Danny’s Ride

Day Statistics:
Bike Time: 4 Hours, 22 Minutes, 48 Seconds
Miles: 60.16 Total
Average Speed: 13.7 mph
Max Speed: 28.6
Start Time: 12:30 p.m.
End Time: 6:15 p.m.

Trip Statistics:
Total Time: 16 hours, 20 minutes, 3 seconds
Miles: 214.65
Max Speed: 41.8 Mph
Total Gallons of Water Consumed: 9

While Danny and Ken woke up around 7:30, I had stayed up into the night working on the website so they let me sleep in until nearly 9:30. I was grateful for the sleep and even reached for the Snooze until I realized it was Danny’s voice telling me it was time to get up. I quickly walked (as fast as one could walk after only being up a minute) to grab the hotel’s complementary breakfast before it closed, got in the shower and did one last check on the website.

I clicked right to “Danny’s Wall” and was amazed at what family, friends and complete strangers have written to us. I quickly showed it to Danny. He was blown away by all of your support for the trip.  Reading Danny’s Wall gave us a boost that I can’t even begin to describe.  It was a perfect start to the day, so we decided…

From now on, Danny and I will check “Danny’s Wall” every morning right before we begin our daily bike journey. We cannot begin to tell you how much we appreciate your kind words and prayers.

After reading all of the posts on Danny’s Wall, we climbed into the motor home and punched Subway into the GPS. It took us 0.6 miles to a “Sub Shop.” Close but definitely no Subway. We parked, unloaded and started walking toward the Sub Shop and spotted a Quiznos connected to a large gas station right across the street. Perfect. Two birds with one stone. We needed to fill up our half empty tank before driving 59 miles into the barren desert.

We drove across the street to Quiznos, filled up with gas and ordered two lunches. One lunch was for now, the other was for 3 hours from now when we were biking. It was one of the smartest moves we made all day. We took our food and began the hour plus drive into the desert. We ate and talked all along the way.  While heading out to our starting place, Danny made a comment that I wanted to share with everyone:

“Nothing I have done in my life, means as much to me as this trip.” – Dan Leonard

Now, I am sure he is most proud of raising a three terrific sons, beating cancer and all the good his “Leonard School of Music” provides but this statement should underscore the importance of this trip. Danny’s goal is to raise money to find a cure for cancer and to get across the importance of early cancer detection and this trip means the absolute world to him (and Ken and myself). It was such a neat moment to hear him say that.

When we arrived at last night’s ending location, we unloaded our bikes and prepared the 60 miles of up and down dips, steep inclines, limited shoulder and unforgiving desert sun. We finally pushed off on the bikes around 12:30. The weather was around 84 degrees with a crosswind pushing us side to side.

Everyone we have talked to and everything we have read thus far has said the first ten days will be the toughest for our bodies as they struggle to adjust to the sudden daily grind on the bike. So far, I believe Danny and I are handling it better than both of us expected. In fact, I have noticed Danny already getting stronger.

I typically ride slightly ahead of Danny, especially on roads with limited or no shoulder. A couple times in which I felt I was moving at a good pace, I noticed in my mirror Danny gaining on me. He even mentioned later in the day that he already feels stronger than when we started just days ago. Danny is a true iron man in every sense of the word.

About 20 miles into the 60-mile ride, we passed through a Border Control checkpoint. With no cars in front of us, we breezed up to the two officers. As we approached, I could see the two look at us in disbelief, look at themselves and then back at us. They must not get many bikers.

They waved us through but I had to ask, “Are you sure you don’t want to check the bikes?” They smiled and just continued waving us through. Good thing, we needed to make up some time after a slow start on a difficult stretch of road.

At 31 miles, we were met by Ken in the motor home that was parked off the side of the highway. Over the first 30 miles, both Danny and I consumed our two 24 ounce water bottles and were dry when we reached Ken. When we rolled up to the motor home, Danny and I leaned our bikes up against the side of the motor home and went inside to cool down and eat our second lunch of the day.

Once inside, we drank over ½ a gallon of water and refilled our water bottles for the remaining stretch. Quiznos hit the spot for the second time of the day. It is amazing, it tasted even better the second time.

After only about 20 minutes, we climbed out and continued on. The remaining 30 miles was difficult in that the wind had switched and was now more of a headwind. We probably deserved it after the terrific tail wind we had yesterday but it was still tough. We finished by biking directly to the same hotel we stayed at last night (America’s Best Value Inn). The total trip for the day covered 60 miles in 4 hours and 22 minutes which is a good time considering the conditions.

At the hotel, we each took long showers, changed into fresh clothes and walked just down the street to the Sizzler. We enjoyed a great meal and watched our first NBA Playoff basketball game of the year.

We are only 3 miles from the California/Arizona border. So tomorrow we will enter our second state!  Our plan is to bike at least 60 miles to Salome Arizona tomorrow and possibly more depending on weather and road conditions.  Please keep us in your prayers.

To view the day’s pictures, click here.