This wonderful Modern world


In Reading it is just gone 9:30 am... in Phoenix, Arizona it is now 00:36. I got up at 06:30 this morning... or yesterday morning... I am not sure which. I have been up around 27 hours straight. This morning I left to drizzle and a bit of a gale... and have arrived to warm breezes and the sound of crickets. 
Isn't the modern age both wonderful and bemusing that one minute I am passing hedgerows... and the next .. cactus!

To say this was an unplanned trip is underexaggerating.... I didn't think I would be back in the good old US of A so soon. But sometimes opportunities must be grabbed and the randomness embraced and with a hectic week of night shifts and very last minute grabbing of flights, insurance and SPOT sign up, I landed in Phoenix to the waiting Louize and Mark. 

Louize and Mark are no strangers to 'Embrace the Randomness' and can usually be persuaded to Go With The CraZy.  It usually starts with a facebook message from me saying something like ' what are you doing around the .... of .... (insert date)' with a reply of 'What is the CraZy THIS time?

It is also no exaggeration to say that I could not have done 2 of my challenges without their support. They were kind enough to meet me on Route 66, take me to the Grand Canyon and more importantly bring me some new shorts to ride in. Last year they drove for a few hundred miles to pick me up from some random town in New Mexico and just a year later they find themselves picking me up from the airport to embark on a slightly different challenge.....

A delay in the flight from Heathrow to Charlotte (North Carolina and another state ticked off my list) had meant that I found myself sprinting to border control.... charging through customs to bag collection, jogging to bag drop and then a final sprint to the gate just in time to board the plane to Phoenix...
Good fitness test for the days ahead one could say!
So when my bag hadn't arrived on the carousel, Mark's suggestion that maybe I had made the flight.. but my bag hadn't... made me a little nervous.  Just as I was beginning to despair... my bag popped up and was propelled towards me. Perhaps remembering the miniscule amount of kit I had last year, Mark offered to carry the rucksack, only to find that this time, I had packed the proverbial kitchen sink! About 4 times more kit than last time, only travelling for 3 weeks less!!

It seems that it never rains in Arizona.... except when I visit... so it was no surprise to find rain forecast for tomorrow. Despite that... as I stepped out the car I found that it was still beautifully warm. Crickets singing... bats darting about ... I was back in this wonderful place!

The tiredness dissolved for a bit as we caught up ... then hit me like a freight train...

The promise of tomorrow beckons.... last time here my suggestion of a hike was firmly put down... apparently only foreigners hike in the heat, and they often die. Now though it is cooler, more suited to hiking so maybe I will get to climb that hill that beckoned to me last time. All good practice for the days to come....

And what days they will be....

Hiking through the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Water Canyon... sleeping under canvas in the great outdoors... and with music along the way.... this time not solo... but in the company of some fantastic people... all with the aim of raising money and awareness for Love Hope Strength Foundation.

Follow the treks with my SPOT tracker.. Go to the following link to see my check in's and live tracking... starting tomorrow

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0cY2h8mIpOWW2H7VFnrdoeZvsStvkD5KJ

Follow the daily blogs and see the sights from this site or on my facebook page....
www.facebook.com/OneChallengeAtATime

What an adventure it will be!


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