Day 32/16-Desert Flats
Written by Jon on 15 April 2010
We woke up, showered, and waited for Frank to get back from a quick meeting at work. He took us to the same point he had picked us up the night before and greeted us goodbye. We rode through Phoenix along the bicycle route next to their canal system. It is beautifully setup for cyclists in that there is an underpass for nearly every road and the scenery was excellent. About midday we finally hit the long highway 60 and eventually the historic Wickenberg, AZ. It was everything I envisioned a Wild West town to be. I was about an hour ahead of Sam, planned on making it to Aguila before dark, and waiting for him there. I was on track to make it on time, but developed a slow leak in one of my tires and later also in the other. At first I was able to pump them up every few miles without changing tubes, but the leaks progressed to the point I had to pump them every half mile. I played this game for about 10 miles and finally I could see city lights ahead. I got sick of pumping them and the shoulder was too narrow to change the tubes. I walked the last half mile and got lucky in that the first places I saw happened to be a café and motel. I told the motel owner my mechanical situation and he knocked the room down from $55 to $35. I paid for the room and went to the café to wait on Samuel. I chatted with a local lady named Sandra who gave me a lot of advice about the desert ahead. Samuel arrived about a half hour later and also decided to stay in Aguila for the night. Luckily the motel owner had given me a double bed at no additional charge. Samuel fell asleep quickly and I stayed up working on my bike. I first tightened the loose spokes in the rear wheel and replaced one broken spoke. I replaced the rear tube with no problems, but had to replace/patch the front tube three times before I got the leak problem sorted out. One of the Apache Indians, Edward, called. He said he had been worried about us and wanted to know our progress. I thought it was very kind that he was concerned about us and chatted with him about our upcoming route before bed.