ANOTHER HILL???

Well.

After the luxurious night at the fabulous Zane Grey RV Campground, the best campground on earth, we had our Ops Briefing where we learned that the first 25 miles was supposed to be "quite a climb," and then we would have lunch in the camper.  The second 25 miles into Payson was supposed to be downhill.

Of course, I didn't believe it.  I take the attitude of  "we'll see."  So, I rode up and up and up.  Every so often I would take a picture of the prickly pear cactus in bloom or check out a skeleton at the side of the road.  Then I would call and check on Peter with the walkie-talkie.  He was still walking his bike to save his knees.  Then gradually we had to resort to our system of call- two beeps means "OK," since the signal was going and we lost the "talkie" feature.  Soon by noon there was no more connection.

Lanny drove up and said Peter had gotten in for a power nap and re-filled water bottles and was back to walking his bike.  I re-filled mine and grabbed some more food.  Getting in the shade for a few minutes really helps with the stamina and morale.  So we communicated by drive-iee-Lanny.

We were following General Crook Cavalry Trail from Fort Whipple-Fort Verde to Payson, which was used in the late 1800's to visit deprivations on the Indians.  There were historic markers every so often to remind us of our proud heritage.

I ate in the camper at the half way point and continued on.  I found the downhill portion and the view was fabulous.  Green valley that smelled like vanilla pine, red and yellow buttes and little creeks.  There are lizards running along by the bike every now and then.  Amazingly, the road was recently resurfaced and it's a pleasure to ride on.  The weather couldn't be better.

Then I rounded the corner and saw ANOTHER monster hill.  The kind where semi trucks have to get helicopter assistance to climb.  I said, "shoot."  I got to the top and saw:  ANOTHER hill.  and so on.  I said, "OH."  I finally got to Payson at 7 pm and there were stores and stuff.  I found the Wal Mart and waited for the camper.

I made a Haiku.

       A day of big hills
       now the large WalMart people
      Mosquitos have feast

Lanny came at 8:30 or 9 and announced that he was springing for a night at the Best Western.
I have applied at the Vatican for his canonization.

The Best Western is my new religion.  We went shopping at the continental breakfast.
On to lovely Heber, AZ


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Peter's Post:

At 9pm last night, tired, alone and hungry in the dark, after flying down the all-to-brief hill into Stawberry, AZ, I went into the "Beer-Bar-Eats" biker establishment hoping to get a hot chocolate.

This order proved too difficult for the bartender lady.  I ordered instead a burger and diet Pepsi.  The seven other patrons laughed when I did this.  Once I realized that I wasn't going to get murdered, I told them about our trip.  The entire bar, including someone's puppy, looked up from their drinks and cheered when I announced that my wife had started the trip on her 50th birthday.

I guess I looked pretty bad, because even the drunks asked if I needed help on my ride into Payson.  I politely declined.

I told them about our blog and one of the truck drivers, who was maybe 30, said, "I don't do no computer-geek stuff."

Then I got in the camper with Lanny for the final 16 miles.  He convinced me that it was too unsafe to keep riding in the dark.

The End.