March 17, part 2

Ok, guys. picture this. US highway 70. two lane road. 3 foot bumpy should with a rumble zstrip, thorn bushes growing into the shoulders and semis rolling past you on you left about 2 feet away. AAAAAARGH!especially going down hill it vgets scary because you really pick up speed and you don't want to ride on the rumble strip, so you ride in the road and say 20 hail marys that an rv driven by a 90-year-old isn't coming up behind you. but all went well except that a lot of people had flats todaY, AND SOME women had multiple flats. today we rode 78 miles. my behind doesn't hurt too badly, but my arthritic right thumb hurts, especially is I don't wear my padded riding glove. didn't wear them in thebeginning, but on the bumpy surfaces they sure to help. sandy had said there would be a tailwind today and she was right. but everytime it came from the side I cursed her out. just about everyone on the tour has a great sense ofhumor. about 10 miles from the end we started seeing signs for Taylor Freeze. every 500 ft Iit said root beer float, milkshakes, burgers, etc. of course we all stopped there. it was great. and the owner took a picture of each of us. she takes pictures of all the cyclists who come through every year and hangs them on the wall of the restaurant. neat idea. so if you don't believe I'm riding my bike across the states, drive to Taylor Freeze in Pima, AZ. Great food and nice people. after we got our rooms and showered (we change roommates every night to get to know everyone.) a couple.of us walked across the straight to celebrate St. Patrick's Day before supper. nice company and lots of laughs.tomorrow we will hit New Mexico and will have to set our clocks ahead an hour. it's only 8 o'clock andwe're all already in bed. are we pathetic or what?! tomorrow we cross the border so there will be another border crossing celebration. but we'll still all go to bed at 8 o'clock.___________Oweia. die strasse war heute gefaehrlich.enge , hulprige schultern mit dornenhecken. willst du aud die strasse ausweichen, kommt ein grosser lkw. wir haben es alle ueberlebt aber viele haben heute wieder platten gehabt. einige haben mehrer. wir haben tolles eise kurz vor schluss gegessen. die besitzerin hat ein foto von jeder einzelnen von uns gemacht um an die wand Iins restaurant zu haengen. sie erzaehlte, dass viele radfahren fahren jedes jahr durch. vor dem abendessen haben wir einsauf St. Patrick getrunken dann haben wir gegessen. es ist 20.15 und wir sind schon im bett. oh wie trauig!'m bett