Went for our walk just before
9 a.m. Didn’t do the full 3 mile
route...walked out a ½ hour and then back.
I wanted to be back at camp about 10 to get ready for church. We walked fast trying to make our 3 miles in
that hour but I’m usually slower on the back half so we turned around just
short of Nutt Rd. Managed to get over 6500
steps.
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Twenty-eight people in church today...at
least 4 of us from the campground. After announcements there is a time of
greeting. It takes about five minutes
for everyone to walk around small sanctuary greeting each other with either a handshake or a
hug. The other campground couple is from Minnesota and they’ll be leaving
tomorrow. We’ve talked to them many
times here in the campground as they pass our site walking their dog. I finally learned their names today at
church....Wesley and Sandra.
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After
lunch we just sat under the tree mulling over the options of what to do
today. It would have been very easy to
lean back in my chair and just take a snooze.
As tempting as a nap was, a bike ride seemed the better option as our
time here is down to the last week. Get the riding in while we can. I wanted to find the ghost bike on AZ-87 and
today was a perfect day for a ride...although a nap still sounded good.
A ghost bike is similar to the memorials
found alongside the road on the reservation. It serves to mark the location where a
bicyclist has been killed in a traffic accident while riding. A white bike is placed where the fatal
accident occurred and usually friends and family decorate it. It also serves as a reminder to slow down and
share the road with cyclists.
There’s a ghost bike in honor of Dr. Raphael
‘Rafe’ Sagarin out on SR 77 near Oracle.
We discovered his ghost bike our first year out here. In fact that’s how I discovered what the
white bike meant. We saw it, stopped and
then I researched ‘white bikes’ not having a clue about what we had just seen. We’ve come across other white bikes in our
travels and always stop to see them.
There is a story attached to every one of them and I always try to
research the cyclist that is memorialized and share what I’ve learned...it’s my
way of honoring that person.
The other night on our way back from Organ
Stop Pizza, I saw a ghost bike hanging on a fence along AZ-87, about 7 to 10
miles out of Coolidge. It was dark at
the time but I knew that I’d go back to see it before we left Arizona. This afternoon’s bike ride was about finding
the ghost bike.
We
easily found the bike hung on a fence.
It was a memorial for Dr. Brett Saks who was killed by a car on Oct. 4,
2008. I googled him and this is what I
found on the site ghostbikes.org:
Dr. Brett Saks was a wonderful husband, father, son, brother, uncle,
cousin, friend, and doctor. He made instant connections with every person
he met- often leaving them with a funny saying or a new nickname that he
created for them on the spot.
As a Health & Wellness Coach, he loved
doing talks and educating people. Brett was trained in Chiropractic,
Naturopathy, Clinical Nutrition, and Acupuncture. He said, “Optimal
health is much more than the absence of sickness. It is the conscious pursuit
of the highest qualities of the physical, chemical, emotional, energetic and
spiritual aspects of the human experience.” He was not your typical
doctor. He truly cared about others’ physical and emotional well-being,
often checking on his patients by calling them at home or stopping by for a
visit.
In 2007,
Brett found a new way to give back and help others. He participated in
the QMDC (The Qualcomm
Million Dollar Challenge), a 7 day,
600 mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to San Diego. The money
raised benefits the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a southern CA based organization that provides
funding for prosthetics, handcycles, and a variety of other services to
challenged athletes of all ages. Brett was amazed and inspired by the CAF
and the courage and strength of the athletes he met and was determined to make
the QMDC an annual event. On October 4th, 2008 while doing what
would have been his last 100 mile training ride for the 2008 QMDC, he was hit
by a car and passed away. He is deeply missed by all who knew and
loved him.
The article also listed
those who helped create and install his ghost bike...all were family
members. At the time of his death he was
40 years old...his son was 7 years old and his daughter was 2.
---------------------
A two
person game of Hand and Foot requires 3 full decks of cards. The decks we used last night were 2 full decks
and third not even close to a full deck. However, we didn’t realize it until we’d
played two rounds. So today we bought 3
decks of cards at Dollar General.
Probably not the best quality but they’ll get us through the week. And we know that any card in the trailer with
the breast cancer logo on it belongs to our Hand and Foot decks. It was the only kind the store had.
We did a load of wash this evening...it
washed while we ate supper and then we played another round of Hand and Foot
while it dried. The game has 5 rounds
and we’ll just play a round when we have the time...continuing the score as we
go. Playing a game all at once takes
more time than we have available at any one sitting. This way works for us.
--------------------
We continued on into Coolidge for some
errands, then decided to go the long way back to camp via the Tom Mix
highway. This is one time we didn’t stop
at the Tom Mix Memorial...just cruised on by.
There were a lot of bikes out on 79
today. Lots of cars, too. Not far from the memorial, a vehicle behind
me decided to pass. If the driver looked
ahead like he should have to see if the traffic was clear, he would have also seen
that a double yellow was coming up quickly.
Passed me but caught the double yellow before getting past Kim. No problem...he just squeezed in between the
two of us. I had to brake to allow the
vehicle room. He continued on between us
until the next passing opportunity and as he passed, I saw Kim’s arm come
up. Waving? I didn’t think so. I called him on the radio and asked if he
just gave that man a one fingered salute.
Why, yes...yes, I did. After a few minutes, he sarcastically said “Looks like Tom Mix wasn’t the only one to
drive like an idiot on this road.” 😉
--------------------
Starting tomorrow Park Link Road is closed
for a week as part of a ‘rehabilitation project’...that’s what a sign calls it. Well, I hope that this rehab includes
repaving because there are sections of this 18 mile road where the potholes
rival Michigan’s. On a bike the potholes
are easy to avoid...in a car or truck, not so much. It gets a fair amount of traffic because it’s
a cut-off route...and maybe originally it wasn’t built for that type of
traffic. If work stays on schedule it should
be open to again before we leave, although according to the sign, the rehab
project isn’t due to be completed until November 2019. Wonder what needs to be done that will take
that long.
--------------------
Tonight we walked down the road to the
tractor tire which is where we’ve had luck finding scorpions. Didn’t find any tonight but on the plus side
I got close to a couple thousand bonus steps...I’d already achieved my 10,000. 👍
--------------------
The
last couple of nights the sky had patches of clear but had more patches of
wispy clouds so Kim wasn’t able to image.
Tonight is game on!! The moon is
getting to be less of a brightness issue and the high cirrus clouds have moved
on so he’s out there doing his astrophotography thing. Yay!
--------------------
Today’s miles: 112
Total miles:
1576
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