TOYOTA-UNITED Pro Cycling Team Autographed Jersey

For auction

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=301029189081

This is for  Dreams to Wheels charity

www.DreamsToWheels.com

Few Words About 1000 Mile Ride

Now that we are back to warm South Florida it is time to reflect upon our journey, people we have met, places we have visited, things we've learned. It was a great learning experience.

Seeing America so different from the one we are used to is a very eye opening and spiritual experience. We would recommend everyone to retrace our rout.

This country is so beautiful and unique.  Places like Arizona and Nevada offer mountains and deserts and canyons and forests... just an overwhelming variety of breathtaking landscapes.

We watched Rashad Evans fight in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand and kick Chael Sonnen’s ass.

Everywhere we went we met nice people. We would like to name everyone by name but the list would be too long. Special thanks to Carl Blum who not only organized our first photo shoot but also helped us plan our rout and checked on us every day. Hillary from Days Inn in Kingman, Fran from Outpost Saloon, Pam, Jame Carney, Erica Allar, Karla from US Airways who helped us with our oversized luggage and many many others. Thank you all!

We want to thank our sponsors Graner Law, Jaco Clothing, FSA, Met-RX, Prologo, TRP, Schwalbe, Shimano, SRD Building Corp, Prachel Waterproofing and Restoration, Old Palm Title. Thank you for making this trip possible!

Our trip was a success. We have conquered miles of difficult roads, bad weather and ourselves. We have captured attention of thousands of people who followed our journey through our blog and learned of Dreams to Wheels charity. We hope all of you will keep them in mind and help them out every time you are upgrading your cycling equipment. Even used stuff will help the kids. Thanks!

www.DreamsToWheels.com

Riding Around Tucson AZ with Erica Allar and Jame Carney

Days like today make it all worth it. Even though it was cold and rainy morning soon enough we could see blue sky here and there and before we knew it Arizona showed itself in all it's beauty. Erica Allar and Jame Carney are the most funny and wonderful hosts and they have invited us on a ride in the outskirts of Tucson. To say that we were impressed with the scenery is to say nothing. We were absolutely mesmerized with the beauty of the nature. Twisted road went up and down the mountains covered with every kind of cactus imaginable. Scenery and ride today where amazing please see pictures . THANKS!

We have finished the perfect day with a dinner at Coffee Cup restaurant in a historic Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson.

Can you see the Arizona rainbow?

Watch out for the falling rocks

Cycling from Phoenix to Tucson AZ

The weather will not change till the end of our trip. It started raining last night almost as soon as we reached our hotel in Phoenix and it hasn't stopped since. The forecast shows constant rain, thunderstorms and even flooding with more that 1" of rain per hour at times. We spent a night at a really nasty and dirty hotel that seem to have no renovations since the 80s. They sure have hired a great photographer to advertise themselves as three star hotel. In reality "Sahara" is a run-down place with conference/breakfast room flooded.

But back to our ride. As we eat breakfast we try to drag it out as long as possible. 85% of rain make us hope for the remaining 15% to prevail. Two things have changed for the better so far: it is going to be 55F all day and the wind has slowed down to bearable 10mph yet nobody wants to get soaked for the next ten hours. But we have no choice and we roll out towards Tucson.

Temperature climbed to 55F in the outskirts of Phoenix but then quickly dropped to 50F. Tom and Cesar are out of warm clothes and moving becomes impossible in a heavy rain and 48F. We decided to skip to Florence AZ and continue from there. Florence did not bring any relief. Same rain, fog and 52F. But a promise is a promise and guys took off from there. we made today the shortest day because this misery is hard to take. We reached Tucson in 5 hours cold wet and completely covered in dirt. We plan on doing a lot of riding around Tucson but the weather is going to take much fun out of it.

After we cleaned ourselves up at the hotel we went out and met up with Jame Carney, Erica Allar and Dulcy (long time Stradalli customer) We had a great night at the restaurant joking, talking about local cycling, Tour de Tucson and peculiarities of weather. One of the worst days finished with wonderful night.

Flagstaff to Phoenix AZ

Bad news. Cold front came to Arizona. Near freezing temperature with pouring rain and dense fog. We have the longest leg of the trip today from Flagstaff all the way to Phoenix. We mapped our ride out at about 170 miles. Going through high elevations in this weather is just crazy. Our gear is inadequate. We do not want to disappoint anyone and ourselves but we have decided on cheating and shortening today's trip by about half  and ride in the van till the rain let up and temp went over 40 deg. Too bad. Most of this distance have up to 6% incline downhill and it would have been fun to ride if it wasn't for unbearable weather.

We drove to Camp Verde and by the time we got to the Montezuma Castle rain stopped and it got a little warmer. We have explored this castle built seven centuries ago in the caves in the vertical cliffs.

From here on we are taking Rt 260 to Payson. Cesar and Tom have agreed that they can and will ride for the remaining miles even though it is still cold and raining lightly but good enough to ride. Payson is exactly 5000' elevation and it should only be down hill from here. LOL . NOT TRUE.

Slowly but surly it warmed up and we did finally make it to Phoenix AZ. So far so good. Still a hard hilly ride but at least it was warmer then yesterday. PLEASE watch our lunch break Video. LOL

Colombian boy trying to touch a BABY CACTUS .