Saturday, October 29, 2022 - We depart Quartzsite, Arizona for Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. We drive to the south of Phoenix by traveling south from Interstate 10 to Highway 8 via Highway 85. It is a pretty route with no major cities to traverse. It added about 15 minutes to our trip. It was getting late in the day, so we decided to do a bike ride on base. We managed to get in a 15-mile ride before dark. Since it was Saturday, there was virtually no traffic on base. We have a nice 15-mile loop that we like to do. Nice and quiet on base.
Sunday, October 30, 2022 - We start the day by making a list of things we need to do while in Tucson. We really want to check out this area as a potential location to buy a home. After making our "to-Do" list, we decided to go on a 40 mile bike ride on the Chuck Huckelberry Loop Trail that goes all the way around Tucson (53 miles). It was a great ride with Lisa on her EBike and me on the Cervelo. We rode south on the east side of the base and then up the trail on the west side of the base. After the ride, we went to the Commissary to do some shopping. We needed to stock up our pantry.
Monday, October 31, 2022 - (Halloween) - We started the day by doing errands and the going to the Base Exchange to do some errands. We bought gift cards and some birthday cards. After our errands were done, we took another 40-mile ride on the Chuck Huckelberry Loop Trail around Tucson. This time, we went north from our start point to the east of us on the loop. It was a beautiful day and the ride was excellent. Again, we felt pretty good on the ride and got some great exercise. We had bought candy for the possibility that some Trick or Treater's might visit our RV here in the Family Camp, but to our chagrin, not kids stopped by. It is clear that there are not many people in the Family Camp who purchase candy for Halloween. I'm sure that the parents also instruct their children not to go banging on RV doors for treats. So, after enjoying two pieces of candy each (protecting our diet) the rest went into the freezer.
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 - I had made arrangements for the local bicycle shop to do a tune-up on my Cervelo. We left the RV at 9:00 am to take the bike in to the Fair Wheel Bicycle Shop in Tucson. It is right across the street from the University of Arizona campus. The U of A football field is about a hundred yards from this bike shop.
Before leaving the RV, I loaded the tandem bicycle onto the truck. We pulled it out of storage just before we left Rocklin. We went to the north part of Tucson to the Chuck Huckelberry Loop Trail to a new starting point with the intentions to head to the north part of town. We started out on the trail at the Rillito River Park heading north. This is slightly downhill and we had a slight wind at our back. This allowed us to cruise along at about 20 mph. We rode for 18 miles out to the north of town to the area that is known as "Marana." It was a pretty easy ride until we turned around. We were now riding slightly uphill into a wind that had picked up considerably. Our speed went way down and our effort went way up. The previous three days of riding (and dieting) made the going pretty hard. We eventually made it back to the truck, but not without severe stress to both of our legs. This was our first tandem ride in over a year and it kind of hurt. It was good exercise though. After the ride, we went to the closest Subway sandwich shop for grub. We then returned to the RV to relax after lengthy showers.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 - We decided to stay around the RV and relax for this day. I worked on a couple of videos of activities that we had done on our trip to the Merced area. I was able to update the travel blog and end the Alaska trip and then create a new blog trip to the east coast. I also think that we were both a little tired after our tandem ride on Tuesday.
Thursday, November 3, 2022 - Again, we just stayed around the RV. The weather called for rain and it was colder and overcast. I decided to work again on videos since I am sort of on a roll. I have also decided to make the videos shorter so that I can get the main points across without boring the life out of all our friends and family. I also plan to combine several kayaking events into one video and shorten the whole video to about ten minutes max. We will see; I'm so long-winded!!
Lisa has also been searching the web for possible homes up for sale in the local area. We plan to go to Green Valley to look at homes over the weekend.
Friday, November 4, 2022 - We awoke to an amazingly clear and cool day, so we decided to go to Saguaro National Park East to go for a bike ride. The park road is a one-way road that is in excellent condition and loops through the park for eight miles. It is a fun downhill ride with lots of S-turns that take you to a climb on the back side of about 500 feet with the max gradient of nine percent. The total climb for each loop is 850 feet. We did three loops on this wonderful day. We then had a picnic lunch before driving to the Tanque Verde district of Tucson to look at houses. We then returned to the RV. We had been informed by Discount Tire that two trailer tires that we had ordered had come into their shop. I pulled a tire off of the RV and took it, along with another tire I had replaced with the spare earlier, to be replace with the new tires. I washed the truck while the tires were being mounted and then took them back to the RV and mounted one of them before dinner. We then planned for tomorrow's trip to Green Valley to look at houses.
