Pics shot in Phoenix, a very warm day (around 80).
Today was another early one, they all have been. I slept amazingly last night on the padded gym floor in Buckeye. It was a relaxed morning as we all knew it was a very short ride day (35 miles to Phoenix). I left with a group, sort of reeling mentally for what reason I did not know. I guess it was my head cold and respiratory symptoms. I really think my cognition was drastically impaired by lack of sleep (previous day), the cold, and an added stressor (new job on support team). Anyway, some of that carried over from last night, but really this was a new day.
So I left with the group and rode 20mph for a dozen miles until I just felt like being alone. I dropped off, but made it to the water rest stop right with them. I really just wanted to get to Phoenix, have a little me time, a little free time to check the city out. I left the water break with Roshan and Sarah, and soon tried to leave them and ride alone, but they wouldn't let me. So their personal conversation became a three-way deal and suddenly we were a trio for the last dozen miles, when all I wanted was to be alone.
So we rode off and made it to Phoenix at 9:45am and stopped and checked stuff out. There were people protesting something and we found a very nice fountain where we took some pictures. We then went to ASU to meet up with the group. The group then wanted to get Starbucks, but a fellow rider and I ended up going to some Mexican joint we saw. We got margaritas and had an awesome big lunch for $9 each, wow! After checking out some other stuff around town (with our free time), we went back to the group, which was hosting a talk at ASU's medical school.
The talk was disappointing because it was to only 7 people, but oh well. At least they were medical students interested in global health. A word about the lectures. They can be hit or miss. Sometimes there is a large crowd of hundreds, other times just a few. The venues vary a lot as well – medical schools, elementary, middle, and high schools, churches, and senior centers. We even have some talks scheduled at parades. This southern route across the country is brand new and I am confident that as the years go by, events will be bigger. After today’s talk, we went to our home for the night, a Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Scottsdale, AZ.
This JCC is awesome, with a pool, full gym, ping pong, cardio, hoops courts, racketball, wifi, a cafe, and a huge projector screen in our room. I swam in the pool and we had some really good underwater camera shots. I tanned some, which felt great in the Phoenix sun, even in early April. I always thought Florida was where the sun rays got you, but don't play with the desert west. After the pool I played a riveting 5 games of ping pong with Adam, who does public health. Next I lifted weights, remembering the concept of the strong man competition, "rip the muscles to grow them, lift that hard," which inspired me to lift a little harder than usual.
Then it was dinner with journal club. It was really good Italian food, a mom and pop joint. We had a good discussion about an assigned public health article we all read. Our main unified conclusion was that the article didn't offer solutions to various problems it presented. It talked about "braindrain," where doctors leave their countries to come make money in America. It also discussed workforce shortages in healthcare. After dinner, we came home to the JCC, where I currently sit in the lobby typing, sleepy.
Tomorrow is almost 90 miles, should be approximately flat. We are going to a state park to camp.
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