The amount of wealth being pulled out of the ground

RIGHT outside the Apache Reservation is truly impressive. Gold, silver and copper. Massive mines. Huge fortunes being made.

Where is that money going? (What corporation? I did see BHP Billiton on one sign. What country? Are the profits "off-shored"? Do they pay the same tax rate as Boeing, GE, etc?)
Who is getting it? (What are the relative pay rates of the guys working the mine? The accountants? The middle managers? The top 5 highest paid executives?)
What taxes and tax rates are being paid on it?
Is the damage done to the air, water, quiet, and roads being paid for, today, with profits from the mines? Will the local taxpayers be left with the clean up costs when the corporations (executives, in far off places, with 5 homes to go to) decide it is no longer profitable to remove the valuable material currently found here anymore?

And will there be a Leadville 100 type bike race to try to rejuvenate the local economy after it fails when the mine owners pull out, leaving the scarred mountains, the mine waste and the miners behind?

Jarritos made in Mexico

There are a lot of "In memory" signs

Between Superior, AZ, and Globe, AZ - mining capital of I don't know what. But everywhere you turn there are mines, tailings, mining equipment, huge trucks -and one neighborhood up on the hill with huge houses - otherwise a lot of poor lookin' folks, working "shift work".
Tons of crosses on the side of the road; including several bike handlebars - but I am thinking they are meant to be motor bike handlebars, not pedal bike handlebars.
Nonetheless, definitely a dangerous place to NOT be in a big truck with a seatbelt and airbags.

If you are going to bike from Superior to Globe, bring your bright lights (front and rear), your climbing legs, and do it on a WEEKEND.
(We did, and it was still stressful)

Our blog is solar powered.

The GoalZero solar panels are working well for the Southern tier of our route. In a day we can charge enough for our cell phones and Garmin GPS bike computers.

My favourite!

The right choice!

Yesterday we decided to stop in Superior, AZ after only 30 miles into a planned 55 mile day. It was the right choice. The combination of biking over a pass, difficult riding, and weekend traffic (including a poker run) made today's ride to Globe stressful. Although only 25 miles, it was a lot better riding through with fresh legs and head first thing in the morning, than it would have been yesterday afternoon.

The RV park here in Globe is nice, but small with just an outhouse, no laundry or showers. So, instead of taking tomorrow off the bike, we will push through a 7th day and a long ride tomorrow (75 miles) to Thatcher and Safford for our rest day. Good thing we have two short days in our legs from yesterday's choice to stay in Superior. Tomorrow's ride is relatively flat and the forecast is for west winds, just what we'll be needing!

Welcome to Globe, AZ

Mining capital

I'm surprised Heidi said it

I'm the one who is usually looking for trends, looking for patterns, coming up with "theories".
So when a guy/gal driving a white pickup truck passed dangerously close, after dozens of safe passes by other motorists, she said "White pickup trucks are the worst".
Then we saw several motorist-kill skunks in the "debris lane" and I ventured that "White pickup truck drivers are the skunks of the highway."
Maybe they "smell" so bad because of EABU?

Extreme Axe Bodyspray Use.

Well, that fuckin' sucked

Heading East, uphill out of Superior, AZ. Narrow road, lots of traffic, even on a Saturday morning (when you have purposefully stopped on Friday in town, the day before, to hopefully have less motor vehicle traffic. It is less; but it is still a lot of traffic. Lots of trucks pulling motorboats to the Coolidge Dam reservoir, it looks like.)
No accommodations for non-motorized travelers after the bridge over the dry Queen Creek, just a sign before the Queen Creek Tunnel, admonishing motorists to move over to the right, closer to the non-motorized people. And there are two of us, plus our friend Don, plus two other loaded bike tourers, plus two sag-supported bike tourers, plus a woman hiking it.
About 3,000 feet of climbing out of town, with stressful conditions the whole way up; and then also on the downhill after "Top of the World". Lame. And the AZ DOT makes it even worse by putting "move right" signs before tunnels and rumble strips right beside guard rails - IN the "bike lane" (in the few places there was asphalt to the right of the fog line.) Stupid, dangerous, lame.

