Wednesday 27 April 2011

I Fought The Law...Day 3...Blythe to Wickenburg...Tues 26/04/11

After yesterday's late-doors implosion the plan for today was to, quite frankly, hide. Recovery and conservation to the fore because tomorrow will be bad. Fact.
So we kicked-off early again and headed back onto our beloved I-10 (note to self: next time you're on here make sure you're in a car) and headed across into Arizona.


Oh really? Is that all?


 Lame photo op.. That's never stopped me before though.


After a couple of miles on the Freeway we saw flashing blue lights up ahead: yep, a police car with some of our group. Well, it was only a matter of time as some of the guys do look like absentees from Folsolm, hah-hah!


Turns out that Officer Manly (and she was a bit...well, judge for yourselves) said that we couldn't continue because of recently completed road repairs that hadn't cured yet.
Somebody rang Mike (tour leader) and he duly arrived as did the second support van: they put the bikes on the roof and we squeezed ourselves in to be ferried the five miles to safety. Mind you, a couple of our speed merchants had caned it through this section earlier without any bother.



The rest of the day was spent on an arrow-straight road with just an incessant drying crosswind for company. Nice. This is a tough and unrelenting landscape...stark but beautiful.



So, so nearly the tailwind I was praying for! We got help a little bit towards the end to be honest, and I was plenty glad of it.


One of several cactii around, I believe.


Always a good sight- the 100 mile marker means Wickenburg is only another 10 miles over the crest. Hello Best Western, hello McDonalds, hello handwashing. Did I really take that much of the desert with me?