Hello, after a brutal 111 mile ride yesterday, 9.5 hours on the bike excluding rest breaks I finally arrived at Amistad (Del Rio).  The head winds were terrible yesterday and we all were exhausted, sore and cooked!  We climbed 3000 vertical feet combining all the hills.  With the wind, we had to pedal downhill.  It was one of the most difficult rides I have ever done.  Glad it's over.  Today we had a very easy 40 mile ride from  Amistad Reservoir, which is huge!  I took some photos of a 15 lb bass at the tourist info.  Bought a sandwich at the store and sat at a bridge by a creek and had lunch with the biting red ants. It was great!  The road surface is chip seal and extremely rough, my teeth hurt, but otherwise all is great!  (Positive attitude is the best.)  When we arrive at Fort Clark (for your reference Dad and Dallas, we are traveling on Hwy 90) anyway upon our arrival we treated ourselves to a dip in the cool pool.  It was great.  Candace took photos of the Esther Williams swim team.  Hopefully, we can get thos shots up very soon.  Tomorrow we head from Bracketville to Camp Wood.  Supposedly we towards the end of the ride we can swim in the Nueces River.  However, we have been warned not to cross the road if the river  is running across the road.  Got to go, time for bed, it's 8 PM.  Good night.  MK

Hello, today we arrived in Sanderson, TX.  We've had a very relaxing past three or so days.  I don't have my journal with me, so I have to write from memory.  AZ seems so far in the past, we breezed through NM and now we are one week into TX.  I think it has been a week.  It's very difficult to keep track of the day of the week and the date.  We've had some quick ride days, long mileage, but fast travel.  Michelle, our tour guide keeps telling us it's downhill from here...from where?  One of our sag drivers, Micki got pulled over and grilled by the border patrol the other day.  We were glad they did not take her away.  We had another ride day up to Emery Pass.  I saw some wild turkeys.  We had another ride on the way to Fort Davis and visited the MacDonald Observatory.  That day we hard.  It was a 90 mile day and the hard climb started at 60 miles.  The next day was rest day at the Indian Lodge.  Great place.  White adobe buildings, great rooms.  The ladies had a ball trying to round up the javalina's for a photo shoot.  We visited Fort Davis and had a great rest day.  Yesterday, we arrived at Marathon TX and stayed at the Gage Hotel.  What a place!  The grounds are beautiful.  The bad part was the 6 trains blowing their loud whistles starting at midnight.  Needless to say, not much sleep last night.  There was a very cute black and white kitty at the hotel.  I took a lot of pictures of him. 

We also visited a B & B next door.  Check out evesgarden.org  Fantastic, great photos of flowers and what a serene place to visit.  Photos to follow!  Marathon TX is a jumping off spot to visit Big Bend National Park.  We are riding very far north of the park, so we are not able to visit.  Today in Sanderson is laundry day, without machines.  We are on a 6 day run of no laundry facilities.  Tomorrow is an 111 mile ride.  Need to rest up and hammer out a few more days before our next rest.  According to my calculations, we have rode over 1000 miles we are 1/3 of the way done.  I had a dream the other night that we were in Florida...I was so confused how I got there, because I could not remember anything past TX.  OK, gotta go wash some clothes.  Take care...the weather has been great, no rain yet and great tail winds!  I hope the wind stays at our backs.  Hugs-mk  We met 2 guys from North Carolina heading to CA from FL.   We met another gentlemen on a motorcycle who invited us to a wedding today at 4pm at the Catholic Church...should we go?

