IT’S APRIL!

March was a month!!!! I may post a little about it later, or I may want to just forget about it. Here I will list only these couple of things:

Our Tern bikes were in the shop for maintenance and it would be THREE WEEKS before they would be ready for us to pick. THREE WEEKS. So we brushed off our Bike Fridays and used those for a few rides — on one of my regular rides, my folding pedal broke as I started from a stop sign and ———- I fell. No major injuries and I won’t bore with details, but the outcome was that I refused to use these cheap pedals! Susan (initially) said they were fine but ok, we will get you new (better) pedals.

I now have snappy new red pedals ;’-). Of course I had better not get something new without Susan (recall — these old ones are just fine) also getting new pedals. I will post a photo of her purple ones later as I have not yet taken a photo.

Another thing for March is that we joined the NO KINGS rally in Edmonds. There was good turnout and much better in the bigger cities like Seattle.

The only additional thing I will say about March at this time is – it was wet. Atmospheric River and all.

I had been prepared to begin April with my annual participation in riding my bike for the 30 Days Of April Challenge. (30DOB). For the past few years I have made it for all 30 days, other years I came fairly close ;’-). April 1st came and I was at the end of recovering from some crud or other (I am guessing flu), and could not start my ride until April 3rd. Are we sensing a theme here about March — broken pedal, fall, atmospheric weather, flu crud, many rainy days???

Once I started I felt hopeful and titled my first day of riding “SIGNS OF SPRING”.

1…Kickoff day for the Challenge

2…Flowers blooming everywhere

3…Kids shedding their jackets for outdoor play

The day after that ride, Susan and I took off for our planned trip to Arizona and California, to be gone for just about 3 weeks. Though I held a gossamer of hope to ride my bike along our route for at least a couple of miles, that turned out to be a pipe dream. Logistics were simply not in line with such folly.

Basically, I am a 30DOB dropout for 2026 ;’-(. There will be other years. And other months actually.

We are now on the road arriving in Tucson tomorrow (Wednesday) and our first “event” begins on Thursday. Driving (Susan does all of that) and passengering (I do all of that) are boring activities and one must take whatever blog worthy thing one can find.

After our first long day, driving through Washington and Idaho, we opted for a motel in Ontario, Oregon. There is little to nothing to say about the Super 8 motel for the night.

Here is the relaxing corner of our room that we dubbed “the interrogation corner”… No other chair was in the room.

That’s about it for that stop. I will add that the included continental breakfast was no better.

Our next morning of driving, after experiencing the interrogation corner, had us wondering if we were being strafed by aircraft. Lots of jet streams and no sign of airplanes!

We’ll move on now to what turned out to be a very nice and interesting stop. We were merely ready for a rest area restroom break and were surprisingly treated to the Pony Express exhibit.

Skinny, young orphans could earn $25 a week — pretty good for back in the day.

A fresh horse every 12-15 miles; fresh rider every 75-100 miles. Hard work I’d say.

I found the Mochila an interesting device to make for a quick and easy transfer of secured mail from one horse to the next one.

Back on the road and driving to Ely, Nevada for the night, I loved these clouds. We don’t see this kind of sky in Seattle. It is either sunny and blue or grey and indistinguishable clouds. Periodically we will some individual clouds roll by, but nothing like these we had on this day. I was a little mesmerized in finding shapes of different animals and things in some of the passing clouds.

Compared to the Super 8 in Ontario, Oregon, the Copper Queen was a palace! You do get what you pay for.

We don’t gamble but we could have.

Our room, quiet and smoke free, was on the first floor directly next to the pool and back door to our van. Convenient.

We don’t gamble, and we did not swim in the pool, but we did enjoy our nice breakfast the next morning.

I would stay here again, and if ever you find yourself in Ely Nevada, I recommend it. Staff were very nice and helpful, 24 hour coffee, tea and cold drinks of sodas and iced tea.

Ending our day, we filled up with gas, and remember what I said about taking advantage of even potential photo worthy items??

A bench at the Sinclair station.

Whimsical attempts at Easter at Sinclair station.

That will do it for today and I feel better about being at least a little bit caught up here. I will be adding on as we progress through Arizona and into California. Stay tuned.