July 24th: Off The Bike for a Day of Rest

By: Steve Goode

Edited By: Judi Goode

July 24th — Day of Rest/Packing

I had planned on a relaxing ‘off the bike’ day on my last day in Scottsdale. Up until the evening, it went as planned. Everything changed that night, though, as I began my packing ritual. For those of you, who don’t know, I have devised a special way to pack my bags so that I only need to take the most important items into the hotels and I can leave the rest of my stuff in the locked bags attached to the bike.

I have a large designated “hotel bag” that I use to transport all my personal items into the hotel. The bag was open and on the floor in the bedroom, at my brother’s house. There wasn’t anything unusual about its location or placement. And so, I began packing up my things and getting organized. I went to pull something out of the bag and out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. I immediately pulled my hand out of the bag, which was a very good decision. At the bottom of the bag, was something I have never seen or experienced before and wasn’t prepared at all. There it was! A small, gold colored scorpion creeping around inside the base of my bag. It made my skin crawl! I have never seen a scorpion before, but there it was.

This scorpion was tiny, which I have been told are the deadliest because of their venom. You know, I can handle a lot of risks while traveling: weather, traffic, road conditions, high altitude mountain passes, and even crazy people, but I have to say that this experience got my heart racing like no other event on this trip. After throwing the scorpion and the bag into the street I walked in circles in the front hall of the house just mumbling scorpion, scorpion, scorpion. Needless to say, prior to going to sleep that night I checked under the bed at least 15–20 times for monsters and scorpions.