Can almost taste the Grand Canyon...

Okay, a few quick updates:

1. Yours truly took home FIRST PLACE in the talent show. It was an act I was in with Aaron where we took Alanis Morrisette's song, "Ironic," and applied it to a lot of annoying situations we've all faced when biking. We called it, "Frustrated."

The chorus went like this:

"It's getting flats when you're all out of tubes,
Chafing up when you're all out of lube,
Toilets clogged and you all have to poop,
And who would have thought it figured..."

The whole video of the performance will be up online shortly.

Andrea pulled out of our act at the last minute. We had a Spartan Cheerleaders routine planned. Amary and I began performing Halo and then she choked up. Cali came through with her idea to read Gin and Juice as a poem. Good times. Tatiana got Aaron and I washrags that were embroidered with "B2SB Talent Show Winner!" She's so good at that stuff.

2. The ride from Spingerville to Sanders was fast. There was a LOT of descending in the first couple miles, so I threw my bike into third gear and cranked it out and caught up with the guys in front. Sanders was, um.. dot dot dot. There were about four buildings that made up the town (or so it seemed). Luckily, we stayed at a fire station and they were amazing. They set up a pool for us cause we were there so early. And they used the hose from the fire truck to shower us. When will I ever get to do that again? We played some games that night and relaxed. Little did we know what would happen the next morning...

As we were getting ready to leave, Trey realized his bike was missing. I could build the story up with great suspense, but I'll make it short and say that someone stole his bike, the cops found it later that day, and Terri (the fire chief) drove his bike to him at our host site in Winslow. CLOSE CALL. It was definitely sitting among other peoples bikes. We're not quite sure when and how the thief got it.

3. You know the song, "Take it Easy," by The Eagles? Well, I've officially stood at "the corner of Winslow, Arizona"! Kind of cool, no? They had a statue of a guitar player and a bunch of signs. The song played on repeat during the day, too.

Larry and I played on some cool railroad cars, too, on this nice little bike/walk path.

We all went to sleep nice and comfy, not knowing what awaited us the next morning...

We headed for Flagstaff (a "simple" 60 miles) the next day and here's all I have to say about it:

35mph CROSSWINDS.

Miserable ride. Absolutely miserable. People were crying. One person got blown over and cut up. You could not pace line. You could not ride next to each other for fear of being blown into each other. Trucks passed and would almost knock you off the road with their gusts of wind. At one point we were even going to get shuttled because of construction, but we found a detour that had lots of trees and cut down the wind a bit.

The good news is the town of Flagstaff was really cool. A lot of chill people. Maybe too many hipsters, but that's okay. We had some good Mexican food and beers before dinner. A Bike & Build alum, Kyle, who actually helped plan Boston to Santa Barbara last year, made dinner for us and even joined us for a ride the next day to the Grand Canyon.

The next day's ride to the Grand Canyon had many perks.

I rode with Tati, Cali, and Larry all day and we started out getting coffee in Flagstaff cause it felt FREEZING. Here is where I taped my new mascot, Herman, onto my helmet. He is a beanie baby frog from McDonald's. After getting lost, we finally found our way out of town.

We saw a couple forest fires from far away while riding, but nothing that put us in danger. Our elevation hit 8000, too.

27 miles outside the GC we stopped at this old weird kind of "theme" park based around the Flinstones. It cost five dollars to get in, but we used donation magic to get in free. Definitely wasn't worth five dollars, but we have great photos now.

The plan was to meet outside the GC entrance and then the van would shuttle us in (cheaper... kind of against the rules, but whatever).

Okay, I'm in Prescott, AZ, right now and have to leave to shower and put my laundry stuff in before dinner. I'll have to fill you in on the rest of the Grand Canyon adventures later.

Until then, bike on!