AZT Departed
…..I was pretty hammered. I told them that I was going to bail. In my delirium, I don’t know if they heard me. They just all left me alone in the desert. I remember that I felt abandoned - like a puppy set out in a box in front of Safeway with a price tag of 12 bucks on it. All I remember later is that I was standing by the highway by the prison at Florence and I saw flashing lights. My gear was with me but my bike is nowhere to be seen.
That was the reality in a way. Of course, Florence didn’t seem so far away, and that was good enough to get anyone out of the desert as safe as possible. It was a bummer to see him go so early in the ride, but it also happened as expected. Each of us said goodbye, and we pedaled on as he lay there under a tree on a dirt road in the middle of the sonoran desert.
And then we hit the headwinds.