I woke early because Ruth had just received an SMS that I'd sent the
night before. She called because she thought I was awake.
I planned my route for the day and then heard Dale and Carol moving around.
I loaded the bike, met one of their teachers, Melissa, and then we
said our goodbyes.
I headed up to the Casa Grande Ruins to see it. I got the NPS stamp,
took some photos of cacti, watched a video about the archaeology, and
then headed to Catalina and Tucson. I needed Catalina for the AMA
Everywhere tour and Tucson for a GPS point. It was pretty riding
through the desert with the Choya in bloom. I saw some horned lizards
scoot across the road in front of my and I stopped and carried a
gopher tortoise to the other side of the road but other than that, it
was just hot, flat and straight.
In Tucson I had to scramble a bit to see if I could get close to the
Davis Monthson AFB. They have a huge amount of aircraft that I think
are either to be disposed or are used for parts. They are neatly
arranged but don't appear to be used. The GPS point appears to be in
the middle of them but that area is unaccessible so I took a photo
from outside looking toward it and hope it works.
I was then only 6 miles from Saguara NP and went there. Again, I saw
the video of the NP, got the stamp, chatted with a ranger and mailed a
postcard to Kira.
It was now just early afternoon and I'd not gone far. I twisted the
throttle up to the 75 mph speed limit and headed toward New Mexico.
Along the way, I had a couple of AMA Roads stops to get and stumbled
upon a couple of KOAs but otherwise, it was just traveling.
I could see storms south of me in Mexico. I didn't get wet at all
and, in fact, it was sunny and hot. I stopped at the New Mexico
welcome center for a coffee and then continued to Las Cruces. Here I
found a KOA that was cheaper than the others have been and stayed
there for the night. They were on the hill overlooking the city and
had an overlook to see it. That overlook was awesome when I awoke the
next morning...
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Todd Ryan; Hudson, MA
Westborough HS Science Teacher
MSF RiderCoach
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