Day 12: Summit

Today we climbed to the highest elevation for the trip. It’s all downhill from here. The climb seemed harder than the climbs on days 1 and 2 in CA, maybe because we “slept in” this AM til 7 and it was warmer by the time we made the climb, or maybe it was just a harder climb, hard to tell. It was a short day, only 24 miles, so we were able to explore the eclectic town of Bisbee. We had some delay in getting to camp though since there was a brush fire right across the road from our camp so the local fire dept kept our setup crew from entering until they were sure it was contained.

After a quick shower and change, the group visited a must-see for cyclists, the Bisbee Bicycle Bordello–it is as interesting as it sounds. The shop is chock full of incredible old bicycles, photographs and memorabilia from years of collecting. Prices were more than reasonable,but alas, we left empty handed.

Next on the agenda was dinner. We found a place called Poco and enjoyed a wonderfully fresh and flavorful Mexican dinner. While we were eating, a pretty little fellow patron came up to us and asked us about the Coast 2 Coast gear we were wearing. It turns out she and her husband who are now a youthful looking 75, had done their own self-contained C2C trip from CA to FL sometime ago and also had done Seattle where they live to CA and were looking for another C2C. It also turns out they are also tandem riders! We told her about Bubba’s Pampered Peddlers and she nearly signed up right there! When Jeff told her I had quit my job to take the trip, she thought that was fantastic and said”you go girl…you have to stop to smell the roses, life is too short!” Words to live by