1/5/19: Tucson’s Catalina State Park to Mission Gardens: 46 miles

Our campsite here in Catalina State Park is delightful. Here are some shots that we took from our site and on a short walk. Just lovely...

Then it was off on our trike ride. Paula planned a route along Tucson’s Loop which goes around the entire city on bike trail. Whoever figured this out did a wonderful thing. The trail is protected from cars, has enough curves to not be boring, and has many bridges over the various arroyos.

When we arrived at the Mission Garden, we found a lovely site who’s goal is to show the various agricultural needs and implementations through the ages. They have a great vision and are just beginning to create it. They have lovely citrus trees and fig trees. And they have chickens. These are desert chickens who have no feathers on their necks. Weird looking birds.

They also had some cacti that had on clothes and hats. We asked about them, and were told they were protecting them from the overnight freezing temperatures. They were cute!

As we were traveling back to the campsite, we stopped at Culver’s for some food. We felt like we could eat the side of a barn by now. Culver’s accommodated us with a salad and burger, and we silenced our hunger.

It was a lovely day. 46 miles of riding. Needless to say we slept well.

The next morning it was quite chilly, so we made coffee and breakfast inside the van. Sally had given me a cute little waffle iron for Christmas that is perfectly sized for van travel. Paula purchased a great mix, so we were set.

Our triking will take another break as we return to Southern California. Paula’s mother is getting ready to say goodbye to this world. At 97 she’s had a fine life, but now she’s getting ready to bid farewell. We wish her well, and look forward to seeing her in the next life.

1/4/19: First Tucson Ride

Welcome to 2019 everyone!!

Sorry to be offline for so long, but we’re glad to be back. We traveled from Deerfield, Ma back to the Bay Area in quite short order at the end of October. We stumbled upon a bit of a health scare which kept us in our Bay Area stomping grounds until December. Thankfully all is well now.

We spent the holidays with Paula’s family in Southern California and have just settled into Catalina State Park in Tucson for the next two weeks. Friends of ours from Washington will be arriving soon, so we’ll be able to do even more triking with them.

This morning our friends Judy & Gail stopped by. They live here in Tucson so dropped off great bicycling maps for us to begin our exploration with. Poor Mariah, their Yorkie, was not pleased with the cool morning temperatures. We’re looking forward to seeing them for dinner on Sunday.

After breakfast we were washing up our dishes only to see a woman with a Recumbent Retreat hat on. We struck up a conversation to find that she rides an HP Velotechnic Pedelec also. Turns out Kate and Pat are traveling in a Mercedes van that they have continued to do upfits on, not unlike us. From them we learned about magnetic latches to keep drawers from opening while driving. We’ll have to try these!

After much conversation about the vans, we all decided to try the bicycle trail. We got 10 miles out and based on the lateness of the hour we started thinking about a late lunch/beer. We found Noble Hops Gastropub. A flight of beer and a split order of bangers and mash, and we were ready to resume our ride. The desert is beautiful and the ridge is dusted with snow.  Check out the photos below. We’ll resume our riding tomorrow.