Day 7 - Salome to Wickenburg, AZ

What a fabulous journey! Today began quite cool but soon warmed up. Arm warmers still feel good. Flat, smooth road for the first 40 miles or so. We stopped at mile 4 so as not to miss coffee at Ingredients Coffee House. What an experience. It's a fasinating and charming little place. I continue to be awed by God's handiwork. The plains go forever but always there's the backdrop of magnificent mountains. The vegetation looks like large forsythia. Can anyone tell me what it is? Maybe Mesquite. It's barely leafing out. Also, there a lot of Prickly Pear Cactus and Saguaro cactus that look like stick figures. I understand that Tuna Soup is made from Prickly Pear cactus. We tried unsuccessfully to fine this at lunch today. . . . . In Aquilla we tried to stop at Big Mama's but apparently business hasn't been too good and she's closed. Went back about a block to the Aquilla Library to use the facilities and their computer. I finally got into my email. Yea!!! There were 83 hits and not too many were Performance or Amazon. . . . As we began a long climb I wondered why I'd been struggling a little. Looked down and lo and behold I'd been in my big chain ring all morning. Boy did I need to move it down at this point in the ride. The downhill into Wickenburg was another great view and great ride. Mary, Sue and I went straight into town to find a local color restaurant. Found Chaparrel Homemade Ice Cream restaurant where we enjoyed homemade chicken vegetable soup but no ice cream. We were holding out for Sweet Darlene pie that Linda bought yesterday. Chaparrel is on the National Historical Register. Later, Sue found a jewelry store and bought herself a beautiful birthday bracelet and earring set. Mary and I found the public library and spent 2 hours reading, responding to and cleaning off email. I was SO glad to get that done. Tonight Jane has been quite gracious to allow me to use her email. She's even downloading my pictures. I've also put them on my new flashdrive and cleaned off the camera card. I'm getting to be quite the techie, don't you think? . . . . Michelle is warning us of approaching foul weather so good times may be put on hold as we just do our best to get through it! On to Phoenix tomorrow. The picture is of Mary outside Ingredients. The sign reads: Good Food, Great Coffee. Unforgetable Women!