From Apache holy ground

To white man hole in the ground
Wow
Pretty impressive holes
And trucks
And tailings

Our new light-weight camp shoes

Picket Post Mountain

Sitting here in the Rest Area in Superior, AZ (along the Jefferson Davis memorial highway - I almost went back and took a photo after we biked past the monument today as we were leaving Apache Junction, but I did not - so I can't be sure about the details. Sorry.) at a picnic table in the shade, and Heidi and I can barely converse with the noise from all the passing motor bikes - thinking about this monument in the bad phone photo, and my kind of continuing shock of realizing that the high school history we were all taught is more of a "story" than actual history. It is designed to make us feel good, to be proud; to gloss over the genocide, theft and slavery that helped build this nation.
The American west is exactly like the Chinese west, only we got there 150 years before they did.
In this case the army was protecting "the mining magnate", as it usually does. The people who's land was taken were not happy about it. In the case of this place, the Apaches raided the camps of the people extracting riches from their ancestral lands. In Tibet the Buddhists self-immolate in protest.

We'll be biking near the Coolidge Dam tomorrow and so I was reading about it last night. It's on an "Indian" reservation (I always figured we westerners would want to start calling the humans we found here when we got here by a different name - because it is a constant reminder of how bad we once were at navigating - but it is simpler than trying to learn all those tribe names, I guess?) The dam covered up sacred burial grounds and? Old camps of Geronimo, from which he raided "the mining magnates" and the army protecting them. In Tibet? They drilled a hole through a mountain to drain a (sacred Tibetan) lake to generate electricity - so the People's Liberation Army can have electricity at their bases/posts/camps. (What was the name of that lake again? Heidi? Leone? Janice? It was the one on the way to Chomolongma, where we saw the tiny scorpion among the rocks on the shore.) Beijing's hand-picked monk (Panchen Lama? Similar to but different than the Dalai Lama.) even started speaking against the draining, and suddenly he disappeared, only to reappear and die, some time shortly after being released. It is illegal to post photos of the Dalai Lama in Tibet; but there are photos of this Panchen Lama everywhere - hand picked by the CPC, but before he died he redeemed himself in the people's eyes; and Beijing can't protest too loudly photos of their own hand picked man.

So we had the Catholic Missions, the mining magnates, the cattle ranchers (after we wiped out the bison - to wipe out the people who depended on them, "slyly") and the US Army. The Chinese have their religion too - the Communist Party of China. And their army, the awesome "doublespeak" People's Liberation Army. And believe you me, the Chinese are on their very own Manifest Destiny right now - only they are not wiping out the Tibetans by driving them off their land, pushing them west, killing all the yaks, and giving them blankets with small pox on them; instead they are doing all the railroad building, mining, nuclear waste storage etc right beside and among the Tibetans. And why do the PLA soldiers carry fire extinguishers? So if a Tibetan tries to self-immolate they may be able to put them out - and "re-educate" them. Remind you of the book "1984" anyone? How about "Brave New World"?
As the notes from the meeting between Mao and Stalin show (in 1951? At the conclusion of WWII), Mao asked to continue using the Soviet air power that had been on loan to invade Tibet and Stalin agreed, saying "the Tibetans need to be subdued".

Of course, the CIA had training camps in Tibet, before the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising. And when we were in Tibet about a year and a half ago we were some of the first westerners let in after the "autonomous region" was done the month long celebration of "the peaceful liberation of Tibet". They were still tearing down the CPC platform in front of the Potala Palace when we were there, and the line of tanks exiting Lhasa went on for over 15 minutes, heading back to one of their bases outside town - but we were not allowed to take photos of soldiers.

We have relocated to the RV park, right beside the highway. And I'm staring across the asphalt at an old mine and a huge tailings pile; while Air Force jets roar overhead, practicing - and reminding everyone "who's the boss, around here, pardner."

It was probably a good thing Carter lost to Reagan, and so the American experiment with photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Whitehouse, "human rights" focus, and "peace" talks were replaced with a more "normal" focus on pride and results (Arms for hostages? Sure! Iran-contra affair? They're "freedom fighters!") When the US protests "human rights" abuses in China, remember, it is like the pot calling the kettle black. We got "there" first, and we killed a lot more people and stole a lot more land than the Chinese.

So maybe I'll skip biking past the (President Calvin) Coolidge Dam tomorrow. I saw enough monuments to Mao in China to last me quite a while, thank you very much.

Creative way to fun academic research

One of our fellow "southern tier" bicycle tourists is using his tour to gain some funding to support his research, training med students with simulations (I will post a link to his page on our blog). I've been thinking he's got a great idea. With NSF, NIH and industry funding getting more and more scarce, funding academic research through sponsored miles bicycled is a great alternative! At $5/mile I could fund a graduate student for a year. And what better research topic is there to fund through a bicycle tour than Bone an Joint Biomechanics?! Anyone interested?

