Day 10 [Phoenix, AZ]

Another solid day of 55 miles brought me into Phoenix, a city that I find incredibly hard to spell correctly.  I always want to put that "e" before the "o".  Anyway, about 20 miles into the ride I started to feel some pain in my ankle and lower shin.  I ended up limping the remainder of the way to town at a snail's pace, fearing that I might tweak something bad enough to put a major damper on this little joy ride.  I was privileged to have been hooked up with a place to stay right in downtown Phoenix from a family friend.  This wasn't just any home either, it was equivalent to staying in a 5 star hotel and belonged to Arizona Senator Ken Cheuvront and his partner, Greg.  Before I write anything else, just take a gander at this kitchen:

Immaculate, right?  I'm pretty sure it even cooked and cleaned itself automatically.  The house and hosts were excellent and I couldn't imagine a better situation to have had while in Phoenix.  Thanks again, guys!  Back to my ankle.  The following day I took my first rest day of the tour, and used it to do a few key things.  First, I got myself to a podiatrist to have my ankle looked at.  They took x-rays to make sure that nothing was fractured, and ultimately decided that I was experiencing a mild bout of tendinitis.  The cause being overuse of the muscle and my idiotic neglect of stretching.  The doctor gave me these topical patches that magically make the pain go away almost entirely.  The one mile walk home from the doctor's office was significantly less painful than the walk there!  With that problem solved, I checked to see if the Suns were playing that night and sure enough they were.  Thirty dollars later I had a beautiful nosebleed seat.  Most importantly of all, I enjoyed an epic pregame meal at Chipotle.  It's my favorite food and I haven't had it in over a month, far to long for an addict.