Day 45: Ft. Thomas, AZ to Miami, AZ

Daily Miles: 63.3 Total Miles: 2415.0

Cactus patch

Today was another good one! We were up and packed early, so that we would have time to go to Denny's and build our own pancakes. I am not going to lie, I was so excited, and as we were driving I even told Mary and Jay exactly what I was going to order. Well, I should have known that disappointment awaited me. As we were pulling in to Denny's this lady flagged us down and said, "There was a fire at Denny's last night, we're not open right now." :-( I could almost taste those whole wheat blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries. Oh well. We double-backed to the hotel, ate the continental breakfast there, and then headed on to Fort Thomas. Even with the delay, I was on the road by 9am.

Thorny bush. You do not want to ride into one of these

I started out and again was making great time. I spent almost the whole day riding through the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and once again I found the desert landscape really beautiful. After the first 13 miles I met up with Mary and Jay before they embarked on an off-road adventure through the back roads of the Apache Reservation. I headed on the main road, and started climbing. The ride was nice and passed through more desert, but the shoulder conditions varied from completely destroyed to somewhat ride-able. For today's entire ride, and really all through Arizona so far, there were joints in the shoulder that cause a tremendous jolt when I ride over them. And they're spaced so that I ride over roughly 2 every second.

This hill never ended!

It makes for a rough ride, so when traffic isn't too bad, I spend most of my time riding in the road. There were a few spots where the joints are smoothed out and don't cause a jolt, but today there was also another nuisance to contend with, thorny bushes. They are everywhere along the sides of Arizona roads. Today, many of these bushes were grown over onto the shoulder, and I got blasted quite a few times in the right arm and leg. Once, while rolling downhill at about 25MPH, I got hit right in the face by a branch. Not fun. Mary and Jay went on the ACA San Carlos Alternate Route and they said it was one wild ride. The 40-mile route was basically dirt paved with huge rocks. They said it was an extremely rough ride, but it featured great views of the San Carlos Lake and the Coolidge Dam. Their pictures were really great, and even though they came back dusty and tired, I think they're glad they took the scenic route.

The San Carlos Lake

I met back up with them ~35 miles into my ride in Peridot, AZ. This was the heart of Apache Nation, and although there weren't any restaurants, we stopped in the local grocery store and ate sandwiches, pasta salad, and other snacks from there for lunch. I was averaging nearly 16 MPH for those first 35 miles, but my pace slowed significantly as I immediately began a 900' climb in the blazing sun out of Peridot. It was pretty rough, but the grade wasn't too bad, and before I knew it I had reached the 48 mile mark was briefly descending to our hotel, the Best Western at the Apache Gold Casino.

Big Jay checking out the Coolidge Dam

Needless to say Mary and Jay are out enjoying the casino right now. I quickly met up with mom and dad at the hotel to fill up my water bottles and then set out to finish the last 15 miles of the day to Miami. Once again I started to climb, putting in a final 600' before reaching Globe. I ended up climbing nearly 2900' today. As I arrived in Globe I was greeted with an extreme amount of traffic, no shoulder, and a lot of stress. Globe seemed to stretch on forever, then blend in to Claypool, before finally, about 8 miles later, reaching Miami. The entire area seems to be dominated by a copper mine, and I guess a lot of the traffic was due to that. I made it though, and then Mary and I headed back to the hotel. We're here now and Mary and Jay are enjoying the facilities and I'm relaxing and looking forward to meeting up with them for dinner in a bit. Tomorrow we'll head over one big pass and one smaller pass before descending into Tempe.