Week 1/Day 4

Desert Center, CA to Quartzsite, AZ = 123km
Bike Team: Zack's Angels minus Ava plus George, Amanda, and Kim Visser

We wanted to leave camp this morning at 5:00, but they didn't open the kitchen truck until 5:00. So we quickly stuffed breakfast down our throats and grabbed food for lunch on the road. We ended up leaving camp at 5:30am, and already it was scorching hot. We started off by biking on the freeway. I was feeling very tired from my previous night of sleep. We had to get off of our bikes at one point on the freeway and carry our bikes for some time because there was so much glass on the shoulder.

Poor Karyn had a major wipe out and got some bad road rash on her legs, shoulders, back and arms. She was a hard core bad ass though and got right back onto her bike.

We call out "Drink!" every 10 minutes just to remind ourselves to stay hydrated as we bike. Plus there is a "SAG Wagon" set up every 10 miles for us to cool down and refill our bottles. Quite a few cyclists were still driven to camp today though because the extreme heat was too intense. I ended up leaving my team because I was feeling too depleted. I joined Ava, her Dad, and Len Kooy so I could go at a bit slower pace. We called ourselves "Weigh More" because we felt we were "Weigh More Awesome". Then Len Kooy and I broke off and became our own team of "Puttering More" because we puttered up the climbs together at the same pace.

We crossed over Colorado River - separating the states of California to Arizona today- exciting.

As soon as we arrived to our destination of Quartzsite, AZ, we went straight to McDonalds for mcFlurries. We received sad news- that the tour would be suspended for 4 days due to the extreme heat wave Arizona has been experiencing. We were all sad, but we understand. We got dropped off in town to do some laundry and pay for showers. We had supper early and went to bed in an open community room again. We were given the option of staying at a local motel, but I didn't want to spend the money. I passed out almost instantly tonight with ear plugs in.