The Second Day: Thatcher to Miami

After the great greeting that we had in Thatcher the night before, we had proceeded to the home of Luke and Tiona Hoopes, good friends who used to live in our ward in Peoria. I had previously arranged to have us stay there, get our showers, and have our dinner and breakfast. Well, no doubt about it, they really pulled through for us and was very accommodating. We had a great meal from his mother's restaurant, and had a little time to visit. Bedtime came fairly early for all.

That morning we had a great meal again of breakfast burritos. Thank you Luke and Tiona for making this such a special stop off.

After breakfast, the rest of the group went back to the place that we had ended the day before so that they could begin there, and then they made a stopoff at Safeway, where water was being donated. Shane Stutzman works for Safeway and they were a big supporter.

Kyle Crump and I waited down closer towards the Hoopes and across from the hotel where Leisa had stayed. One special experience I had there..... I had an aluminum can in my hand that I had finished drinking it's contents, and the thought came into my mind about Tina Roose, our owner operator payroll manager, whose children had crushed enough aluminum cans to exchange them for $100.00 which they turned over to Rally For PoP's. I will always have a special feeling regarding her children and their thoughtfullness to do this.

We left Thatcher and headed west. The terrain at first was flat with low hills. My legs were not quite working yet but doing fairly well. The group pretty well got ahead of me, which was fine, as I did not want to hold them up in anyway. I made a stop across the highway from the Gila Valley Temple and asked Shannon if he would take a picture of me with the temple in the background. He gladly obliged. We proceeded on. Shannon chose to lag behind and ride with me. I am so grateful to him that he did that for me. It was like a big dose of dopamine. I could move, and then we started to ride. Shannon is a great cyclist. He is easy to talk to and I really enjoy being around him.

After so many miles I got into the support vehicle for some resting. Ed and Mona were the people in the van. They are both very fun and treated me great. Thank you Ed and Mona!

At a certain point of the road they were putting a new surface on it.