THE REAL THING

March 19 Queen Creek to Superior 50 miles
Wednesday morning we said our goodbye's to the Chris and Jill Henrichsen family about 9:00AM. We had had a wonderful visit with lots of grandchildren time and a fun birthday celebration for Christian. We slept well even though Rusty got to try out his sleeping pad and sleeping bag on the floor in Mikelle's room. Jill and Christian and Mikelle rode out of the neighborhood with us on their bikes. We were quite a sight! We felt like we were being sent off in style!
As we rode out into the desert we were awed by the spring beauty! Blue and yellow and gold desert flowers and a green hue on the mountains. We kept stopping to take pictures.
We enjoyed our gourmet biker lunch (PB&J and apple) with some cattle by a wash and then began climbing out of the valley. We climbed up towards Superior and even had to walk some which Georgia called. Some of you think that Rusty does the whining on this bike team....not true! He stoked until Georgia was begging for a rest!
We were looking forward to stopping at a little store outside of Florence Junction for some chocolate milk but we discovered that the store no longer exists! We were grateful we had brought some GU, a high carbo gel that gives quick energy. It helped us pull our 100lb load up those hills when we didn't have any fuel left. There's a new road in progress but taped off to traffic which we finally couldn't resist riding on. It was so smooth and clean and totally free of any traffic that we decided it would be worth a scolding to give it a try. After a couple of miles a supervisor pulled up in his pickup and asked us what we were doing. Ready to repent and ask forgiveness we realized he was just interested in our ride and our bike. He welcomed us to test out his new road and gave us a few tips. It definitely made the ride nicer and after reaching the top we soared down hill at about 44mph enjoying the majesty of the desert mountains !
We arrived in Superior at the RV Park and got a spot on the lawn for $5.00 and a hot shower for $1.50 for seven minutes. That is actually a nice long shower!
The RV Park owner loaned us his car to go another mile into town up hill to a little market to get our dinner. We decided to go light and didn't start up our fire but had cold ranch beans, cottage cheese and peaches. IT was delicious! We did discover that the can opener we had brought was worthless and getting those cans open was totally frustrating! Hungry and tired we vowed to buy a new one at the next Wal-Mart!!
We cozied down to a good nights sleep. We whipped together a delicious pancake breakfast the next morning and began an even steeper climb into Globe.