Nogales to Phoenix, and then to LA

  Times like this, I wish I had taken more pictures during our week long adventure in Mexico, because pictures definitely are worth 1,000 words sometimes.  Monday morning, we loaded up the van, truck and trailer.  We made our way to the church Sue and Sil attend down the road to pick up 3 other volunteers.  The car ride wasn't too bad.  It did remind me that I would much rather sit on my own bike than to be crammed in the middle of two smelly men in the back of a bumpy van.  It didn't take us but 20 or 30 minutes to get across the border and maybe another 15 minutes to get to Manitas Que Hablan. As soon as we arrived we started unloading the van and truck.  The volunteer crew and the founders of the the first deaf school for all ages in Mexico met in the main room of the school.  The school consisted of 3 classrooms, an office, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a large room in the front of the house.   In 4 days we planned on tearing up and putting in a new roof, updating some of the pluming and installing a hot water heater, and painting all the rooms, ceilings, and doors.  
  Manitas Que Hablan was the vision of a women named Tere Valenzuela.  Tere's vision was to see her daughter, Daniela,  a chance at living a life with choices.  Before Tere started to move her vision into a reality, there was no chance for the deaf Mexican population to make a living outside of begging.  Sadly, this statistic also holds true for the blind and mentally challenged communities.  Manitas now educates 46+ deaf students year round, ranging in all ages.  

  Soon after being introduced to the Manitas community/family we were introduced to the media and the mayors wife.  Once the excitement started to settle down, we got to work in the house.  After the main room was painted the men broke out the ladders and got to work on tearing up the leaking roof.  The students and women got started on tapping up the walls and painting the 2 classrooms in the main house blue and later putting a second coat on the main room.  After a long day of work,  Tere and her family joined us for dinner downtown, compliments of the mayors wife.  Dinner was a bit awkward, being that only Susan, Silvario, and Monica were the only people from our group that spoke decent spanish.  We still managed to have a great time and great food!

  Tuesday, we woke up and had breakfast around eight.  The guys strolled back up the ladders and the women got started painting the office and doors.  We took a break every couple of hours.  The women that worked as tutors or teachers at the school (were also brothers, sisters, and mothers of the students) made us breakfast and lunch each day.  The work days consisted of starting at 8 or 9 and finish cleaning up by the time the sun was down.  I showered Tuesday night with a solar shower bag...the sun had stopped hitting the bag a few hours prior, so it wasn't quite as warm as I had hoped it to be, but I did manage to get yet another good nights rest!

  Wednesday...we did more roofing, pluming and painting.  I didn't have much to do with the pluming, or the roofing (unfortunately)...I just know it got done, which is quite a beautiful thing!  We finished up painting the bathrooms, and doing some touch ups on the other rooms we had already worked on.  Monica and I moved on to the classroom next to the main building.  The texturing job on the walls was a bit thick and rough, so it was a bit more tedious to get it done.  With the help of some students and Matt joining us here and there we got it done in a good amount of time.  That night Alejandro, Tere's son, took us to a karaoke bar with some of his friends.  We enjoyed some singing, dancing, drinking.  We were even able to chat between Monica, and Alejandro's friends, the translation worked quite well.  It was a nice way to wind down from the past couple of days.  

  Thursday, Julie and I worked with the students on creating white boards for the classrooms, office, kitchen, and entrance.  It was fun to work closer with the students on a project, a little less strait-forward than painting.  We started to finish wrapping all our projects up around the house.  

  I would like to give a special thanks to Alma, a women that had accompanied us from the time we arrived has been one of the most powerful people I have ever met.  She works with the United States to help provide better living situations for many people in Nogales.  Alma works along side non-profits, like Manitas Que Hablan, to allow people like Tere to get the means they need to create a sustainable business.
 Friday before we left we had to finish up some last minute adjustments on the pluming situation and pack up the rest of our gear to get going.  All in all it was a great experience to be able to create a new relationship with beautiful people forming a new avenue for a community in need.      

  We made our way back to the states after saying our goodbyes.  The following day we accompanied Robert to a bike race close to Tempe, AZ.  We helped set up and run kids through a bike safety course for We-Cycle.  Sunday, Sue and Sil drove us from Phoenix to Los Angeles so we could catch back up with our schedule.
Los Angeles has been such an interesting experience.  My original thoughts when we first got here was a bit of a shock that this place actually exists.  It kind of caught me off guard I think.  After a day or two it finally started to sink in.  We road around Beverly Hills, and Bel Air, hiked the cliffs overlooking Los Angeles, and road down the coast.  
  Last night I filled my cup of noodles with some hot water from a gas station and had some peanut butter for dessert.  My most recent feelings, the ones I have been longing for, I think, have finally come.  I miss the "normal routine".  I miss the little things.  A cup of coffee, knowing where I am going to sleep each night, opening the refrigerator, turning a switch to have heat in seconds, a warm shower, a choice.  To end our first week in California, we slept on the cliffs of Santa Monica, in our sleeping bags, listening to the ocean and the cars pass.  Around 3 AM, night life started to die down, but the waves were still coming in.  It was a beautiful thing.  
 It has been 3 weeks now since we have gone more than 30 miles on our bikes and I am so ready to get back on the road!

