Two For One

Planning ahead has not been an dominant factor in my journey. One or two days is about as far ahead as I tend to look, if for no other reason than I just don’t really know what might happen from day to day. Take yesterday for example. I had expected to make it to Phoenix (or beyond) but ended up having a great night in Surprise. That said, a bit of planning for the next few days would likely do me good.

The planning actually began last night. Before calling it a night, I sent out a few Warm Showers requests to hosts as far as 400 km away from Surprise. Obviously, the urgency was somewhat low for the more distant requests but some hosts wanted more notice than others so I was trying to oblige. Of course, the bigger goal was to find a host for today.

A check of my e-mail this morning revealed a handful of replies. Some favourable. Some less favourable. But none of them for tonight. When it comes to contacting hosts, I generally stick to e-mail. I also try not to send out multiple requests for the same night as I hate to have to turn down an offer. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. Those measures included sending out text messages to a handful of hosts. After that, all I could do was wait.

I figured the best place to wait was down at the breakfast area – breakfast was included with my room. As continental breakfasts go, this one was pretty good. Not nearly as good as the one at the Lakeview Signature Inn in Calgary – as you may recall, they had Mini-Wheats (among other things). While there were no Mini-Wheats today, there were Frosted Flakes. A solid second choice.

There haven’t been many continental breakfasts on this journey but when there have been I’ve taken full advantage. Today was no different. Sometimes gluttony is good. Okay, not in the movie Se7en but sometimes gluttony serves a purpose. At least that’s what I’m telling myself since there may have been some mild gluttony at breakfast.

Upon returning to my room I was greeted with two more unfavourable Warm Showers responses. With checkout time rapidly approaching I wasn’t liking my chances. But moments after receiving a unfavourable text from Jenny, I received a follow up text. She wasn’t available to host as she was in Las Vegas. However, she had contacted her husband and he offered to host. I officially had a plan. Next stop, Tempe.

Tempe, Arizona is only about 60 km from Surprise. However, I knew it would be a somewhat slow ride as most of the day would be residential and urban riding which meant a lot of stops signs and traffic lights. The upside to Tempe was that it would put me in a good position to head into the more remote areas of Arizona tomorrow.

The biggest challenge with riding through unknown cities and residential areas is that it tends to require frequent turns. The turns aren’t so much the issue. The issue is having to look at the map frequently to ensure you haven’t missed a turn. As such, I decided to try the turn-by-turn directions feature on my phone. I would’ve used my GPS but the batteries are dead. I would’ve recharged my AA batteries but it seems either my Eneloop Battery Charger is dead, or the batteries have become un-rechargeable (not a real word). Either way, the GPS wasn’t as option.

Side note: You may recall that when I arrived in San Diego I had a delivery waiting for me at an Amazon Locker. I don’t think I ever mention what that package was. Well, it’s another gadget for the road (because my bike isn’t already heavy enough). With battery life on my phone being a somewhat constant issue, I ordered a USB backup battery. An Anker PowerCore 20100 to be exact. I’ve already used it several times and it works brilliantly. I am now able to recharge my phone and camera several times on the road from one charge of my Anker PowerCore. End side note.

With my Anker PowerCore battery plugged into my phone, I figured there would be plenty of charge to keep my phone powered as it guided me to Tempe. That didn’t work out so well. The battery wasn’t the issue. It was the phone. Okay, perhaps there was a correlation but I don’t know for sure. All I know is that my phone decided to shut itself off about 40 minutes into my ride. It’s not the first time my phone has pulled this trick. My phone is a Nexus 4 and the “sleep of death” is a common (and unresolved) bug with the phone. In the past I’ve always been able to get my phone to power up again. Today it was being difficult. I did notice that the phone seemed a bit overheated (perhaps the constant charging or perhaps extended exposure to the hot Arizona sun played a role). As a result, I found myself needing to get to Tempe with no maps of any kind. Needless to say, I was a bit unimpressed.

I put my phone away (in the hopes that cooling it off would encourage it to reboot later) and continued to follow my last direction of travel. Fortunately, my plan of cooling off my phone seemed to work and when I eventually tried to restart my phone it decided it would work again. My specific directions were lost in the process but at least I had a vague map to guide me.

My route eventually led me to one of the Canal Trails that Bob had mentioned last night. The path was paved but it certainly wasn’t the most scenic ride I’d ever done. And there seemed to be some design issues too. As I followed the path I was led down towards the canal where the I suddenly found myself facing a flooded trail. The water wasn’t TOO deep so I figured I could pedal through it and hope the flooding didn’t get worse further along.

I’m happy to report that the flooding did NOT get worse and the trail eventually worked its way around and joined a higher trail. Normally this would be considered good news. But not today. Clearly the people in charge of opening and closing the trails missed a gate and I found myself staring at a the wrong side of a locked gate. The gate was doing a fine job of preventing me from accessing the higher trail.

