The Trip to Phoenix

The plan was to start driving to Phoenix for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race as early as possible on Wednesday afternoon. I ended up managing to leave the office around 5 pm and made a quick stop at home to have dinner, load the truck and kiss Hailey before I left.

I started the drive just after 7 PM and managed to avoid most of the heavy traffic. I was heading to Bakersfield and planned to sleep in the back of the truck once I was the other side of the City. I went through Bakersfield around 11 PM and was in the mountains around 11:45. I found a great spot at about 3500 feet that was just off one of the exits. This exit didn't really seem to go anywhere, both directions went about 100 yards and turned into dirt parking lots. I parked on the South side of the highway well away from the road and made space in the back of the truck for my sleeping bag. It was a big full moon and I didn't need any lights while I put everything together as it was so bright out. It seemed really warm but I expected it to cool off at this elevation before morning.

Somewhere to the south there was a railroad track as you could hear the trains but they were far enough away that it wasn't disturbing.

I had about 6 hours of good sleep and woke just as it was getting light. It had got really cold over night and there was frost on the roof when I got out of the truck. I'd had to pull the hood up on the sleeping bag to stay warm.




Sunrise at the camp.

My route from Bakersfield to highway 10 wasn't the best, I ended up too close to LA and had to deal with rush hour traffic, but once I got onto Interstate 10 it was smooth sailing if a little dull for the next 7 hours.

I decided that as I was going to pass the TT venue I'd take the bike out for a spin. I was there at the same time of day as the race start would be and found that the wind was blowing but it was nice and warm. The course was mostly pancake flat with some small rollers.

It was a good spin and just what the legs needed after a long drive. Driving to the hotel I found a Chipotle, bought a big burrito and continued to my hotel that was only about 10 miles further on.

I checked into the hotel and decided to try to drive to the Landis Cyclery to pick up my race packet. The shop was only about 15 miles away but the crazy rush hour traffic made it take nearly 2 hours. It was a total waste of time and I should have just picked the packet up on race day.

I returned to the hotel to get everything ready for race day. About half way there the front tire on the TT bike that was in the back of the truck started to hiss and went flat. I checked the tire back at the hotel and found that there was something wrong with the rim strip. I changed the tube and adjusted the rim strip to hopefully avoid a repeat the next day.

After a shower and a quick massage I was in bed around 10:00 and slept well.

Location:Phoenix, AZ