June 23-25, 2016
Curtis and his colleague Mark planned a bike ride from Show Low to Camp Verde over 3 days with about 50 miles of road to ride each day. The trip required quite a bit of gear, camping and food wise, so I volunteered to go along with the boys, driving our van, to haul the extra gear hoping to make the ride a little easier. And, should they have any problems or emergencies, I could come to their rescue. Plus, I wanted to be part of the action so a family adventure it became.
Day 1: Prescott Valley to Show Low by car, Show Low to South of Heber
Thursday morning we drove out to Show Low, met up with Mark and his neighbor Bruce, and after loading up all the luggage and gear, the bike riders were off. The boys and I hit up the Sonic in Show Low and after eating our fill we drove to the first camp site outside of Heber.
Me and my pit crew experienced a little action on our first day. We got a call from Bruce, who was ahead of Curtis and Mark. He had a flat tire and his spare tube wasn't working, but he had an extra spare in his luggage, so we turned around and headed back down the highway. While he fixed his flat on the side of the road, Curtis and Mark caught up to us. We topped off their water and shared our leftover Sonic slushies, which they LOVED because they were really hot and sweaty. Once the riders were all good to go again, we headed out again.
The boys and I found the camp site, unloaded the gear from the van and roof rack, set up the tent and kitchen and began to fix dinner. Camping is a LOT of work. While dinner was cooking, another call from Bruce came in. This time his whole tire blew, and he needed to be picked up. I turned off the camp stove, loaded up the kids, gave them a snack, and headed out. By the time we got back to camp with Bruce, it was dark and we were hungry! We ate dinner and waited and waited and waited, but still no Papi or Mark. They didn't roll into camp till around 9:30 pm. They drive in the dark with only one head light between the two of them! They were tired and hungry so we fed them and we all slept really well.
Day Two: South of Heber to Payson
The bike riders woke up, broke camp, ate a bit of food, and headed out for another long 50 mile stretch. While I finished packing, loading and cleaning up our camp, Nathan, Bracken and Marco had a grand time exploring the forest and playing all kinds of fun games.
Day two went well for the bike riders, zero flats or complications. We all made it to our meet up spot (Carl's Junior in Payson) safe and sound and in time for lunch.
Camp set up went much quicker with all the men around, all I had to do was oversee the placement and get the kitchen ready to go.
We played a lot of frisbee, it's a fun pastime for the boys. That and hacky sack.
Marco and Bracken had a blast climbing, jumping, wresting and rough housing on the air mattresses until...
...they face planted into the hard ground. No bueno. I'm amazed I captured the exact moment of failure on camera.
After 2 days of being hot, sweaty and dirty the shower facility at the camp site was heaven sent. We piled into one of the shower rooms with our party of 5, put in our $3 worth of quarters and did our best to keep our crazy little boys in the water long enough to get clean and not just play. It was a bit of a circus. The room steamed up really fast so we cracked the door to allow fresh air in. Curtis and I tag teamed it, I blocked the door while keeping the boys rotating back into play while he scrubbed and rinsed their little bodies. An exciting highlight was finding a gigantic (like 3 inches long!) beetle on the sidewalk just outside the shower. Bracken was overcome with joy and begged to keep it.
Day 3: Payson to Camp Verde
Once we had the bike riders off on their last 50 mile stretch with a good majority of it being up hill (on narrow mountain highway, scary!) the boys and I again finished breaking camp and loading the car. I couldn't convince the boys to enjoy the area around the camp, they were anxious to hit the road. We made it to our midday rendezvous point, on the top of the mountain, several hours ahead of the bikers. We found ourselves a nice spot on the side of the highway to play and play and play. The boys kept asking how much longer it would be, but I couldn't give them an answer. We just had to sit and wait till the bikers made it all way up the mountain to find us. They played their fill of frisbee that afternoon.
Bracken in field of bracken!
The boys were besides themselves with boredom (they should have taken my up on my suggestion to hike around the camp that morning) we saw our bikers round the bend. They were tired, thirsty and in need of a pit stop. We ate lunch and the guys rested their legs for a bit before hitting the road for the final stretch, this time with some welcome down hill bits.
When the boys and I rolled into Camp Verde it was much warmer than our lovely Payson campsite, so we opted to play in the river. It was perfect. The cool water felt wonderful and the boys enjoyed the different distractions it had to offer. No frisbee needed. They spent the entire time hunting shells, which they found in great abundance, who knew!
Eventually we got the call that they bikers had made it to Camp Verde, safe and sound, with zero problems so we hiked back to the car and headed to Taco Bell, our designated meet up site. We cheered as we saw our bikers turn into the parking lot and we rewarded them with refreshing freezes from Taco Bell. We were tired and dirty when we pulled into our driveway that evening but we were satisfied with the memories that we had made. It was an epic summer adventure.
