DAY 4 - Tues March 8 - Third Ride to Mule Pass and Tombstone

Mileage: 50 miles

Ski and Karl and I started out together with Caroline Block - last. At the snack van, Ski and Karl took off up Mule Pass while Mary Crawley, Eileen, Caroline, Tom McLaughlin, Melissa and others waited for me to gather myself and head straight for Tombstone. Although we had passed riders to the snack van, the photographer I am had to stop to take a photo (above) only to find I could have shot it on the other side where the van was. I kept thinking about Tom Rosenbauer taking all his photos on PAC Tour last year. You can really lose time this way - and we were only riding half what he did!

Instantly there was an incline, I passed Eileen but lost Caroline. The person on the back of the paceline didn't bother to check if I was there and off the went - without me. Thanks guys! I had wished Mary was in the back because she would have seen me and waited, oh well. I tried to pedal - 26mph - but that group was way too large. I started feeling bad I hadn't waited for Eileen - she's super woman with her steel bike loaded and ready for anything - even a 600K!

Denise, on recumbent, was caught on a climb but easily passed me descending. Her bike was lost for a day into the week. We met up in Tombstone - lunch van wasn't open so I borrowed sneakers (large) from Zoe's mom, Barbara (who is masseuse). Zoe had her white doggy, Lilly, who came from Walgreen's the night before. Ski and I took a cab to Walgreen's to pick up my Albuteral and Allegra prescriptions. I saw the most plush kid's handbag with the dog and thought it was perfect for Zoe's camera. I didn't think she'd like it as well as she did. It must get boring, I thought, for Zoe, going on 4. Oh, her mind is much older though.

Tombstone was nice. I found turquoise earrings for my mom. The worker in one jewelry store started asking us cycling questions. He told us about his honeymoon - cycling from New Hampshire to Oregon and then Tiaquana. He's still married. The Calgary riders or Vermonters knew him because he ended up at our lunch van. Some of us were in a cafe drinking lattes. Surprisingly they had soy milk. Lunch was burritos with all the fixins. It was getting hot. I returned the sneakers and headed out with Ski who stayed with me the rest of the way.

The return was a descent with rollers and tailwind - quite a few cars now and clear skies. Unfortunately, my saddle started to become a problem. I think this is where the knee problems started - lifting my butt off the saddle to relieve stress.

We stopped for photos and ended up taking other riders' photos as well. Daniel pulled Eileen in.

Today was special because at the end, Steve Born showed up. He just arrived from Australia. He's now engaged to Cassie Lowe. I didn't recognize him but he did me. It was great to finally meet him.

Dinner was at Chili's with Daniel, Karl and Greg. What I didn't do which was amazingly bad was pack a warm fleece shirt. Whenever we had to go to eat or were out early a.m. eating or evening, I was cold.

The hotel had high speed internet connection - but in some rooms it didn't work.

End of Day 4