That morning, I explained to the Motel 6 clerk about my bike across America journey and the stolen bike. I really appreciated the map of Phoenix she gave me too. I wouldn't have survived without it! :p)

I visited a small bicycle shop in Peoria (northwest suburb of Phoenix), and realizing I wanted buy a bike and walk out with it on the same day, they sent me to a reputable bike shop large enough with bikes of my liking already in stock.

I wound up at Landis Cyclery, which has been in business in the city since 1912. Pretty amazing! They have four shops around the city and I visited their central Phoenix location at 712 W. Indian School Road. The staff were very sympathetic about yesterday's events and showed a lot of understanding about my specific bicycling needs. They were very kind and professional and did a great job "fitting me" on the bike. They had me ride in the parking lot, adjusting the seat and handle bar just right before sending me off.

I wholeheartedly recommend them if you're in Phoenix: Their web site is: www.LandisCyclery.com.

Bottom Photo: Me with my new bike during the evening.

Once again the weather was amazing. While my home town of Buena Vista, Colorado was getting slammed with yet another snowstorm with temperatures in the 20's, it was sunny and 75 in Phoenix. Wow!

I had some free time in the afternoon and met up with Peter of Tempe, AZ, a regular visitor of the Cactus Lovers Forum. He is a season-long member of the Desert Botanic Garden and got me in for free!

Adjacent are four photos from our visit. You can see a larger collection of my photos here: Desert Botanic Garden.

I had such a great time there and was still astonished at the various cacti happily growing in the outdoors. I kept having cathartic outbursts of excitement as I spotted particular cacti I had only seen pictures of in books and catalogs.

The cactus I'm standing by in the top photo is known as the organ pipe cactus. This is my all-time favorite! Last year, Joel in Tucson and I visited Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in south central Arizona. I even have a tiny little web site dedicated to this particular cactus: www.OrganPipeCactus.info. I continually tried to contain myself in front of Pete; I was worried he was going to think I was a freak!

The Desert Botanic Garden is located in Phoenix and is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the prettiest desert garden in the city. It also offers educational tours, promotes research of desert plants and stands for increased appreciation and stewardship of our precious desert ecosystem. It is a must visit attraction for cactus and desert enthusiasts. Their web site is: www.dbg.org.

It was definitely nice to rest from riding, but this Saturday was a very full and tiring day. There was one fairly grim yet kind of humorous conclusion I had about the day's experience: I experienced more stress driving in Phoenix traffic and buying my needed supplies at department stores ... than I did about my bike being stolen the day before!

My nerves were shot after this busy day. Oh, how I longed to be away from the city with bazillions of people and to cycle on lonely and quiet desert roads! My wish would come true eventually.

Of course, the bike was brand new and it felt simiar to driving a new car! My old bike had a bent handle bar (partly from falling twice in San Diego), a speedometer on the verge of failing, the recent history of two derailers mysteriously breaking off and other quirks that reflected it's five years in age. Who knows? Perhaps the older bike would not have made it across the country.

Phil posed like a goof (middle photo) with the new lock I had purchased. Thumbs up! I was good and ready to go the next morning!

Everything seemed to happen so quickly, and I don't even know if I had much time to fully process the myriad details and feelings of recent events. I simply found myself in a mode of commitment that didn't question many of the details; I simply did my best to deal with them regardless of comfort level. I was quite certain about this: I was very ready to start achieving longer mileage counts each day. My goal was indeed reasonable, but I would face one more maddening snag that would stymie this objective tomorrow.