I can only assume that I wasn’t supposed to be on the lower trail in the first place but it was a bit late for that. I was now faced with either backtracking through the flooded path, or removing all my panniers and lifting everything over the fence. I didn’t really like either option – although, in hindsight, the latter was likely the smartest.

Backtracking clearly wasn’t an option. But, for whatever reason, I didn’t want to take all my panniers off my bike (even though that would’ve taken all of two minutes). Instead, I had another thought. Maybe I could just lift my loaded bike over the fence. Yes, that actually seemed like a good idea at the time. My first attempt was not particularly successful. While four months of cycling has made my legs very strong, it has also left my upper body very … well, not strong. Lifting a bike weighing 50+ kilograms is awkward at the best of times. Trying to lift that same bike over a metre high fence was, well … probably ill-advised.

Of course, having failed at my first attempt it now became a personal challenge but I needed a new strategy. Clearly my arms alone were not going to be able to hoist the bike up and over the fence. Fortunately, I’m somewhat tall. Or, in this case, tall enough.

Starting in a squat, I put the crossbar of my bike on my shoulder and stood up (there may have been a grunt or two involved). That was the easy part. From there I managed to coax the wheels over the fence. That was the second easiest part. All that was left was getting the bike back on the ground without having it free fall from its current position (about one metre off the ground). That was the hard part.

Fortunately, I have an overdeveloped sense of protection when it comes to my bike. Letting harm come to it just isn’t an option. The next minute or so is a bit of blur but somehow I managed to briefly channel some of my leg strength into my arms and managed to lower (not entirely gently) my bike back to earth. I then promised my bike I wouldn’t do that again.

Having returned to the more elevated trail, I was no longer particularly concerned with flooding. My next concerns were lunch and WiFi. Not necessarily in that order.

While I knew I had to get to Tempe, I didn’t have a specific address for tonight’s Warm Showers host. I had a general area but not an address. With my only communications being WiFi based, I needed to find a WiFi connection. I did. Once again, it was at McDonald’s.

I was able to get in touch with Dan (my host) and get directions. However, while on the road I also received a text from Jackie. Jackie is a Warm Showers host that I had reached out to this morning. It turns out, I now had two places to stay tonight. Fortunately, Jackie was very understanding when I declined her offer. In fact, she was so understanding that she even offered to get together for a beer – and where to go for said beer. For a day that started with no plan, things were coming together well.

The final 15 km to Tempe were generally uneventful. Although, there was one moment along the canal where a homeless person (I really can’t say for sure if the person was male or female) was in the middle of throwing all their (or someone’s) belongings into a small canal (beside the main canal). I’m not exactly sure what was going on but I felt it best not to stop and inquire. Instead, I pedalled on. Side note: I don’t know how representative the Canal Trail is, but it certainly doesn’t make Phoenix look like the most beautiful city.

By mid-afternoon I arrived at my host’s place and met Dan. Not surprisingly, Dan was very welcoming, friendly and he even (unnecessarily) apologized on more than one occasion for Jenny’s absence. Jenny’s a caterer so her presence would’ve likely meant a food offering of some sort. I assured him I was happy to have a place to stay. And it was a great place. And Dan was very helpful in discussing route options for the days ahead. He also recommended places within walking distance to go to both check out the area and get some beer and food.

I had mentioned that Jackie had recommended Casey Moore’s for beer. It turns out, Casey Moore’s is only a couple blocks from Dan’s place and he also recommended it. I had a new plan for the evening. I contacted Jackie to see if she and her boyfriend, Ivan, were still interested in getting together for a beer. They were.

Shortly after 8:30 I was sitting at the bar at Casey Moore’s with Jackie and Ivan, drinking beer, eating potato skins (REALLY good potato skins, by the way), and sharing all kind of cycling related stories. It was a great night. And it was remarkable how similar our experiences have been (despite being completely different). Side note: When I told Jackie and Ivan of my aforementioned experience on the Canal Trail she seemed genuinely embarrassed of Phoenix and she apologized for the whole Canal Trail. It was kind of amusing. Alternate side note: They too have an Anker Battery backup and also think it’s fantastic.

We ended up hanging out until after 11:00 before it was deemed time to call it a night. And it was truly a great night. After starting the day with only the vaguest of plans things turned out great. Sometimes it’s strange how things come together. I began the day no real plan, no real destination, and no Warm Showers hosts. Somehow that transformed into a real plan, a real destination and TWO Warm Showers hosts. Thanks to Jenny, Dan, Jackie and Ivan for another truly memorable day.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 60.50 km
Ride time: 2:56:21
Average speed: 20.58 km/h
Maximum speed: 37.41 km/h

P.S. Yes, this was a weak day for photos. My apologies.