As some of you are aware, Conor has taken a real liking to cycling the past 15 months. He loves it. I love that he loves it and the adventures it provided the past year. Not so much him being gone most every weekend on a long ride--but that's part of the territory and training he embarked on for his ultimate goal to ride in Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP). Conor was already commuting to and from work in downtown Houston and decided he wanted to do some longer rides like he had done growing up. He found a local randonneuring group to join and had long-distance rides to complete by the end of 2010 and first half of 2011. Lets just say a short ride to Conor is 40-50 miles. Needless to say, I haven't ever joined him. He feels we have plenty of years to work on that; I like his optimism. To read more about his cycling and getting inside his brain, or behind-the-scenes action, check out his blog. It's quite entertaining and I've actually been able to learn what his rides were really like. Not the, "pretty good" statements I was getting out of him after he had to sleep for hours to recoop.
In order to qualify for the PBP ride, Conor needed to complete a 600km ride. He found one in Arizona this Spring and thought it would be fun to take a trip. We strapped on his bike, loaded up the car and headed off for our adventure, taking a new route along the TX/Mexico border. Exciting and never plan to take that route again. The ride was around Tucson area. We went to Tombstone and played around a bit before, stayed in Sonoita at a charming inn, and wound up back where he started all the fun.
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| Slush Monkey--how could you pass that up?! |
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| Miles and miles of road. Flat road. |
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| One of my drive-by photos from the car. Could be New Mexico. |
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| Conor in Tombstone, AZ--charming western town, albeit commercialized. |
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| Store owner picked this hat out for me and told me how good I looked. LOL! |
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| Quite excited over his locally brewed sarsparilla. |
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| We had a dishwasher at hotel and it ate my plastic lid. Not to mention the horrid smell!!! |
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| Conor all prepped the night before his big ride. |
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| It was early--yes, I actually woke up and saw him off! |
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| Scenes from Conor's ride along the route. |
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| He slept a few hours at the Sonoita Inn where I stayed. I couldn't believe the amount of salt that sweat out of his body. Had to take some pics of the crusted salt on his helmet straps!!! |
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| This has to be the funniest thing I've ever read. LOVE that he got a pic of it!!! |
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| All finished!!! He made it. Had to show more of the salt on his face--and the sweet hair! : ) |
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| This is where we stayed. It was rather charming inside and all rooms were different. |
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Only place to eat--and the location of the wedding Jubi went to--see below. The wedding party stayed at the Inn.
I even met the bride and groom over breakfast. Now we're Facebook friends. Don't you love life?! |
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| Across the street from Inn. All the businesses in town were housed there. |
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| This sign cracks me up. Good thing we already had their number. |
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| From my room. Watching for Conor--but I must have missed him! |
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My friend I met at the Inn, Jubi. She's from Luxembourg and flew out for a wedding.
I taught her how to eat an English muffin at breakfast and we bonded. : ) |
