZ

Yesterday in Blythe we started on the 'Adventure Cycling - Southern Tier' route and today we met two other cyclists doing the same route <The whole thing goes from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA. At the gas station in Hope, AZ we met Andy from Scotland who is almost done with his trip and is going West. He is 60 years old, recently retired and rides a recumbant bike. Later we met another guy who is going East, maybe we'll run into him again.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Cactuses are the new palm trees

We are camping off of highway 60 in Arizona. As soon as we left California there were cactuses everywhere. In this picture we are eating a gallon of ice cream that Kathy of Kathy's Kitchen in Brenda, AZ gave us. Last night we camped behind B+B Bait and Tackle in Blythe.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Almost to Arizona

Today we will stay in Blythe and then tomorrow morning we will cross into Arizona. Somehow we rode 50 miles before noon today <with a head wind and a 1500 ft descent>. The desert is hot but it is not too bad when we are moving. We also up to take longer breaks in the middle of the day.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hobo bagel in a hobo camp

It is so windy that we had to put almost all of our stuff in the tent to keep it from blowing away. We stopped kinda early today so we have a long day tomorrow, we are going to try to ride 70 miles.

Tonight we are staying in Chiriaco

It seems like it might rain even though we are in the middle of the desert. This picture is in Indio this morning. The mountains make a nice skyline but it is hard to capture on a cell phone camera.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Train

Right now we are on our way to Indio. Here is a train we saw on Saturday.

We are now in Rancho Mirage

After stopping in to check with the CHP to get advice on the best route we went towards Palm Springs where we ate lunch. Tonight we will stay in Indio with our couch surfing friends Andres and Patricia.

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