Had a great ride from Kingston to Las Cruces, NM.  The tailwinds were wonderful today!  As we approached Los Cruces the are a lot of orchards.  Took me a while to figure out all the trees are pecan trees, and there are a lot of them.  We rode past all the chile farms and I had lunch at the town of Hatch, famous for the Hatch chiles.  I enjoyed my sandwich at the town gazebo.  On my way out of town I took a side road to Ft. Selden State Monument.  That was a great stop.  I saw they teach cast iron dutch oven cooking.  I am fascinated with this system.  I met the cook, took a few photos of his wagon and had some baked bread from the orn.  (Adobe oven, I think that's the correct name and spelling, not quite sure.)  It was the best bread I ever tasted.  He gave me his dutch oven cooking handout, a coupon to buy an oven and he also gave me some 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter.  Wow, free stuff!  I met up with a few riders at the frozen yogurt stop, we always make the pie, ice cream or good stuff stop. Tonight's dinner presentation was roadside trivia.  Easter Sunday-Cheryl bought us all some rabbit ears and we taped them to our helmets today.  The ride was very difficult today as it was very cold and extremely windy.  It was hard to make any progress and keep the bike upright.  A few of the riders did not feel comfortable riding and took the sag wagon.  The wind gusts made it very challenging at times.  I  wanted to give up, but I stayed with it finished the ride.  It was a very long 66 mile day.  A nice gentleman Al paced with me into El Paso and showed me the way out of town.  I was very happy to have the last 10 miles over with.    Everyone is outside cooking barbecue, because you can sure smell it in the air.  We will be followingthe border the next days.    I am writing this while enjoying my coffee.  A group from First Presbyterian Church in Boulder Colorado is here at the hotel.  They all recognize me with my Fruita Colorado bike jersey.  They are going to Juarez to build a few houses.  The forecast for this week is breezy and windy, otherwise upper 70's.  As we travel SE we will be dropping off the grid here, so I don't know when I can write again.  We'll try it out.  Tonight is another "no-star" hotl  hmmm, should be interesting.    Last night we all participated in the "laundryy Olympics"  30 women-3 washers.   It gets interesting.  The next few days we stay at Fort Hancock State Park and the Indian Lodge is coming up.  Should be great!  Hugs-MK 

Had a great visit with Dad and Sandy in Silver City. Yesterday, we walked around town and shopped all the stores, visited the museum and went to visit the City of Rocks State Park.  The rocks are from a volcano and are over 34 million years old.  Great star gazing and camping spot.  We all sang a special birthday  song to him before we left this morning.  We had a great 44 mile ride to Kingston, NM.  We are stay at this great place.  Check out www.blackrangelodge.com  The owner is making us a Turkey Dinner tonight.  There is a piano, I'm sure Ellen will teach us all a new song.   Between the Black Socks song and the Beaver song, we are quite entertaining.  This area reminds me a lot of Colorado.  Also,  Cheryl bought us special treats for Easter Sunday.  Photos to follow.  We saw about 8 wild turkeys riding in today.  Time to get cleaned up and enjoy the lodge.  Dad, Linda and Michelle said you saved us bringing the dried sausage, cheese and salami.  It made a great snack and saved Linda a lunch snack!  We all are eating it all up!  Thanks Dad and Sandy for coming and visiting us.  We all enjoyed you both.  Love and Hugs-MK  P.S.  Correction to the skateboarder crossing the country, his website is 14degrees.org.  Check out his photos, they are fantastic!  MK

