4-12-08 We’re Getting Warmer

Waking up in the morning was a little strange for me. Before I went to bed last night, I had fallen asleep on my back. When I woke up in the morning, I was half out of my sleeping bag and I had drooled onto my sleeping pad. Talk about embarrassing! Eww! So after a quick clean up I headed downstairs for breakfast. The food was delicious. Also because I was so plugged up, Justin’s aunt was kind enough to get me tea. Oh boy, that helped a lot! Before we left, we all took a picture with Justin’s aunt and uncle. I am going to miss their funky house and their pretty view of the valley. Our first stop of the day was Tucson, AZ. It was really cool because, for our event we got to ride 14 miles along a river path. What made the event even better was the fact that the mayor rode with us. To be honest, that was the first time a mayor has biked with us. Along the way, I got to talk to a gentleman named Bill who wanted to plan a ride for cancer across that U.S! I thought this was amazing and I wished him the best of luck. As we rode along the river I took some great photos while riding. Yes I know that was dangerous, but hey can’t blame a girl for trying. When we reached the end of our ride, our group gave a brief speech about our trip and then sadly we had to leave. When we got all of our stuff packed and ready to go Thomsen called a meeting to review the event. Apparently he and Deana felt we didn’t deliver the speech very well. He was also a little miffed because we were late getting to the event and didn’t get a chance to interview the mayor. On top of that we told him there was no event in Phoenix and in fact there is. Oh my god. Now we only have a couple hours to get to Phoenix and we have to coordinate everything in the cars while we're driving. This is not good. Oh well. When we got into the cars, it was crunch time. We were working right and left to make sure we got things done. By the time we reached Phoenix we had called everyone and we just barely made it to the event on time. It was amazing in Phoenix! The weather was so balmy and sunny. It was a nice change from the horrible weather we have been having lately. Our event in Phoenix was a bike race. It was so cool being able to watch the cyclists glide around the corners. It was adorable when the little kids raced. Right before we left, we got to “race” around the track. It was incredibly fun! Also we got to meet with a council member. We talked about our trip and he was very supportive of what we were doing. When we got into the cars, I immediately dozed off. Before we arrived in Buckeye I woke up. For some odd reason I have a self timer, which always wakes me up right before we arrive somewhere. It’s very weird. We rode the bikes to the Museum of Buckeye where we met some very nice people who greeted us and got a tour of the museum, which was very interesting. Buckeye's population has exploded in recent years and due to its size (almost 600 square miles) they said that within 20 years there would be close to a million people living there. All the farmers are apparently selling off their land to developers, which makes me very sad. The houses outside the original downtown area are just really gross, cookie cutter places with no yard or no character. Before we left, our group got treated to ice cream, which tasted delicious! I was really sad to leave, such a nice town. I got to drive to the hotel in Wickenburg, where we unloaded our stuff and did a clean sweep of all the cars. Oh by the way! There are peacocks here! They are really annoying! Well since I’m getting tired I guess its time to say goodnight!