We weren't very excited about the day when we woke up this morning since we knew we had a lot of work to do. Sure enough, we had one more flat tire to add to the list of things to fix this morning. I made some oatmeal while Joey put away the tent. We ate the last of our bananas and then got packed up. In the daylight, we were able to find a less thorn prone path down the hill, which hopefully helped a little. Again, we decided to do a little walking. This time we walked under the bridge to the other side of the freeway to where the open restaurant/shops/gas station was. We had a chance to plug in our phones since they were both completely dead at that point, while we sat outside at the picnic tables working on the bikes. Joey started with his back tire while I got out the tweezers and started pulling thorns out of the tires. We were worried that even if the thorns that I was pulling out didn't cause the flat, that when we actually rode on them, the might cause a flat with the extra pressure. It took FOREVER to pull all of the thorns out. I must have pulled out 200-300 thorns between all the tires and it probably took about 2 hours. After Joey fixed his flat, we were pretty sure there was nothing left in his tire or rim that would cause any more flats. We checked it over and over again, but for some reason he still got another flat- right after he had just changed the one from last night. At that point we were getting very worried because we were running out of patches (since there were now more than just one hole in the tubes) and we didn't have any brand new tubes to alleviate the problem. Thank goodness the second time he changed it, the tire held. Now on to my tire. We were so happy that the tire held on the first try. Either way, we were still out of patches and would be going on prayers to make it all the way to Phoenix before getting any more flats. As for my little computer, I had a couple spare mini-zip ties, that somehow did the job. It's not very pretty in any means, but it is much better than having to hold it the entire time I am riding. As we were sitting there fixing things, the guy on the red mountain bike that we had passed yesterday and who slept somewhat near us last night, came over and talked to us for quite a while. Turns out he had a flat tire too- go figure. After a very long frustrating morning, we figured we would give it a go and hope for the best. There was what looked like a frontage road that we could take instead of the highway to get to 93. Signs were posted along the road indicating that it would take us to 93. We decided to take it since anything is better than riding on the interstate. The road was much more hilly that the nicely graded interstate, but it had almost no traffic whatsoever. After we made it about a mile and a half down the road, the 93 sign pointed down a very bumpy dirt road. At first we figured we would go with it, but after riding on what felt like a washboard, we decided that it would be just miserable to go the whole way on that. We decided to turn around and go the interstate afterwards. Ughh. On the way, I heard a light "Psssss" sound. Wouldn't ya know it- I had another flat tire. Now this was a really big problem! We had NO way to fix it since we were now out of patches, had no new tubes, and were stuck riding these "Panaracres" (spare folding tires) that apparently will just continue to give us flats over and over again when we are in "Goat Head" thorn country. For quite a while we tried to figure out what we would do. Eventually we came to a decision- we would just have to hitchhike a ride to the next town that had a bike shop- which would be Phoenix. We thought about going back to Kingman, but since it was Sunday- the shop would most likely be closed anyways. While I waited near the on ramp, Joe walked back up to the gas station we camped at because he remembered seeing a piece of cardboard that we could use to make a sign. When he got back, I started writing "Broken bike, trying to get to Phoenix" on the cardboard. All I got written was "Broken Bi" before someone pulled over to give us a lift! It was a nice guy with a pickup truck who even had tie downs so the bikes wouldn't be bouncing around in the back. To make both bikes fit (he had a big truck tool chest in the bed), I took all the panniers off of my bike. As if we didn't already think we were really lucky, when Jesse (the driver) asked us where we were going in Phoenix, we found out that he was pretty much going to the same place since he also lived in Chandler. How could we have gotten that lucky!?!? We were amazed. It reminded us so much of how the other time we were broken down the guys who picked us up were fellow cyclists doing a supported tour across the USA. What are the odds that we got this lucky a second time!? So, after a few minutes of packing the bikes into the truck, we were screaming down the highway. We weren't all that happy to be taking a ride, but at the same time were so grateful that someone picked us up that fast and that they were going to the same place. From where we were to Phoenix, we had about 3 and a half hours of driving to do (we were about 175 miles away). Right away I tried to get a hold of Cousin Anne, since instead of being there in 3-4 days, we would be there today! At first I couldn't get a hold of her because she must have still been at church, but when I did, we gave her the warning that we were on our way. Despite the short notice that we would be there today (since we didn't expect to have it come to taking a ride), she was totally ok with it and sounded excited. I knew that I was really excited now because I didn't expect to get to see her TODAY, when we woke up this morning! To pass the time in the truck, I watched movies with Jesse, Jesse's 8 year old son. As we drove, we passed so many of the big cactus and I was a little sad that we weren't getting to ride by them. But at the same time, there were quite a lot of hills, some of which were very long. I was a little glad that we got to miss some hills. It felt like such a long ride in the truck just since we haven't been in a vehicle for any real length of time in a long time. Whenever I'm in a car, I just feel like we are supposed to just be there already because it is supposed to be so much faster than our bikes. Just from sitting still in the back seat of the truck, my legs were cramping a bit-- they just aren't used to just being in one position for that long since we're always peddling. As we were coming into civilization, it was just like another one of the huge valleys we've seen so much of lately, except it was just full of buildings and roads. Going down the interstates, we passed the Cardinals football stadium and the Diamondbacks baseball stadium, the airport, and downtown Phoenix. When we plugged in Cousin Anne's address to Jesse's GPS, we found out that she only lives about 2 miles from their house- it couldn't have worked out any better. We arrived at Cousin Anne's house very easily with the GPS- no navigating required on our part, we were just driving along and then we were all of a sudden there. I was just so excited to see Anne and to meet her roommate Lou. They helped us get our bikes all unloaded and then we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Jesse and Jesse. It was very surreal to already be there. No effort required, it was like a time warp. We got to put our bikes out on the enclosed porch to their unit and then we each got to enjoy a nice hot shower to get us freshened up. We found out that Lou was going to give up here super comfy king size bed and private bath so that we could sleep there while we were here. It was amazing- just like a hotel. We definitely felt a bit spoiled!! After enjoying catching up and answering any questions they had about our trip, we enjoyed some yummy cheese and crackers and later on some tortilla chips with salsa and melted cheese! My new favorite treat! For dinner, we had some awesome Italian food from one of the local restaurants. Chicken, rigatoni, salad, bread, wine and beer. It was SO yummy! For the rest of the evening, we relaxed on the comfy couch and watched some television. We are definitely looking forward to sleeping in that gigantic comfy bed!! I just can't believe we are already to Phoenix! Despite all the problems with the bikes and having to take a ride, I am very happy to be here. If we didn't break down and had gotten to ride the whole way, we would already be at 10,000 miles so far on the trip, but that's ok. We only rode/walked 3.31 miles and were in the truck for about 175 miles. What an interesting day- it was definitely one of those days where we felt almost every emotion in the book at some point.
Grandma note: One week later (Dec. 2nd) I was talking to someone who has a relative in Kingman, who not only has a pickup truck, but also a small plane. She said he would have been more than glad to have helped out Joe and Em. What are the chances ??
Grandma note: One week later (Dec. 2nd) I was talking to someone who has a relative in Kingman, who not only has a pickup truck, but also a small plane. She said he would have been more than glad to have helped out Joe and Em. What are the chances ??