Today was a 73 mile run from South Tucson to Tombstone. The day started with a 2,100 foot climb for 24 miles then except for a few rollers, a gradual descent for the next 40 miles. After about 20 miles of that descent we made a turn east and got a nice 15+ tailwind so I was COASTING along at 20 mph at times and when I got bored I pedaled and was cruising along at over 30 for miles at a time! What fun!!! Little traffic and mostly nice to decent roads. Too bad ALL rides aren't downhill with a tailwind! ;-)
In Tombstone we are staying in a hotel for the first time. Dinner was prepared by the hotel as will tomorrows breakfast. Still having some folks coming down sick but the number seems stable... I'm fine. so far;-)
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| Have to like the swinging Saloon doors to the bathroom.. Hey, It's TOMBSTONE! |
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| View from our room |
A short 40 mile day from Catalina State Park through Tucson to allow everyone to visit the Pima Air Museum. I visited here last summer when I was in Tucson for the PSE Archery clinic. I was happy to go through again as it's a nice air museum. We had a great lunch there then headed to out campgrounds on the way south east.
A few days back a few riders got very sick very quickly and the norovirus was suspected. We now have 16 riders sick or recovering.. not a good sign......
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On our first rest day at Catalina State Park I spent the night at a nearby Holiday Inn with Mark and we ran my shopping errands and had some great Mexican food (you can never eat too many fish tacos!). Mark dropped me at camp Sunday afternoon and I was back into camping/tent mode. Marc took a box of stuff to Tempe to ship to Ft Lauderdale full of stuff I don't think I'll need on the trip...
Tombstone was not far from my Army base at Huachuca. Of course it doesn't look anything like it did in 1957. Hotel? You must be kidding. But it was an escape from the base. Some escape. The only other escape(s) were Tucson ( about 100 miles) and Nogales with lots of bandits, whore houses, bad food, etc. The Army forbid crossing into Mexico, then. Bad stuff there, then. On our over-nite trips into the desert to maintain stand-alone equipment, we had to post guards at nite.I didn't sleep very good. The pictures are great, but I remember that geography did wear off. Nothing to see. In 1957 the desert was largely isolated and there certainly were no people on bicycles riding across it. I often flew with Army pilots because I worked in the weather station at the airport, but the flying was generally boring except when they let me fly the Vertol. Awesome!,,,,,,,,,signed, FR, Doug's flying friend.
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