Monday 01-02-12 25 miles

The Journey continues – the start of today is a lot more challenging than the

Santa Rita Shrine

first day from Nutrioso in November. The Winds are 25-30mph straight head on.  My first indication this was going be a long day was the 2.5 hours, of hard peddling in low gears against the wind a very slight incline to just make to Church at Santa Rita Shrine in Vail, AZ at 8:00am. What a relief to get out the wind and feel the grace of God for today. This church has a really interesting history as noted on a newspaper article framed in the back of church. It was built for the Mexican population in the Vale, AZ area to attend catholic mass. The widow of the 1890’s Japanese Scientist who discovered Ad reline in the Japan.  Mr. Tanakama visited the USA, fell in love with an American woman, married her in 1897 and moved to Japan.  In the 1910s He and wife moved to New York. Mr. Tanakama, who was raised Buddhist converted to Catholicism. Sometime after his death in 1922, his widow married a rancher from the Vail, AZ area. Together she and her second husband built this Catholic Church in memorial to her first husband and named it after Saint Rita in 1935.  Saint Rita is known as the patron of the impossible similar to the more widely knows Saint Jude.

The whole area bears names to Saint Rita, such as Santa’s Rites Mountains, and Santa Rita Abbey, for the Cersticians nuns. The impossible part hits me more after today’s uphill into the wind. The lack of conditioning and 60lbs overweight make this journey even more improbable. Just keep trusting in God and the fact that the conditioning will get better and the weight will be eventually left on the side of the road.

The first night camp is 12 miles short of the Abbey with still 5miles of 5-6% upgrade.

Heading out at dark Thirty

Into the mountains