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Today was the 7th and last rest day of the trip. There are now seven straight days of riding to get us to San Diego.

I went to bed after 11:00 last night, which was not very smart. Ethan was planning to get up at 6:30, so I set my alarm for then. I got a good sleep score, but woke up at 5:48 and couldn't get back to sleep. 

I went down to the lobby with Ethan and ate breakfast. I ate a waffle, two egg patties and sausage patties, and two packets of oatmeal. It was a bigger breakfast than I eat when riding. JW was also eating breakfast and we put together a plan for dinner. I went back up to the room and napped for about 50 minutes before a 9:00 work meeting that lasted about 30 minutes. 

At 9:45 I went shopping with JW and BD. We stopped at the Dave's Bread outlet that we saw. It didn't have that many products, but we did get some Dave's bread and a few of the Mexican wafer cookies that I had gotten for desert when we camped at Caballo. We then went to a Safeway and shopped. 

I got back about 11:15 and was going to do laundry. Unfortunately, the hotel laundry wasn't working. I found a laundromat about a mile away. I used my Walmart duffle, which I found has backpack straps, and walked there. I talked to Esther on the way. It was a nice laudromat with a range of machine sizes. I used the smallest front loader and 2 driers in order to dry my bike cloths at a lower temperature and get done expeditiously. While waiting I ate some Tacos at a local Taco place. They were quite cheap and quite good. It was pretty hot when I was done, so I called a lift. It cost about $5 plus tip. I was picked up about 3 minutes after I asked for the ride, so it was definitely worth the money not to have to walk back in the hot sun.

Back at the hotel I put away the laundry and set out my shorts and wool socks to finish drying. I then rolled my legs and napped for about an hour and half. By that time it was 4:30 and time to go down to help cook dinner.

JW had suggested fajitas, and I thought that was a good idea. Soup or stew just doesn't sound that appetizing when it is in the 80s. He is quite the gourmet and made his own marinade for the chicken and refried beans. We grilled peppers. I'm not s what kind, but some kind of red pepper and not (yuck) bell peppers, chicken cutlets and portobello mushrooms (specifically for SR). he also made refried black beans from scratch. I cut up Havarti and extra sharp cheddar to go with sliced apples and Wheat Thins and Triscuits for appetizer. For desert we had angel food cake (kind of a cross between pound cake and agent food cake), strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries with whipped cream. We could have that because the people with food sensitivities were eating with friends or relatives. The dinner was well received, though there were plenty of leftovers. We definitely cooked too much. We got a lot of help putting everything away, though I didn't get back to the room until about 7:30.

We have breakfast in the hotel tomorrow, which makes that part of our job easier. We still have to put out lunch stuff. Because it is supposed to be hot tomorrow (high of 87 at our destination in Wickensburg, AZ, we are going to put lunch out form 6:30 to 7:00. People can then eat the hotel breakfast either before or after that. we will have the map meeting at 7:15. I hope to be on the road at 7:30 tomorrow. That means I should get to bed early.

My ITB seems to hurt a bit so I am going to stretch it before I go to bed. I put on my 3rd and final freshly waxed chain last night. The other one made some noise while riding up the hills yesterday. 

I sent a bunch of stuff home in Ethan's bike box. That includes most of my cold weather gear, two of my used chains, and some other assorted stuff. It makes my bags a little lighter. I'd like to get down to one duffle and a carry on so that I have the option of checking my bike on the plane. I think I can do that if I pack the bike myself. However, I haven't don't that before. I should have watched Ethan more carefully. One complication is that I have electronic shifting with an auxiliary shifter on my aero bars. I think that I will need to unwrap the handlebar tape on the left side in order to disconnect that. That isn't a big deal. JG is looking into some options for packing it. He has a friend with bike shop who can probably get us boxes. Alternatively we can get it shipped by a bike shop that is near where we end. The only reason I might take it on the plane is that I am riding in the NC Coastal Ride the weekend of April 24th and I'm not sure my bike would get home by UPS ground before we have to leave for that.

I didn't get a chance to work on my taxes yet. I do have an extra day in SD to do that. 

The next week looks challenging. We have rides of 78, 58, 78, 73, 50, 60, and 42 miles for a total of 439 left. Most days don't have a lot of climbing. Except for the 60 mile day into Alpine they average less than 25 feet per mile. However, the route to Alpine has 6950 feet of climbing , about 116 feet per mile, and almost 200 feet more ascent than descent. A couple of the days have (day 3 and the final day) have significant net descents. I think the big challenge will be the heat: tomorrow is forecast to be 59° at 7:30 am and 84° at 2:00 in Wickenburg, which is 800 feet higher than Mesa. It gets worse later in the week as we get into the desert. I am definitely not used to the heat and am not looking forward to it. Fortunately, the winds seem to be moderate.