Eat to ride, ride to eat

Today we entered the lands of the Navajo nation. I'm surprised there haven't been any Navajo Tour de France champions, since they produce the perfect cycling food - Navajo fry bread. I stopped at a roadside shack where they fried the bread to order, and added a little honey on top. Perfection (with a cup of coffee, of course). Carbs, some sugar, and healthy dose of grease. Add in the caffeine, and this is all you need to sustain a long ride. I told the proprietors I was going to recommend them as the dieticians for Team Radio Shack in the tour this year. They've never been to France, so thought it was a good idea.

I think this fully explains why today was my fastest ride so far. The 30mph tailwind might also have had something to do with it, but it was mostly the bread. For the bike geeks out there, this was an 89 mile ride at an average speed of 22.3mph, and an average heartrate of only 117bpm. We also net gained 1200 feet elevation on the day, so the wind was truly unbelievable. For the non-bike geeks, this was a REALLY fast ride, with only a moderate effort.

We crossed into New Mexico today. You have to love a state with chili peppers on the welcome sign.
This was also a big psychological boost for the group. Crossing one state line was no big deal, and California is kind of a skinny state. Crossing a second one, and transitting the big state of Arizona, makes it seem like we've really accomplished something. As a parting shot, an Arizonan threw an orange at two of our riders while on the interstate. At 75mph, that could have caused a serious crash. One of the two was Michel, our French-Canadian friend, so maybe the orange toss was mandatory under the new Arizona immigration laws.

Shown below is Fort Courage, which is a really big deal for anyone raised watching F Troop. It's actually a replica of the fort built as the set for the TV show. The thought that someone would build a replica of a set of one of the stupidest TV shows in history frightens me. Maybe more frightening is that this is a popular tourist attraction. Go figure.