  

Phoenix to Nogales

   We road about 60 miles from Camp Verde (http://www.cvaz.org) to the Happy Valley area (about 30 miles North of Phoenix) last Sunday, March 31st.  We stopped off to grab some dinner and catch the  rail into Phoenix on this exit.  The group met at Red Robin for a delicious donated dinner.  We were collectively looking on our smart phones for the light rail going into the city.  Defeated, we asked our waitress, who didn't seem to have much of a clue, either...  At this point,  the light rail we were looking for did not exist.  We collectively decided it would be better to split off into smaller groups for the night.      Ryan made it to Phoenix earlier in the day; Ashley and Julie got a hotel room; Elijah, Matt, and Victor found camp a couple of exits down; Martin, Monica and I hopped back on the highway right before the sun set to attempt to hitch a ride.  We were inconveniently posted up beside a jail, but some how we managed to squeeze our bikes and the three of us into John's home/van after about 10 minutes of waiting.  John was on his way to the last leg of The McDowell Mountain Music Festival with his friend and three dogs.  About an hour later we were dropped off in downtown, outside of the festival.  Marty discovered the light rail we had been looking for.  He was on his way to go visit a friend at Arizona State University.  Monica and I were going to find a place to camp (sleep on the street), and decided we should probably grab a beer first.  A guy at the CVS suggested the Crescent Ballroom on N 2nd Ave. and W Van Buren St.  On a side note, (something that took us a few days to get used to) Phoenix has a road called Central.  On the East side of Central, are streets, while the West side of Central are Avenues or Drives, fyi, if you ever decide to check Phoenix out.   When we arrived to the Crescent Ballroom, Tim, a fellow Philanthropistic soul, noticed the heavy load Monica and I were pedaling with.  He invited us to chat at his friends table so we could explain ourselves.  In the end Monica and I enjoyed a Grateful Dead cover band and had a couple of beers, thanks to Tim's generosity.  The two of us originally planned on picking a spot somewhere downtown to crash for the night.  Ryan, again, was already in the city.  We were talking to him while we were at the bar about where he was staying and what his plan was.  The couple he had found on warmshowers.com invited Monica and myself to stay for the night as well.  So, the two of us were pleasantly surprised to see that the couple was just down the road from the bar we were at.  There is nothing like a night ride in a warm, quiet(ish) city, but we were tired from a long day, and ready for bed.  We arrived at some lofts with a great view of the city and the Diamondback field, such a great end to the day.
  I met Susan and Silvario the next morning while they made us breakfast.  Our immediate connection with Silvario was when he told us about his touring experience from Saint Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California.  He was the type of rider that wanted to take his time and enjoy the views and people at whatever pace he wanted.  While his friend, Robert, that joined him (who we met later) wanted to keep the pedal to the pavement. As we wrapped up breakfast, Susan and Ryan had talked about some volunteer work we could do at the local Community Center she supports.  Silvario walked Monica, Ryan, and I through the neighborhood to the community center.  We helped distribute and restock some food for the pantry that serves families in the neighborhood.  At 3:30 the kids came in for the extended school day.  Helping them with homework, reading, and doing some arts/crafts and games while waiting for their parents to pick them up.  It reminded me of when I went to ESD in elementary at Prairie Trail, back in Flower Mound.  I can appreciate how this ride has sent me back to my past from moments we ("adults") tend to forget about.  Anyway, after a not so long, successful day with the kids, we made some enchiladas for dinner and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.
  As you can imagine, 9 smelly cyclists/bikes, and 2 experienced parents, crammed into a decent sized loft, wouldn't be so comfortable (for most people)...so we decided to stay at another warm showers profile for a couple of nights to lighten the load on Sues and Sil while we stayed in town.  Marty was still at the University, so Matt went ahead and joined him down there for a couple of days.  Ryan, Monica, Elijah, Victor, Julie, and I made our way across town to stay in Blaise's warehouse, behind his house.  He trekked from San Francisco to Seattle on a Penny-farthing!! (Much respect)

  After hanging out at Blaise's for two days, we headed back to the city.  I hung out at a coffee shop all day looking for jobs at summer camps and ski resorts.  At 4 we went to check in at the Renaissance.  I was able to get a room donated for the night.  At 5 we went to Bike Labs (bike shop) to get our bikes worked on and hang out with Robert.
  Robert is a good friend of Sil and Sues, and founder of We-Cycle.  We-Cycle is a non-profit organization that collects recycled bicycle parts and either builds bikes from scratch or donates parts to people that cannot afford new parts.  We-Cycle doesn't only sell/donate bikes to homeless people or people that don't have a means to get to work, but they also educate these folks on how to maintain the condition of their bikes.
(Check them out on Facebook or  www.We-cycle.org  <<very impressive site!)
  I left early to go check out a potential partner for The YP.  I found a yoga studio down the road I wanted to take a class at.  They incorporate hammocks into the practice.  I didn't make it in time for the class, but was still able to talk to the guy that started the donation based classes.  He also created a clothes making business.  Currently he has 120 employees that were jobless, and most didn't have any skills to get a job.  They make shoes, clothes, boots, belts, jewelry.  He donates the children's clothes to other organizations/non-profits.  I am hoping we will be able to get some of those clothes to Casa De Lus in Honduras.
(Whether your into yoga: http://ra-yoga.com or clothes: http://ra-apparel.com check it out and get in touch with Roman!)
  It was quite a blessing to have met Sil and Sues.  Through them we had met so many lovely people willing to give back to the community.  They also gave us more opportunities to fulfill our goal in volunteering on our journey, something we haven't had much luck with for the past 3 months.  When they invited us to join them in Nogales, Mexico to help make some repairs on a school for the deaf community, it was hard to say no!  We left the Renaissance the next afternoon and headed back to Sues and Sil's.  Monday morning we were packed, loaded, and about 4 hours from the boarder.