Time: 3h35m18s
Distance: 127.42km
Avg Spd: 35.5km/hr
Climbing: 892m
What a day! From the stats above, you can tell we were motoring. Five of us formed a mini-peloton and hit the mostly-downhill route pretty hard. I cruised through my fastest metric century in 2h45m!
The desert scenery is still impressive, but we're starting to see more trees and greenery. Last night we were treated to a magnificent thunderstorm and a crazy downpour. I think it was a good decision to stay in the gym that was offered us.
Tonight we are staying at St Johns City Park in Apace County. There's a great bit of shade and a pool. The organizers are setting up a screen to show us a movie in the park.
I'm feeling like there's less and less fun stuff to report as we get back into the swing of riding every day. We're still getting up way too early (in my humble opinion). Today, the alarm clocks in the gym went at 4:50am. Talk about early! The heat of the day today only reached 34C, so there's really not much incentive to get up so early to beat the heat. Hanging around our campsites from noon 'til 5pm is somewhat boring, so we need to start leaving later or finding more interesting things to do once we get into town.
This morning we rolled into a little town called Snowflake, AZ around 8am and decided to stop for coffee. But all three cafe's in town were closed, with the earliest one opening at 9am! Not exactly catering the to the typical coffee consumer... We ended up at McDonalds, and sat in the A/C and joked around for an hour before hitting the road again.
Today we walked half a block to the Library, and are trying to blog as best as possible with the sketchy Wi-Fi that kicks us off every five minutes. I'll cut this short to get back to camp before the impending rain showers hit.
The weather in this area is quite predictable - hot all day, rain showers in the afternoon. Feels kind of like Calgary...
Anyway, another day of riding ahead of us tomorrow. And more good times with friends tonight. The wrist is feeling better, but still has much room for improvement.
I haven't heard from many people back home since I left, and would love to hear from any of you. Shoot me an email (stephen.byl@gmail.com) or leave a comment below with an update. It is appreciated!
If you'd like to see some pictures and videos from other riders, check out the links below:
Brandon Haan's Blog
John's Smugmug Album
Stan Baker's Youtube Page
Len Kooy's Blog
Marc vanOtteren's Blog
Shannon Marcus' Blog
Ava Baker's Blog
Or "Like" Sea to Sea on Facebook and peruse the news and photos there.
Hey Stephen! I had an email from my cousin Corrie Z in Holland. She mentioned even she is following the tour and your blogs! Keep it up ..the blogs are fabulous! ~m
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