Day 30/14-Take it Easy
Written by Jon on 15 April 2010
In the middle of the night I was freezing so had to put on all my clothes. I put the rain fly on my tent for the first time to try to keep it warmer inside. I was awoken to a hot sweat in the AM when the sun started to heat the inside of my tent. I stayed up and was greeted by the Indian family. The family told us stories for about an hour and made us breakfast. The father decided to take us to an Apache Indian ritual celebration. What I got from it is that it is when a young Indian girl becomes a woman. Samuel and I had to watch from the truck, because there was worry the medicine man would not like white people being there. It was quite interesting and a definite learning experience in their rituals and customs. When we got back they all greeted us with a warm goodbye and gave us directions off the reservation. Edward happens to live in Mesa where we were heading and invited us to stay at his house. We were given a San Diego jersey by one of the family members before we left to use as a flag at the finish line. We pedaled on in hopes of making it to Mesa. I got chased by a few dogs while riding through the last 15 miles and finally hit the casino at the end of the reservation. I had hopes of going in and spinning one slot for luck, but there were too many drunks around and I was worried my belongings would be stolen. I rode to the next town and looked behind me, but didn’t see Samuel in sight. I waited about a half hour and finally saw him approaching slowly. He told me he was feeling very sick from the heat and we both decided he should stop for the day. I stayed behind with him and we got a hotel room. We took a dip in the pool and ate some great Mexican food. This seemed to help with his sickness and he was feeling a lot better later in the day. Before bed I walked across the street to a gas station and found a hat that said “5” on it. Not paying attention I took it to the register and it rang up as $12.99. It turns out “5” was the brand name, but my forehead was so sunburned that even $12.99 seemed like a good deal. I rotated my tires, hit the sack, and slept like a baby.