The three of us in this picture found ourselves together on this cross-country trip. We found out that each of us would have met on another trip that we had signed up for last year; it also was to go across the US but got cancelled due to the death of the owner/operator.
Casa Grande to Tucson. Rest day tomorrow. We fought a head wind most of the day and what looked like an easier course on paper turned out to be a challenging day. We passed by Picacho which is featured in some of the pictures below. It means “peak” in Spanish. A Civil War skirmish actually happened there in 1862 believe it or not. We rode the last 20 miles on a bike path through Tucson to arrive at our hotel. I did a weeks worth of stinky bike clothes tonight. P U!
Gila Bend to Casa Grande today. Slow climb out this morning through the cacti and then onto miles of rough road, yay! Not. Saw lots of cattle later on and cruised in with my English bloke Richard.
Today we left Wellton AZ and rode 88 miles to Gila Bend AZ. It was an easier ride with wind assist. Still, we had to sit on that saddle a long time. We saw a beautiful wide-open valley most of the day. Not a lot of great picture opportunities. We saw a train load of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and a lot of desert landscapes. At the end of the ride, we arrived at our “space age lodge”.
Today we started in El Centro, CA and ended in Wellton, AZ. We covered 100 miles (I had to add an extra 3 miles to get to 100. I know it was crazy, but I did it anyway.) I felt really good. Our group rode well together as well. Hope that doesn’t change. We rode on some really rough roads though. Almost unrideable at times. The secondary roads in the desert are really not good. If you live in the east, you have never seen roads like we rode on today. We saw lots of sand and desert scrub too, but it was very pretty and not boring like I thought it might be. We crossed into Arizona about halfway and into the town of Yuma. What a gem of a town. The first place on this trip that I might consider as a place to live. Kind of an oasis in the desert. Green and clean. Might be too hot in the summer though. We had one big climb at the end of the day and then came into Wellton, AZ. We capped off the day with pizza and salad.
