3K miles! (Prescott, AZ)

Hello from a little gelato shop/internet cafe in downtown Prescott, AZ! We rode into town yesterday (Friday) after a nice 73-miler that was only slightly hampered by the heat and headwind. We spent about 17 miles of it on Arizona's section of I-40, which is thankfully much safer than the section I'm used to driving from Raleigh to Chapel Hill, NC, but the experience was still a little nerve-racking when trucks would go by at 75 mph. We all made it safely to our host site, the Mile High Middle School, which is only a couple blocks from Prescott's lively downtown area and has showers on site, two luxuries that have made us very happy campers. We went out on the town last night to celebrate the birthday of our fearless leader Tony, and much fun was had by all. Happy belated birthdays to Eric and our friend Ray, who went over the hill earlier this week. Since I never introduced him properly, Ray is a Northeastern U grad who's doing his own cross-country biking trip--minus the support vehicle(!) We ran into him on an empty highway outside of Cortez and he's joined up with us for a few days because, what can I say?, we're good company. After helping us out at our build site today (Saturday), he's continuing on his own route toward San Francisco--good luck Ray!

Update from Thursday night:
We had an awesome surprise when one of Kaitlin's friends, a masseuse at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Flagstaff, arrived with some of her students to give us all massages! They felt so good--thanks so much! I'm really excited now to return home to the birthday present from my super godmother, a spa massage.

Bike odometer: 3058 miles













Eric getting a massage from Mia of the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, Thursday night













Our host site in Williams, Community Methodist Church










En route to Prescott, changing one of several flats (Kaitlin and Liz in front)










Church marquee in Chino Valley, AZ (clearly, they didn't take into account that you can Google the Bible...)










Rock formations on the way into Prescott...they looked almost fake, like something from a Flintstones cartoon or maybe a putt-putt golf course


PS - My sister Liz just returned from her study abroad adventure in Singapore! Here's me at a pizza joint in Coldwater, KS pointing out where she was on one of the maps covering their walls (thanks for the pic, B&B Liz!)










PSS - I <3 Dan