Eat My Dust

We're on our way!


Yours needs coffee...


When we ride past a tree, or clump of vegitation that blocks out the sun, the cold seems to grab your ass! I'm not kidding!


How many times have we traveled down this road? Picacho Peak seems symbolic of our Arizona Brevets and Randonnees--the route we take past this monument has been traveled for hundreds of years. Probably about 150 years by white men alone. The Frontage Road is actually the old stage coach line.


We're caught in a dust storm, Gentle Reader--we ride in a brown cloud of fine sand and grit. I can taste the dirt in my mouth as I breath, and I can also feel it grinding in between my teeth. The wind is really taking it out of us. We're trying to make it to Casa Grande for breakfast. The gusts are 25 to 30 MPH.

Oh, and here come the tumble weeds. Since visabiliy was about 100 yards, we would see them rolling and bouncing through the desert. Since we were in a stong crosswind inside the dust storm, they came hurtling across the Hwy.


We dodged many tumble weeds like the one. As they were rolling past, I just missed a large one by slowing down. A car coming along didn't quite judge the speed, and right after I dodged it, the car and the narley old week collided, with the tumbleweed busting into a few hundred pieces.


Plonsky Power!

Susan is going to meet us in Casa Grande for breakfast, and then ride with us for awhile—however, the wind is so bad that we figure trying to make it to Scottsdale in a 25 MPH head wind would be futile. Gentle Readers, I will tell you that by the time we did see Susan at Denny’s I was hurting. As we had breakfast, we could see the palm trees almost bending over backwards from the wind.

So it was decided that we’d abandon the MSM ride, and get our asses back to Tucson. Beloved RBA will ride to chez moi with Steve and I, and then Steve will drop her back in Casa Grande as he continues back up to Scottsdale.
Mes amis, you must know that it is difficult to abandon a ride to Scottsdale when one knows that a gourmet meal prepared by Kim awaits on the kitchen table. And it was going to be lasagna…


Taking a respite from the Wrath o’ the Wind...


Susan “The Flame” Plonsky pulls for 50 plus miles back to Tucson.


We took the Frontage road on the west side of I-10 this time instead of the usual route on the east side. The road was in very bad shape, and not one car passed us either way for 25 miles—people don’t drive their cars down it, the road is that bad! Steve and I took a beating—and still had to try and keep up with Susan… while fighting the crosswind.


Susan gets us back to Dog Mtn before dark. For that, we are very grateful.


Mystery Van is loaded and its time to roll out.

Well, Gentle Readers, this was a very tough ride. I believe I did a couple of things wrong here, but mainly it was probably not staying hydrated. Because of the cooler temps, I didn’t drink enough, and then not drinking enough and riding so hard in the wind caused the cramps in my legs to start. I was just able to keep them at bay with endurolites and a few salt tablets. It took me a few days to recover fully. Yeah, didn’t drink enough.

Allure Libre!