Wandering Wheels - 25 January 1991 (the far less melancholy entry)

It's later now, same night. The melancholy still lingers a bit, but only faintly tasted. God truly has spoken softly since those first moments, but very clearly. Praise God for friends and good times to bring one out of their sadness. I'll get to the details later. Now I'll tell you about the day.

The morning was a complete disaster. First we woke up late, so I felt rushed all morning. Then the news came - Randy had badly sprained his foot. Details were a little sketchy, something about a man and a rat and a stone, but the fact remained: Team Bias would be without their leader for the remainder of the trip. Which didn't turn out to be very long. Seems that in order to get us MVNC students home in time for registration, we'd have to cut out the ride to Wickenberg, AZ. Most people were happy. I was not.

So after a short meeting, we left and began the day's journey. Just out of town Scott walked his bike over a goatshead thorn (we know this because Dr. Burkholter was our leader for the day) which set the pattern for the first half of the trip. We left California (sniff) and headed into Mexico...er...ah, I mean Arizona (don't ask. Temporary brain aneurysm). Now Arizona (bump-bump) is an interesting (bump-bump) state. It seems that it (bump-bump) wants to keep its drivers (bump-bump) awake, so it put little hiccups (bump-bump) in the shoulder. For 30 miles (bump-bump) we rode on these. I counted them. 2353. Two thousand, three hundred and fifty-three (sounds better if you say it that way). That's a lot of bumps (oh my aching butt). I wasn't in the best of moods after the bad-news morning (which, I forgot to mention, included an expensive breakfast with incredibly slow service at Mac's) and the ride didn't help. We put Chip and Scott in front to set the pace. Being the selfish, I'm-the-best-biker-around guy that I am, I wanted to go faster, but I hung back and kept my mouth shut.

We stopped in a little town called Quartzville. Not exactly a town, really, more like the world's largest flea market. There must have been two-three miles of trailers selling things, mostly gems and rocks. Not my favorite place on the trip. Then we were off again, up hill to our lunch stop. After turning off I-10 to 60, Scott and I led the group to lunch.

After a wonderful lunch of hot roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes, green beans and cherry cheesecake, we were off again. Since we lost an hour crossing the border, we had to fly. So Ed and I set the pace for the first 7-10 miles. My legs were seriously aching after that. We picked up Alison as we passed her group and continued our pace, slowing a bit as Scott got tired. The Arizona desert is filled with saguaro cactus (aka Road Runner cactus) and is really rather beautiful with the mountains and sky and everything. Aside: we ate lunch at a ghost town called Brenda; we also went through a small town called Hope. Today I also realized that as trucks pass you can smell what they're carrying, such as cows or pine.

Anyway, when we reached Hope we discovered that it was only ten miles to Wenden, our final destination. So we slowed up the pace a bit (except for Ed, who took off with Tour de France) and took in the gorgeous Arizona desert scenery. Along the way we were chased by a do for the first time all trip. It was very amusing.

The last five miles I left the group a little and just rode by myself for a while. It was such a great feeling. We found a dead coyote on the side of the road and stopped for a while, then resumed our riding (Dr. Burkholter wanted to pick it up and freeze it, but never did). Then we finally reached Wenden and the realization hit me: it was over. We unpacked the bikes and I became extremely depressed (see earlier entry).

We hung around until dinner time and ate (I think) our last meal, which was exactly what we had the first night: spaghetti. Then Team Bias had to do dishes. We had the best time. We had the music going and we all started to dance around the kitchen, washing and drying as we went. People were taking pictures and watching us. I really had a great time and it cheered me up immensely.

Then we had class. I realized the trip didn't have to end, that the experience would always be in my memory and that I could take what I learned and continue back home to boring Ohio. After class we saw some slides from the trip that Gail had taken and had a great time remembering everything. Then Chip, Jeff, Ed, Dennis, Theresa and I played a game of 3 on 3 soccer for a while. I won't mention who won, but their team go all the lucky breaks.

And now, while I sit here surrounded by Taylor biology students studying for their second test in 12 hours, it is time to go to bed. I leave with this thought from Dances With Wolves: "Every day ends with a miracle" (my favorite line from the movie). Æ

Tunes: luna - neon lights