Monday, March 16, 2009

Sagging to Safford


The morning feeding frenzy at the snack table. Each mornng Linda and Lois put out peanut butter, jelly, bread, and an assortment of nuts and snacks for the day's ride. The sag wagon carries chips, various snack bars (granola bars, Go Lean bars, PayDay bars, Powerbars), cookies, jerky, nuts, M&M's (regular and peanut), juice, water, Gatorade, and fruit. Anyone trying to lose weight should not sign up for this ride!
Today's ride was either 77 miles or 83 miles, depending on whether you go by the cue sheet or a rider's Garmin. The first sag stop was at mile 20 on the San Carlos Reservation. There was a really cute reservation dog that tried hard to mooch food from us. Lucky for Peter that I couldn't bring the pooch with me!
The reservation was a cell phone dead zone and I had to backtrack to Globe to get a signal and find out why the van and trailer hadn't come along yet. The trailer had a flat. Then it was on to mile 40 or so - wherever the lead rider was. Found her a little past mile 40 and later Peggy, my Perkinsville neighbor, joined me in the wagon. She was duly deputized to honk the squeeze horn as we caught up with riders so they knew we were coming by and could let us know if they wanted anything.
We drove back and forth for a bit to check on riders, then stopped around 2:30 for lunch. We had bean burritos and I had one of Taylor Freeze's (in Pima, AZ) legendary root beer floats. I then dropped Peggy off at the hotel and made one last run. Finished sagging around 5 -- a long day! Not much time to take pictures, and the scenery wasn't too spectacular. The ride was downhill initially, then long rolling hills, then flat. It was a very hot-feeling day without a cooling breeze.
Tomorrow we pedal to Lordsburg and have margaritas! New Mexico here we come. Two days until layover day. The non-sag riders have pedaled for six days without a break and are pretty tired and sore. On the other hand, they are amazing people. Women in their 50's, 60's, and 70, and one 41-year-old whipper snapper who can ride for miles and miles and miles. And not one gripe or whine - just lots of laughs, songs, and smiles. They are truly a pleasure to be around.
No bike stats. Food: bowl of cheerios with milk, banana, OJ, some fruit chews, bean burrito, root beer float, melon, mashed sweet potatos, Cuban chicken, and a slice of cheesecake. Should be enough to fuel me for tomorrow and Wednesday.

2 comments:

kak said...

Of course, I read your blog and the item that I remember is the cheesecake you had. I think older people (we're it) are a fascinating group - have such interesting stories to tell - have a better perspective on life usually. My DAV group usually leaves me laughing (and gasping after corned beef and cabbage). We're taking good care of Dad. When we get up there, I hope we take good care of each other (we'll just live from house to house if the in-laws can stand it). Take care of yourself - have a ball - you deserve every bit of joy and happiness! Love ya, Kak

Horseshoe#1 said...

Do you have the usual comic in your group that ends each day's ride by asking, "Are we there yet?"