The Monks

I've been singing part of an old "The Monks" song (from their album "Bad Habits. As Casey Stengel used to say, "You could look it up!") in my head this morning:
I've got drugs in my pocket
And I don't know what to do with them
Drugs in my pocket
Drugs in my pocket

But with some edits:
I've got boats in the desert
And I don't know what to do with them
Boats in the desert
Boats in the desert

A couple days ago it was:
I've got jetskis in the dunes
And I don't know what to do with them
Jetskis in the dunes
Jetskis in the dunes

Then we crossed Queen Creek
And I started singing
Mama mia
Mama mia
Mama mia figaro!
She's just a poor girl
In her little spandex
Spare her her pee
From this monster bike rall-y
(She told me she "had to go; was there a place?")

Well, you get the idea anyway: it's a bad idea for me to have 3 cups of coffee in the morning - unless it's "Bike Week" in Phoen-city and we are so deaf from all the Harley's passing us that Heidi can't hear me singing...

You too can be a KoA "campground hero"!

And flush the toilet
After someone else
Defecates in it

With your toe...if yer wearing your Superman costume
And yer cool new camp shoes...

Canadians camping in Apache Junction

They're a tech savvy group, those Canadians.

We learned yesterday that the locals don't call it Apache Junction, but "AJ" instead. I immediately thought of OJ Simpson, and how after that whole "he most likely killed his wife and her new boyfriend but can afford fancy lawyers and get off" thing a lot of people starting it "orange juice" again. Maybe it's the same with Apache Junction? No one wants to think they're walkin' around in someone else's backyard?

Whoa!

That girl in the Safeway parking lot
Had SPURS on her boots/Uggs/slippers!
We must be in the Wild West now!

Tempe

Lightening the load

Today we are shipping back our runners and pants. We bought lighter weight shoes/sandals instead of shoes and we've still got rain pants which we can use for long pants when we need them.

And we bought whistles!! If nothing else, just having the whistle around my neck will make me feel more prepared for the Texas dogs. Thanks Kathleen for the tip!

New rear tires!

We've had too many rear flats lately so we bought Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x32 tires for rear. Greg has Cafe Latex sealant in his rear tube too. We are still using the Vittoria Randonneur Hyper 700x32 on the front.
Hope this works!!

Damn! Phoenix!

I Like it!

Twice in the past week

We have been on the side of the road fixing a flat tire when another bike tourer has stopped, and, as it turns out, is named Matt.

Stop to fix a flat
Meet a Matt

I have watched more Fox News Corp on this trip than I have ever seen before

Cause it's on in all the truck stops, etc.

And I keep thinking back to that video recorded conversation with Scott Walker and one of his billionaire backers (Diane Hendricks) by the maker of the film "As Goes Janesville" (Rep Paul Ryan's district!) where Hendricks asks Walker "how we can destroy the unions in Wisconsin" (and with them the middle class, effectively)
And his answer, and I'm sure of this quote, from memory, "You use divide and conquer."

THAT should be Fox News Corp's motto instead of the 1984-ish, their Brave New World-ish "Fair and Balanced".
Fox News, Divide and Conquer.

One of the topics that consistently comes up in our travels across the Southwest is that "Americans are nice, good, generous, caring people. But that in aggregate we get it wrong; our government does NOT represent us, does not represent the best in us."

The American people have been great, even the ones who watch Fox News, read The Desert Freedom Press, you name it. Good people. But the govt that purports to represent them, AND us, FAILS to do so. Instead, it, and they (the Scott Walkers, the Paul Ryans), represent Diane Hendricks - and her business interests, as they see them, in the short term, quarterly profit kind of way. I don't think the Hendricks, the Kochs, the Waltons of America yet realize that if they destroy the good, "poor" people of America that they too will suffer; that their business interests will suffer. Destroy your customers in some billionaire's Libertarian dream?

It will be a nightmare, for ALL of us.

Things that we got yelled at us in Phoenix, while biking

"Get off the road!"
- guy in a van, while we were biking on a street that intermittently had an actual bike lane. It was kind of shocking, in that we have biked for over 1,500 miles and I think this may have been one of the few times we have gotten a confirmed case of "Doppler ass", in a long time. Welcome to Phoenix!

"Get off the bike path!"
- jokingly, by our friend Brian as he drove past us on the sidewalk (after we had relayed the story of the first guy)

"You're going for a long ride!"
- from a guy in one of the residential neighborhoods we were wiggling through at dusk, trying to get to the city center, "right beside the highway" RV park. I think from seeing all the bags on our bikes.

