Thursday April 9, 2015

There was a climb out of Superior of about 350 metres. The road was much better and had a good shoulder. Why the road yesterday wasn’t this safe, I have no idea.

When we had reached the top of the hill, we had a great downhill all the way to Apache Junction. The tail-wind was awesome.  I love these giant cactus, they can grow up to 70 feet tall.

We cycled into Apache Junction and stopped to take some photos of the Lost Dutchman sculpture. There is a legend that this Dutchman (who was actually German – Deutschman) had a gold mine which produced copious amounts of gold. On his death he left a riddle “There is a great stone face looking up at my mine. If you pass three red hills you’ve gone too far. The rays of the setting sun shine on my gold. Climb above my mine and you can see Weaver’s Needle.”

We arrived in the City of Mesa, which is the epitome of urban sprawl. However, Mesa has a great cycling infrastructure.

There were dedicated cycling lanes, and rest stops for cyclists.

Apache Junction, Mesa and Tempe all merged into each other. We got totally turned around in Mesa/Tempe. We were both hot and getting frustrated, then a road angel appeared in the shape of Steve. He owned a car dealership and came out of his office, he asked if we needed help. We told him where we were trying to get to (our warmshowers host). He bought us into his cool office and printed us some maps, gave us his opinion as a cyclist which road was the best and safest way to go. Thanks Steve.

With the maps and garmin we found our hosts house. Although our host told us she wouldn’t be home until after 7:15 pm, she was at the house when we arrived. Christine let us in and we settled in while she had to go to a class. Christine is taking her masters degree in speech pathology. Her sister Margaret was home, and we chatted to her for a while. Ralf went to the local grocery store, but couldn’t find anything he fancied cooking for dinner. We went out to a local restaurant for dinner, it was really good.

We went back to Christine’s house and chatted about her trip that she plans to take this summer – the Pacific Coast Ride – north to south. She mentioned a friend who was from Germany and who is studying for her master’s degree studying touring cycling. Both Ralf and I instantly recognized Franscesca who we had met last year in France. Christine had a photo of her, and texted her, we are going to try and get to meet her when we get back from the Grand Canyon.  Amazing coincidence