After 6 days in a row on the bike, and I think that many partaking in the holidays, I had no energy for the gym or the road or anything other than sitting on the trainer.   A commute into work the next day and my legs were two stilts of pain underneath me.   I needed a rest day bad, cause Thursday I was joining my friend Yuri for one of his crew’s ThNR – a possibly epic creep around the dark corners and forgotten pathways of our megalopolis.

17 mile commute into work, ~15 mile shot up the Cross Cut Canal to the Arizona Canal to a meetup with beer. An urban ride is so deep and dark and underground, to slide past the cars and the skyscrapers and the transitions between totty and food stamps, Yuri did a much better job with pics than I can with words.

We rolled through the Rio Salado riparian area and ended under an overpass, drinking our tallboys.   I crushed mine and went to put it in my pack, Yuri said no give it to the homeys.   In fact, we were standing in the largest green bin in the southwest, for as I looked around the devastation of South Phoenix, I did not see a single stray can or bottle.   2 coyotes buzzed us on our way out, one after a dead cat near a sleeping vagrant’s bedroll, the other likely his help.

We crossed cobbles and sand and barriers to emerge somewhere where John put down the hammer and we next ended up at Rula Bula in Tempe for beer. Then back to the office to pick up my laptop, then 17 tired miles home.   70 miles and 5 hrs spin time – not bad for a commute.

2 more days off, most importantly without ‘holiday’, left my legs feeling ready for a 1.5 hr roadie.   A bobcat ran in front of me crossing Ellsworth, first one i have seen in Phoenix, a lift to the spriti for the remaining 30 min of pain.

I could have ridden Hawes, but then what would I have named this post?