Brief update on the South Western Sojourn

It's nearly three weeks since I left dark, cold and icy Denmark, for an 8 week stay in sunny Tucson, so I thought it was time for a brief update.

December 31st, 2009:

Apart from the excruciatingly long boarding in Amsterdam (4 hrs!), resulting in a two hour delayed take off, the trip to Tucson, via Houston, TX, went pretty smooth. I was picked up by Curtis Zimmerman at 8 pm and after a burger pit stop and a beer at The Frasers, I got settled in the guest house in the Foothills.

Friday, Jan 1st, 2010:

Since my bag was lost by the airline, I borrowed some running gear from Curtis and went with Patrick to Sabino Canon for an 8 mile run. I ran in my brand new Nike Free 5.0 and I think the run really broke them in. Got my bag at 7 pm and considered assembling the bike for next mornings Saturday Shootout, but a two months hiatus from cycling convinced me that would be a dumb and humiliating experience that I could live without.

Saturday, Jan 2nd, 2010:

After a quarter gallon of coffee, I assembled the bike got dressed and was eager to head out in to the 70F/21C degrees warm weather. Rolling down First Ave at 40 mph/64km/t, I heard an ominous loud snapping BANG and knew I've had a flat!!! I slowly came to a controlled halt and inspected the tires, to find out that both were still inflated! BUT, the front tire bead had com of due to poor adjustment when I pumped up the tires... Pheew, that could've been really bad.

On my way up Mt. Lemmon the front tire slowly deflated and I had to stop and reinflate two times. At Windy Point, mile 14, I put in a new tube and rolled happy down the great wide road to log 110km and 4.10. Curtis and Stella took me out to dinner at the Italian restaurant Tavolino, where we enjoyed a very nice meal with Eric and Heidi Kahn, Corey Steinbrecher and his wife Kerry and Coreys parents that had enjoyed a weeks warm weather before they flew back to ice cold Chicago. Coreys dad was a executive at the US Soccer Federation and was the most soccer enthusiastic American I've ever met. Soccer isn't nearly as popular or exposed over here and is considered somewhat dull. He's got tickets for the upcoming World Championships in South Africa and all the Kahns are delighted to go and see a handful of matches.

Sunday, Jan 3rd, 2010:

Met with Jo Roberts and the South West Hand Cycling Team at Arizona Cyclist at River and Campbell. We did the Shootout course and i got 130km/4.30.