Day 16.  The winds confer.  What have we got going on today?  One rider heading ENE through Wickenburg then turning SSE toward Phoenix.  The East wind says to the South wind “I’ll take the first shift then you take the second shift”.

With light breezes on the nose I set off from 7 miles West of Wickenburg then turned the corner toward Phoenix.  The route seemed mostly flat but was a steady slight down hill most of the day.  So despite the conspiracy of the winds the riding was some of the smoothest easiest roads so far.

Once I turned the corner in Wickenburg on 60 I put the KH 36 Schlumpf in high gear and rolled along.  In Wittman I spied a little country store and bench in the shade.  I eat lunch and replenished my water supply.  My crew called asking where I was, but we couldn’t hear each other.  I only had one bar of signal, so we began a texting volley.  I was moving on and she was touring a museum.

I set out again trying to ignore my butt, and rolled along until I reached Surprise.  Route 60 is four lane highway there and was fairly busy.  When I saw a light ahead turn red, I would slow down and almost come to a stop just before the light turned green.  I had the misfortune of catching 4 green lights in a row following this method, and butt started to complain.

I took a break in the shad of some bush pretending to be a tree, when my crew called again.  My cell signal was at full strength but we couldn’t here each other again.  Then I discovered the blue tooth in my pack had switched on so that’s why we couldn’t hear one another.  Isn’t technology great?  By the way Knucklehead was useless today claiming not to be able to find maps for the area.

It turns out Joan was calling to check where I was.  She was a half mile behind me.  I called it a day at 42 miles and she picked me up.  We intend to stay at Joan’s friend Phyllis’s  house in Maricopa south of Phoenix for a couple of days, so I may not hit the road again until Monday.  Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

Stats for day 16: 42 miles at 11.5 mph, max=15.1 mph, ave heart rate 109, max heart rate 138, Ascent=217′, Descent=1650′, Max elevation=2642, Min elevation=1201, Calories burned according to garmin=1149,  Ave temperature=82 with a max of 95