"I'm a Barbie, in a Barbie world!"
- from a fat kid in a poor residential neighborhood, in a taunting way; with a matching little dance (my wife and I are wearing spandex, after all.) I applauded his efforts to try to mock me (I assume he may have also thought my wife was a guy, given that she is so much taller [and fit] than the little pudgy guy and his two friends). I liked his taunt; I laughed.

"I like your bike!"
- from a girl among a gaggle of girls (in the same neighborhood as the taunting boy), many of them on or with bikes. They got a "Thanks!" And a couple rings of the bell, which they seemed to like. I may have heard "That was cool!" As we rode away (after the bell ringing), but then again, I may have just been delirious after a long day in the sun. Again.

Thanks for the Tune Up, Trek Store!

We stopped in the Trek Store on the south west side of Phoenix today. One of Greg's former team mates works there, and we got our bikes cleaned and tuned up! Thanks Trek Store for a friendly welcome with cold drinks, food and great bike work!

I was born in this country

But one thing I'll never understand is the unconditional LOVE for the motor vehicle.
Don't get me wrong. I have one. And I think it is a great tool for some things. Like my hammer. If I have a nail that I have to get in? The hammer is the tool for me! But if I have a screw?

We were biking across residential Phoenix today, in the cool early evening (on a Wednesday), and we came up behind this LONG line of cars idling. I was thinkin' "They can't all be waiting to turn right, can they? There isn't that much traffic." (It was about 6:30pm)
Then I thought "It must be a fast food restaurant, it is dinner time."
Then we got past the long line of idling motor vehicles, and the HEAT and exhaust coming off them, and what did we see?


A car wash.

For every asshole

Behind the wheel of a motor vehicle
There are 10 observant, courteous motorists.

Too bad about the assholes
Because all it can take is one to really ruin your day.

I'm not really that nice

But my momma taught me
That if yer gonna stare
You should say hello

(And I tend to say the "pre-emptive shtrike" "Hello!" when strangers are staring at me...and then people think I'm being friendly, not sarcastic. Oh well. I guess that's not too bad, eh?)

I'm falling behind

We're meeting so many nice people that I can't keep up.
We met Matt and Dave on the "flat" road to Salome. They know a guy that I worked with years ago. Crazy. Small world.
We talked at length to David from Vancouver WA at the Safeway in Wickenburg; who hopes to be back out on the road, bike touring, some time in the next year.
And now we're in Wickenburg, with our Canadian friend Don (who we have been traveling with on and off for hundreds of miles) and also now Joe and Kevin. I look forward to sharing more campsites down the road...

We talked to a nice guy in Aguila, who then also showed up at the Safeway in Wickenburg. Never got his name, but he is a well driller, full of good info for travelers - and also kindness and humor.

We gotta stop meeting so many nice people, or I'm not gonna be able to keep up - and eat breakfast and drink enough coffee to get me socially acceptably stimulated!

Local humor

What do drivers in AZ do when they get too old to drive their car?





Buy a motorhome to tow their car behind.

High School Yearbook

One of the cool things about this trip is that we have been able to visit with all kinds of new and old friends.
In San Diego we got to hang out with my old HS/college buddy Charlie and his girlfriend Erika. It had been near on 20 years since we had tipped one back. And then all of a sudden there we were, sippin' a cold beer, just like it was yesterday.
All it took was 3 flights and 1,000 miles of bike touring to make it happen!

Something tells me it won't be 20 years before our next beers...

Chris F - this fart joke is for you

So we're passing this huge propane tank in the desert
And what is the name on it?
Passmore Gas.

I shit you not!
Heidi is uploading today's photos right now; you can check 'em fer yerself, pardner!

Now that's a tail wind!

To keep out of the higher winds (gusting to 50 mph in the afternoon) we decided to leave Quarzite early (up at 5 and on the road by 6 am). It was the right decision! We had a strong westerly tail wind helping us for the 45 miles of riding (with 2x800 ft climbs). We arrived in Salome before noon and found a motel for tonight that Dottie had recommended. We were glad not to be outside riding or in a tent during the dust storms, gusting winds, even a little rain(!) and then finally a 2h power outage for the whole town. We've made good use of our stay here: showers, naps, eating (once at each of the town's two restaurants) and now Greg is repairing the 3 punctured tubes from today (no more fresh tubes).

Productive day off!

We took a day off the bike yesterday in Quartzite, AZ - Gem Mecca. For Jan.-March. Quartzite swells to house over 1 million RVs of gem hounds and snow birds. But in April it is a ghost town of empty RV parks. And that's where we camped for the last two nights, on the Desert Gardens RV Park horse shoe court (the only place that had been cleared of tent ground sheet eating stones). We also had access to the bingo hall/showers/library/landromat and with wifi it was the perfect place for a productive day off.

