Petrified

Day 5: Winslow, AZ to Springerville, AZ
119 miles / 7:00 hours moving, 1:29 stopped (see below) / 5787' climbing
16.9 mph avg, 41 mph max / 5344 calories spent

Breakfast: Slice of banan bread (from my mom, sent by Lori), Cheerios, 4 sausage links, 2 yogurt, 3 small eggs.
Snack 1: Slice of melon, 2 oreos.
Snack 2: Crackers.
Lunch: 2 hotdogs with onions, tomato, mayo & guacamole, coke.
Snack 3: Cup of coke.
Pre dinner snack: Large strawberry shake with wiped cream, small fries, 4 chicken nuggets.
Dinner: Chinese: 6 fried pork dumplings (pot stickers) and a massive amount of veggies swimming in some dark MSG sauce and white rice, coke; delicious.

5 days and 660 miles so far, 2150 miles and 12 days to go, it's going to get harder now. 

Today started cool and fast on a mediocre road. We were joking that today was an easy day: only 120 miles, I guess it's all relative. It got quite interesting after the first break when one of the guys did a novice move and let go of the handlebars to stretch in the middle of the group with a resulting broken collarbone and rib and one other rider that went down but survived miraculously (see his photo below). This added at least 20 min to our stopped time. The injured guy is riding the van to Socorro tomorrow (love those Rs) and going home after that.

I forgot to tell you a funny story that happened a couple of days back in the middle of the desert. One of the guys made a wrong turn after a border patrol check point, after 7 miles he figured it out and came back. Realizing that he was now very late and didn't have enough water, he went back to the checkpoint were the police gave him water. He asked if he could wait there and they said sure, but not in the office, is forbidden, he said he'd wait outside and they said that if there is a shootout he might get hurt, but he could wait in the jail cell, they clean it every day; so he spent 30 min in jail, took photos and sent them home.

More remarkable Arizona wildlife.

Well, that explains the dinosaurs, this is petrified country.

Petrified in front of a tepee (I had to Google the spelling).

Susan getting goodies ready for lunch from the food trailer.

Lunch time outside the food trailer.

The view from my seat.

My biking buddies today. The guy on the left is the one that survived the crash.

Pre-dinner calories at McDonalds at the end of the day.