Week 1, Day 4

Instead of riding today, I teamed up to help at one of the SAG stops.  It was hot.  We set up the 10’x10’ canopy and started serving the riders with ice water and packs, mixing sports drinks, and providing a bit of shade.  It was hot.  Riders are continually finding new ways to stay cool—from squirting water on their head and back every time they take a drink on the road, to wrapping ice cubes in towelettes and wrapping it around their necks while riding.  It was hot.  Thankfully ,we were set up near a truck stop and were able to buy ice and refill our water jugs. 

It was hot.  My SAG partner was fighting an extended migraine headache and left the SAG with a few riders who decided it was too hot to be riding.  Did I say it was hot?  After packing everything up after the last riders, I proceeded to my next assigned stop.  By the time I got there, most of the riders had already been through that leg of the route.  The riders speckled the interstate shoulder for over 50 miles.  It was hot.  Several riders did not finish the day because of the heat.  Claire Elgersma, a rider and the chair of the Sea to Sea committee, got her hand casted because of a hairline fracture that happened when she braced herself from a little fall in a parking lot on Monday.  We’re thankful that everyone got in safe and sound. 

Our sleeping arrangements changed because of the heat.  We, along with several other riders, got a room at the new Super 8 here in Quartzsite, AZ.  The rest of the riders fit in a small community center with air conditioning.  This community center did not become available until yesterday morning and we are all very thankful for it because it would have been too hot to camp on the football field, which, we were told, is the largest patch of grass between Dessert Center, CA (Wednesday’s stop) and Phoenix.

Rudy found this cactus in the area behind our motel.

 

There have been numerous occasions and events on the ride that most people would say “just happened” to work out for our safety and benefit.  For me, it happened on Wednesday morning when the Port-a-Potty SAG van came up behind us as I scanned the desert for a shrub large enough to “serve my purpose.”  J  God is with us, but I struggle with the implied idea that God is with us to make our lives better and more comfortable.   Maybe he provided the air conditioned places for us to stay because he knows we couldn't handle him not doing so.  The People of Israel's complaining in the dessert has taken on a whole new meaning in this landscape.

Our biking has been suspended until Monday or Tuesday because of the extreme heat conditions.  I was expecting some opposition from the die-hard bicyclists, but I haven’t sensed it at all.  We all want to be safe.  They are busing us to Payson, AZ, where we would have arrived on Monday.  They are also scouting out a different route through Colorado because of the fires there.

I hope you are having a great day, wherever this finds you.  I’ll try to keep posting as many days as possible.

 

God be with you.