Hello!  The use of the internet is far and few between.  A lot of the connections are very slow in the small towns.  Things are going great.  We have one more day, tomorrow until our rest day.  This has been a long segment.  We are all very tired.  Tomorrow we climb up to Silver City NM.  I think this will be an early night and with the time change we need to get up earlier.  It's difficult to get computer time and laundry time on the road.  I had a great visit with my neice and sister in Phoenix.  The next day we rode to Apache Junction.  One of the photos to follow will be of a man and his collection of stuffed animals in his yard.  We got to ride through a Border Patrol Station.  That was fun.  We were the highlight of the day for the patrolmen.  All 30 of us stopped and talked withthem.  We were unable to do a full ride out up to Globe, as we got snowed out at the tunnel and the State Patrol would not let us continue.  We had to shuttle to Globe.  That was OK, as the road was very narrow.  We woke up in Globe to rain, fortunately it stopped just as our ride started.   Yesterday we had a good ride to Safford, AZ.   I met a guy who is skateboarding to CA, he had came from FL.   His website is 14degrees.org.  Check it out.  I rode through the Weight Station to get weighed, but the scale was not working.  We'll have to try again.  Today we had a great ride from Safford to Lordsburg.  Weather looks good.  The Duncan High School Band came out and had banners on the fence and cheered us on.  We plan to play "Best Find of the Day" for dinner entertainment.  We are to look for the best item on the road and bring it to Show and Tell.  I saw a weed wacker yesterday, but it was too big to fit on my bike.  That would have been a hoot!
We climb up to Silver City this morning.  I get to see my Dad.  I am excited.  Otherwise, all is swell and we continue on.  I should have internet contact for a few more days, then once we start to travel South of El Paso, it might be a while.  The best thing is when people ask, "So, where are you riding to?"  We say "Florida!"  The look on their face is priceless.  Happy Easter, there is a shot of me at an Easter Egg tree.  Hugs!  MK

Greetings, we made it across California yesterday and arrived in Arizona.  Celebrated with a state crossing marg party.  However, we are all in bed by 7:30 usually asleep by 8:30 p.m.  All is well.  Had a good rest day in Blythe.  Much needed recovery day.  I think it is a bit of an adjustment to the heat.  I am having a blast wandering off the road into shops along the way and meeting the most interesting people.  Yesterday I stopped at a trading post and picked up some goodies for $1.00.  I stopped at nursery and soaked my feet in a cool pond under a palm tree.  Today, Ellen and I had lunch at the Wickenburg Country Club.  I am a bit chapped, but have an emergency care package waiting for me in Phoenix I will pick up on Friday.  A few of the hotels along the way will be what our guides call "no star" hotels.  We are all having a great time.  Each night one of us puts on a show at the parking lot dinner campfire.  (No fire, just dinner and a map meeting in the parking lot.)   Our sag wagon is called Bo Peep.  Bo Peep keeps tabs on the sheep.  So our nightly entertainment is sponsored by the Bo-Peep Lounge.    I started it off with a sag wagon clothing fashion/dance show.  Ellen sang the "Black Socks" song.  Tonight Ann is on stage.  For more up to date photos check out www.womantours.com.  The tour site features a list of all of the websites from the group.  Anyone who is carrying a computer has the ability to upload photos daily and blog daily.  They are much more up to date than I.  I have to wait and seek a computer at the local library.  It's so much fun being on the road.  We are getting into the rhythm and flow.  It is so much fun to meet people and explain what we are doing.  Rumor has it we may receive the keys to the city in Silver City, NM.  I am out of time.  Love and hugs.  Mary Kay  I will get to see my family in Phoenix on Friday.  I am excited!!  Later-MK

Click on the web album link to see the latest from Mary Kay!

Hello!  Gosh, seems like we left Ocean Beach quite a while ago and it's only been 4 days of biking.  The group is great.  We have a some very inspiring women on the ride.  I think the most impressive rider is Jeanne.  Jeanne is a stroke survivor.  She is pedaling the recumbent bike.  She has the will and determination to motivate the rest of us.  She is piloting her bike with a paralyzed right arm and weak right leg.  Amazing woman.  I promise to get a photo of her as soon as I can get her to hold still.   

We all dipped our tires in the Pacific and headed East.  First day was very easy riding.  Day 2 was a breeze and I was able to take my time and shop a bit along the way.  Hello to the mountain bike guys I met in Pine Valley.  I put the sticker you gave me on my map holder.  

