Day 11 [Coolidge, AZ]

Another errand I ran while in Phoenix was to REI.  I absolutely had to get rid of the seat that was killing my butt.  I swapped it out for a nice plush seat that's a few centimeters wider to accommodate my badonkadonk.  I also traded in my sleeping bag for one that is far less shitty.  The one I had was not warm enough and also had a zipper that would snag no matter what.  I ended up getting a North Face sleeping bag called "The Cat's Meow".  Cats kind of suck, but this sleeping bag is fantastic.  Outside of REI was another touring cyclist who I spent a good amount of time talking to.  Al was a serious tourer.  He smelled serious, and his bike was loaded down with twice as much stuff as mine.  He told me that he even made his own coffee in the morning.  Rightfully so, since from the looks of it he could have been running a mobile Starbucks kiosk out of his rig.  I expressed to him my concern over the fact that the next portion of my trip contained more mountains than I was willing to gracefully deal with.  He told me that the Adventure Cycling maps that I had generally favored scenic routes over flat routes and that it was very easy to travel to El Paso without dealing with this crap.  I decided to change up my route to avoid the hell that would have been the next two weeks of my life.  The downside to all of this is that I won't know where every single campground, motel, or place to get food and water will be.  Something that I'll just have to deal with and prepare for by bringing extra food and water.  I'll gladly go a day or two without seeing a town, or poop in the woods, to avoid climbing endlessly!  So today was my first day straying from my map pack, and so far so good, well...almost.  I rode 55 miles towards Tucson today and arrived in the town of Coolidge to spend the night.  When I arrived in town, I stopped by both RV parks here and they both told me that tent camping is not allowed.  Prior to this I had been camping at RV parks, and so I assumed that all RV parks allowed tent campers.  Well I then visited the police station to see what they recommended, and after hearing from them that I was basically SOL I checked into a $40 dollar motel room.  I was bummed because I wasn't going to get to try out my new "Cat's Meow".  I then took one look at the motel bed and decided that I would indeed be sleeping in my new bag tonight.  That's how you find good in bad situations!  Finally, today I sadly learned about a website called Ghostbikes.org.  After seeing the memorial shown above I googled Brett Saks' name and it brought me to the ghostbike site.  These white-painted bikes are put up near where a cyclist was killed by a car to honor their memory, and as a reminder of cyclists' right to safe travel.  Dr. Saks was killed here while training for a 600 mile tour that he never got to do.  A sobering reminder that I need to be careful and aware at all times.  This portion of the road had no shoulder, and for the rest of my ride into Coolidge I was glued to the road's white line like it was a tight-rope.