TOP: But it's a dry heat...
2nd: Thanks to Bush, inflation is so bad that two buck chuck now costs three bucks!
3rd: Can't do a bike trip without a little tequila. This is the 1 GALLON size patron silver. Lasted us nearly 3 days...
Well, here we go, off on our bike relay from the Mexico border to the Canadian border. 10 years ago for my 40th birthday, I dreamt up some stupid idea to bike from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. In a week. So, myself and 5 of my friends - Cliff, Gill, Tom, Chris, and Jerry - all made the trip a reality and we had an awesome time of it. For my 50th bday this summer I wanted to repeat the journey across Canada, but the logistics proved insurmountable with just a week of vacation, which is what most of the candidates could allocate for the ride. So, we elected to bike from the Mexico border to the Canadian border. And just to make it more interesting, we thought we'd do it basically along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. Through arizona. In the middle of summer. In the words of my beloved sister-in-law Esmerelda the she-witch, "And yet, your friends keep doing the things that you ask of them. They should all have lobotomies".
This year's crew will be 4 repeats from the Pacific-Atlantic trip,;Gill "Lucy" Burriack, Tom Gallagher, Jerry "Festus" Erb all from Rochester, and Cliff Anderson from Phoenix, along with 3 new riders, Ben Bembenek and Karen Anderson (cliff's sister) from Boston, and John "Marco Polo" Coble from DC. Ben worked with me in Boston, John likewise out in SanDiego before recently relocating to DC (he needs his head examined), and Karen basically is my lone groupie and follows me around everywhere.
John and I rendezvous'd a few days early in Phoenix to help Cliff re-assemble all the bikes and get the shopping done. Doing that without someone as a sanity check was a bad idea, as we had to go to 3 stores and basically rent a u-haul to get all the groceries and booze back to cliff's house. We filled his living room nearly floor to ceiling. Given that John and Cliff are about 130 lbs each (maybe together?), I was the clear beneficiary of that little adventure. It rarely topped 111 during the afternoon, so we kept our sweaters on most of the time. Or not. Frankly, I sweated my cojones right off the first day. Well, it will at least make me lighter on the bike!
After a couple of days of prep work, the bikes were ready to go, the rental SUV was loaded, and we eagerly awaited the other 4 riders arrival into Phoenix on Friday. Till then, all we could do was eat mexican food and drink margaritas...man, I hope they NEVER show up.
"Cactus" Lumpy out
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