The next 2 days were a challenge.  Yesterday was a hard,hot and windy 90 mile ride.  I am tired today and enjoying a day of rest.  This is a quick blog, as I only have 4 minutes to use this computer at the library.  I am getting a very sore seat already.  I put out the emergency order to my niece in AZ and will pick up the care package on Phoenix on Friday.  More details to follow...I'm out of time!  Hugs-MK

I have spent the last 4 days here in San Diego and I have had a chance to catch up on some r & r. Tues. I rode my bike around to a few places and enjoyed a crab sandwich, or two.  Yum!  The weather has been very nice and looks great for the next 4 days.  Hopefully the Santa Ana winds will be at our backs, as it was really kicking up out here on Mon. and they had to close the road to Alpine, which is our first overnight stop.  Tues. evening I met a wonderful group of people.  I meet Dr. Bruce Mate, Professor at the Marine Science Center of Oregon State University.  He and a group of approx. 20 people were having dinner before they were to board a ship at 10 p.m. that evening to make their way to the lagoons of San Ignacio in the Baja.  This group will be observing the Gray Whales during calving season in the Baja after their 5000 mile journey from the Arctic ocean. They will get to pet the whales and the calves.  Wow, I got goosebumps just thinking about it.

The mother whales come to the Baja to give birth.  They have not had anything to eat during their long journey.  They are at the Baja for a short time and have to fight off the male whales and try to protect the baby calf whale.  Once the calf is strong enough to swim, they head back to the Arctic region, only to feed and get strong, then in the Spring they start the journey again.  The Gray Whales live in the Arctic, as their main predator are the Killer Whales (they  only like the warm water.)

Wed I rode the bus to Cabrillo Natl Monument which is a great site for whale watching, as the whales make their way to the Baja.  Unfortunately, this is the end of whale watching season.  I wanted to go to the tidepools, but I needed a car to get down the road the the ranger do not like people walking down the narrow road.  Darn...

Today, has been a busy day. A lot of the women have arrived here at the hotel and I have been meeting various women from the group all day.  We just finished orientation and all the questions have been answered, so I think we are ready to get started.  I am amazed.  I think I am one of the youngest in the group.  One woman appears to be a bit handicapped and will be riding a tricycle recumbent bike.  Wow...I will not have anything to complain about at all.  The common greeting has been about how much does your suitcase weigh?  Seems we have all been having the same stress over the luggage.  Our tour leader Michelle keeps saying...take a deep breath...she claims she will be telling us this a lot!  Breakfast at the van at 7, we leave for the beach at 8am.  Here I went!  Hugs! Mary Kay

Hello everyone!.  The bag is packed, let's get the show on the road.  I am so ready, I can hardly stand it.  I leave for San Diego, Monday morning.  I plan to pick up my bike on Tuesday.  The first three days in SD will be spent relaxing.  I need to really try and calm down and save this energy.  Thurs. we have orientation and fix a flat clinic and then a banquet that evening.  We finally get to start riding Friday morning at 9:00 a.m.  Thank you to everyone that made a donation, helped me get my bike in order, get myself in shape with training and PT, thank you for all the wonderful support, good wishes and prayers.  I really hope this blog and computer work out so you can all enjoy this adventure along the way.  I had an epiphany today.  I taped some maps together and outlined my route for my mother.  The map is over 3 feet in length and comprises of 8 states.  Wow...when I scan from left to right, that's when it hit me.  This is a long way.  We got a late breaking email from our tour group, they changed lodging and one day in Louisiana is now 127 mile ride.  Oh, heck, we'll be in fantastic shape by Mississippi.  (Is that before or after Louisiana?)  No worries.   One woman commented...Whoa!  I think she is a bit panicked.  I think all of us have made a panic phone call to the tour...I know I have.   Also, as I was taping the maps, AZ was easy to find the route and NM was easy to locate the route, after Del Rio, TX  I am lost.  TX is a BIG state. There are a lot of roads.  What color is the sag wagon?  This is to be very interesting.  Where are the mountains?   Thank you for your interest.  Here I went!  Hugs-Mary Kay  A journey is like a marriage.  The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. -John Steinbeck.