LIfe is Grand

I'm at the Grand Canyon! I rolled in on Saturday and enjoyed a hike partway into the canyon as well as a bike ride along the South Rim--both affording some spectacular views! I'll post some pictures soon, hopefully. Lot's of love, and Happy Memorial Day.

One state Down and the Kindness of Strangers.

Just after I finished writing my last blog update, something really wonderful happened. I began chatting with the woman, Rosa who owned the internet cafe where I had used the computer. When I told her where I planned to camp she warned me about gang activity in the area, and after a few minutes invited me to stay at her home with her family. She told me stories of having taken in young travelers before and made me feel so welcome and at ease (and thrilled by the prospect of a shower!) that I accepted without hesitation. Rosa and  her whole family welcomed me into their home and made me very comfortable (even giving up a bedroom against my protestation, and cooking me a vegan breakfast!). I had a restful afternoon, a great sleep and a good start for my next ride which was going to be 84 miles--over two times what I had done at that point.

Much to my surprise, I made it just fine in plenty of time to find a campsite and eat before dark. It was a long ride through total desert--I even rode through the Imperial Sand Dunes where Star Wars was filmed (you can imagine what I heard in my head for that 15 miles!) The next day I pushed on from Palo Verde across the CA-AZ state line (!woo hoo! I am getting somwhere!) to Brenda, AZ. On the map this town is portrayed as a full-service stop of 400 residents with a store, motel and campgrounds available year-round. In reality, it was a near complete ghost town where only 2 or three buildings weren't on wheels or some-which way of the 'mobile' variety. To boot most of these were in fact deserted already for the summer--a symptom of the "snow bird" phenomenon that makes Brenda (and many other little spots I passed the next day) a place at all. So, super tired and unable to push on 15 miles to the next place (which I later found out would have brought me to a similarly abandoned transient oasis) I finally found a living soul who told me it shouldn't bother anyone if I just set up camp in the RV park someplace. I found a concrete slab near a picnic table and waited for one of two inevitable things to happen--I'd be kicked out by a hardcore 100 degree plus survivor with a suspicious attitude towards people dressed like aliens arriving on bicycles to the middle of absolutely nowhere; or the wind to just blow me entirely away (which I suspected may have relieved Brenda of some of it's alleged 400 member populous already). Thankfully, neither fate befell me, and I ended up meeting a really sweet woman who summers in Homer, AK  (in my neck of the woods : ) after a night dreaming of Alaska.

Yesterday was tough--flat, lackluster, hot, and desolate. I've been ready for a rest day for a couple of days now, which I'm happy to finally have here in Wickenburg, AZ. However, so far Arizona has offered some of the most incredible land and skyscapes I have ever seen; so vast and beautiful in their simplicity--sky, rock, and sand, that they arrest all of my faculties for moments at a time. The horizon is everywhere, sometimes in every direction, and at times you can see so far it looks as though you're seeing into the past--like starlight that travels so far it's sending it's image but, should you ever get there, it's source would be long gone. My other deepest impression from the last few days has to do with the repeated kindness I have received from complete strangers. I have met so many wonderfully helpful people that I can't help but wonder this: do we love to dwell on and re-tell stories of hardship, misfortune and failed trust in others not because of their actual frequency, but because remembering those risks somehow makes it OK for us not to go out and do new, challenging, things? Anyhow, I have so many thanks to everyone for their encouragement and good thoughts, and especially Rosa (as beautiful as she is kind), Kerry and their family. PS: Thanks for the pepper spray, too, Rosa : ) Tomorrow I'll be back on the road headed towards the Grand Canyon via Prescott! I really can't wait for those vistas!

Day 4: Resting (and roasting) in El Centro, CA.

Woah! THis is what I am talking about! Finally, a day more like what I envisioned: 41.5 miles by 2:00pm including a lunch break and a 9:45am departure time. I think I pedaled three or four times the entire way! Day two, by contrast brought me 20 miles of uphill, which took everything out of me in 7 hours. Literally, I think about 2.5 miles of that section were downhilll or flat...Yowza. Then yesterday was mostly more of the same, but brought me through the rest of the worst for quite a while. My delightful and unexpected prize was an un-advertized campsite at the "Jacumba Hot Springs Resort" in Jacumba, CA. I got to take a refreshing swim in their mineral spring water fed pool, do laundry and feast my eyes upon the skeletal "pop.400" remains of what was once apparently a booming tourist town of 5,000 in the 1930's. "Oh yes," I was told by the informative thrift/convenience store/game room counter attendant, (a little bit dreamy eyed) "Humphry Bogart used to come here..." Being 35 years old at most, I'm not quite sure to which time and place exactly the reverie brought her. But anyhow, a nice night. I also enjoyed a Dos XX Equis on draught in honor of the strange rusty wrought iron fence structure slicing through the nearby landscape reminding you that you are very close, but 'thank god' (?), not quite in Mexico. Being from so far away, I had the naivety to grow up thinking that border fences were an exaggeration of fact. You learn something new everyday...So far I am having a really wonderful time, meeting very kind people, and experiencing something new and very foreign to who I thought I was; small bouts of determination. Now in day 4 when I did encounter some daunting rise in elevation, just at the moments where I wanted to dismount and give in to fatigue, some other stronger urge took over instead and I suddenly wanted to instead pedal even harder to get to the top. I wanted to kick some ass, so to speak. If this continues, I just may well take over and become the most dangerous thing on the road! Look out, it could happen. (Maybe).

Thanks for all of the great encouragement!
Peace,
Love,

Audrey

If I can make it to Alpine, I may be able to make it anywhere...

Day one, after a spin around my sister Amber's city block with a loaded bike (the true extent of my training), I figured I was as ready as ever I would be. So I set out from an Ocean Beach, CA park with a cliff bar and enough ignorance of what 2000 feet worth of elevation really meant to start pedaling. The first two thirds of the route were confidence building teasers compared to the last third which had me wondering if I could be the first person to walk a loaded bicycle across the country--after a certain point I sure seemed to have more of a knack for that than pedaling.

Though it took quite some time, and left me in the dark for a while, I finally made it to my Dad's cousin Bea's--a wonderful promise of hospitality and respite that kept me going longer than that of a dark, hard to find campsite would have. Yesterday alone I met a few very nice people, mostly cyclists who shared their touring stories and didn't look at me like I was completely unprepared and out of shape, which was nice of them. Overall, I am very encouraged by day one. The next 30 miles of my route offers another 2000 ft climb, so I may break it up into two parts, especially if that's the key to keeping my spirits up. After that, it's literally downhill and then pretty flat all the way to Phoenix. Thanks so so much to Amber, Nathan and Bea for all the generous hospitality. Peace!