Day 16: Cameron, AZ

Day 16

June 1, 2015

Miles: 33

Desert View to Cameron

We woke bright and early this morning to birds chirping, the wind blowing and sun glowing.  We camped in the Grand Canyon at its highest peak Desert View, 7500 elevation.   Wow!   I actually enjoyed camping last night.  It was a cool night, just perfect for sleeping!  I am well rested today; Steve as well!

Morning shot of Canyon

Food is going to be the topic for today, because something unusual happened yesterday.  Despite riding the shortest number of miles yesterday, I consumed five meals.  One hour after breakfast, I ate Steve’s PB&J sandwich.  He looked at me and said 'hey', that’s mine.  I simply replied - I need it!  For lunch, I ordered two lunches. Steve said ‘whats going on’.  I replied ‘you can help me eat the veggie burger’. Nope.  I ate both meals!  Then for dinner Steve and I had a veggie pizza for dinner.  Steve wanted me to eat the larger slices; he said 'you need it'; I thanked him; we both had four slices. For dessert, we treated ourselves to Twizzlers and Oreo cookies. The only logical conclusion, well, I guess I was hungry! 

We always start the blog with a picture of breakfast.  Not today.  We realized we had half eaten our breakfast before taking a picture.  Not because it wasn’t wonderful to look at, because it was.  I had a breakfast burrito filled with eggs, potato puffs, cheese, tomatoes and onions.  Steve had an open faced bagel with both faces topped with an egg and sausage patty and cheese.

It was a short ride planned today.  About 33 miles.  The first 10 miles were downhill. What a great way to start off the day (besides breakfast)!  Despite a few hills to climb today and the hot temperature at 94 degrees, we made great time.  With the wind at our back, we made it into Cameron at 1:45pm.  Considerng we didn’t leave Desert View until 10:36pm, this would translate into a very easy day.  We even stopped a few times to take some pictures of the Canyon as we descended.  

Steve ready to go

Me striking a pose

Steve with valley behind

Me composing a shot

The shot

Steve on the edge

Me climbing out of the chasm

Made it out

We arrived in Cameron and checked in at the Cameron Trading Post & Motel right away and then took showers and rested up a bit before we went to dinner.

This is a shot of dinner.  We both ordered salmon.   Mine with a baked potato; Steve’s with mashed with gravy.  Did you know that a baked potato contains 8% protein.  I just love baked potatoes.  We didn’t particularly think our dinner looked all that fabulous; in fact it wasn’t, but we really didn’t care; we were hungry!

At 5:43 pm

Shortly thereafter …

At 5:51 pm

I really hope no one saw us eating. It would be quite embarrassing because it only took us 8 minutes wipe our plates clean.  I actually finished 2 minutes earlier than Steve. He made me put this in.

Steve getting every last bit

The past two days have been fabulous!  As we rode east and then north toward Utah, we continued to sightsee different vantage points of the Grand Canyon rim.  We reflected on our experiences along the way.  Yesterday, Steve said to me that we need to do something to commemorate our bike trip when we return home.  I was silent for a moment, then said okay …  he then paused and said, like we should both get tattoos ‘Cross-Country Bike Trip 2015’.  'Oh', I replied, ‘we successfully got through 5 decades without getting a tattoo’.  He said, 'yes, well it’s time'.  I am not sure if by the time we return home he will still want a tattoo, but for now, he has been buying memorabilia along the way and me too!

Tomorrow will be the most difficult ride of the trip so far.  Not only the longest day (73 miles) , but also it will be very hilly (3000ft).  The first 40 miles is uphill!  Tomorrow's forecast is high 80s and low 90s (a little hot), but the wind is coming out of the SW.  We are riding North. At the halfway mark is a small grocery store, so will carry enough water to take us through the midpoint.  This will save us carrying so much water, which is very heavy.  We plan to leave by 7:00am. We have a coffee pot in our room, and I will be making us PB&J sandwiches for breakfast and lunch; we also have plenty of power bars, trail mix and cashews for in between snacks as well!