New pictures and gps tracks have been uploaded ... but Leone is on her own adventure for the next few weeks, so the nice little details that she has been taking care of for us (sub-dividing slide shows by date and many other "little" details) are missing.

We have limited computer power with us but we can update the blog, check email, and I've also been trying to keep up with my students in Madison. They have been super productive, publishing papers and I also just heard the newest lab member received a 3 year NSF grant! I am very proud of the students in my lab group!

We are in AZ!

California is a big state. It took us 35 days to bike through CA!

Saber rattling

After my 2nd or third flat today from truck tire debris in "the bike lane" I was idly thinking, along the lines of many other such silly ideas, that if Kim Jong-un can "rattle his saber" and immediately get the American govt to spend an ADDitional $1 Billion on a missile defense system that might work, maybe 50% of the time against unsophisticated enemies, maybe, that wouldn't it be cool if I could "rattle my frame pump" and get the American govt to spend any amount of (additional, in some cases) money on making walking and biking safer for Americans?

When I relayed this idle thought to some fellow cyclists in the bar one of them immediately said "You're gonna need a bigger frame pump".
No doubt!

(Shades of the movie "Jaws" - "we're gonna need a bigger boat!")

(And I know that the "baby despot" has been raised in a crazy way by a crazy father and likely has both no real connection to what we call "reality" and his itchy finger on "the trigger" while listening to "Gangnam style" cranked up way too loud for his servant's pleasure...and that a lot of good, innocent people have died for stupider reasons - and we need to take this crazy boy seriously.)

(But still, my point remains - the American govt should do more for "we the people" and less for "we the corporate and ultra-wealthy campaign contributors".)

Q factor

"Q factor", in cycling, is the distance between your left and right feet, width wise (approximately).

We spent the last 2 days in Quartzsite, Arizona; we took a much needed rest day there. And, as has been the case before on this trip, the place we end up needing a break, physically, is NOT the place we'd necessarily like to be, metaphysically.
But, as has also been the case on this trip, some of the places we end up that we would not necessarily have chosen to stop and put a foot down have turned out to be fun, interesting, and good in ways unimagined before our time there.
In the case of Q-town, we got out of the heat and sun (after being shut out at the "off-season" RV parks in town - "no tents!") at the Desert RV Park on the outskirts of town. We hung out in the Bingo hall there, in fact, mostly. Shade? Electricity? Running water? Awesome!
We also found a great family restaurant nearby called "3 X", as in "three times". We ate there...three times.
We met an interesting, kind woman named Dottie who was full of fun stories and helpful information. In fact, we ate our "2nd breakfast" with her and her husband in their town today at the roadside restaurant she had recommended. And now we have escaped out of the wind/blowing dust and sand (gusts to 50 mph) at a small motel (Sheffler's Motel) that she recommended, up the road another 30 miles. We ate at the restaurant across the street, the Salome Cafe. And "had to" get a beer at the bar, "Don's Cactus Bar", as our Canadian traveling partner's name is? Don.
While we were biking today we ran in to 2 guys doing the same crazy thing we are doing (approximately), and had a beer with them in the bar. Turns out they work for REI in Philly, and work with a guy I knew and worked with occasionally a hundred years ago, when I worked at the now closed New Rochelle REI. Small world.
Since we eat every 2 or 3 hours, I think I will shower, nap, patch today's three flat tubes, and then eat over at the little pizza joint that Dottie recommended...

I now think of all this good fun and people out of weird deserted desert RV towns as a new kind of "Q factor".
And I look forward to more of it over the coming miles...

We're hunkered down

With some soil scientists, while the sandstorm rages outside.
Makes me think of our friend back in Wisco, Matt O.
And if I cut off these wings of hair by my temples after getting beat in the face with them in the brutal cross wind today...I'll be thinking of our friend Alison B - cause Heidi is already teasing me that I'll have a mullet, for real...

After 2 flat tires in 5 weeks...

I got 3 flat tires today. All 3 today were rear tires; all 3 from truck tire wire in "the debris lane" (sometimes known as "the bike lane", or "the break down lane". Maybe, for me, today, it was the "cause the breakdown lane"?)
(My 2 previous flat tires were also both rear tires - so I'm 5 for 5! If only my batting average was so good.)

Good times in "the man cave"!

Fun talking with nice people like Dottie, Al, and Jerome in Brenda at Stevie B's.

Made it to Sheffler's Motel in Salome, before the wind/sand storm. Man, it is nasty out there right now!

Vending machines in the desert?

Cold water and ice, of course.