Saturday, November 5, 2022 - Today we visited Green Valley and the Quail Creek development to see what it would be like to live there. We really like Green Valley and Quail Creek areas. It is a little south of the Tucson metro area, but the homes are nice and the people seem to be very nice. We rode the bicycles around the Quail Creek development which has wide streets and little traffic.
After leaving Green Valley, we drove to Nogales to see my father's grave and to look at the places where I lived and grew up. We cleaned up my dad's grave site and put new cloth flowers on the grave. We then drove around Nogales as I showed Lisa where I used to live and what we did there.
Sunday, November 6, 2022 - Lisa had found a list of the ten best bicycle rides in the Tucson area. One of those rides is called the "Park Link Road." You drive north of Tucson towards Phoenix, and just before you get to Mount Pacacho, you get off of Interstate 10 and follow the frontage road northbound. You will then come to Park Link Road. This is an eighteen mile long road that links Interstate 10 to Highway 79. It is about a two percentage point climb for the entire 18 miles and a two percent descent on the return trip after you turn around. The scenery is outstanding with cactus and shrubs and mountains all around. The quality of the road is excellent and the traffic is very light. On our return trip, we took a road to the north at abut a mile from Interstate 10 that gave us an extra four miles of riding. We ended up with 41 miles covered with a climb of 1,200 feet. Lots of fun. We then headed back to Tucson.
Monday, November 7, 2022 - Today, Lisa agreed to travel with me to the town of Safford, Arizona where we would make an attempt to climb Mount Graham. Safford is about one hour and 15 minutes east on Interstate 10 and then another 40 minutes north of the Interstate to Safford. The start of the ride is near town and the route takes you up a straight road that is about five miles long and a climb with continually increasing gradients up to about seven percent. The the road begins to twist up the mountain and the gradients increase to between eight and ten percent with occasional inclines in excess of ten percent. It is a "butt kicker." Lisa did a great job with her EBike and was able to climb the most difficult parts of the ride. I worked pretty hard, but began to tire after about 3,000 feet of climbing. It was great training on a good road with very few vehicles and virtually no other riders. On this day, we only saw two other riders, and they were damn impressive. They could climb. We turned around at the halfway point and ended up with 3,250 feet of climbing and total of 21 miles for the ride. This was really helping us both lose weight and when lighter, we can climb better. We need to do some more climbing.
When we arrived back at the truck, we packed up the bikes and drove to a small convenience store about a quarter mile from our start point where we bought sandwiches for a picnic. We then drove all the way to the top of the clime and had a very nice picnic with a fantastic view of the valleys to the west of Mount Graham. On the way back down the hill to return to Tucson, the rear brakes on the truck over-heated and began to smoke. We had to stop and let the brakes cool off. The front tires also started to heat up to 155 degrees. I use "Tow-Haul" for the rest of the downhill using the engine to slow the truck. This just goes to show how steep the gradients were on Mount Graham. We then drove back to Tucson and Davis-Monthan AFB.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - On this day, we drove to Saguaro National Park (East) near Tucson to ride the eight-mile long loop through the park. This is likely one of the best rides in the area. It is a loop on a high-quality, one-way road with very little traffic. Each loop will give you 850 feet of climbing with some eight and nine degree gradients on the back side of the loop. There is a small section with ten degrees of gradient. It is a beautiful ride with many areas of what we call "rollers" where your speed on the downhill will take you up to the top of the next hill. They are fun and easy to master. We did three loops around the park and ended up with 25 miles of travel with over 2,500 feet of climb. Everyone can ride this ride and the views are magnificent.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 - Today is a big day of climbing! We drive to a commercial area of northeast Tucson and park for the ride up Mount Lemmon. Again, we have a four mile long lead-up ride up to the beginning of the climbing S-turns up Mount Lemmon. The gradient is mostly eight percent or less with a few places that were up to ten percent. The wind was really blowing and it made climbing with the headwind pretty challenging. Also, the day was fairly cold with temps in the upper forties when we started. The temps climbed up during the ride, but they also dropped as we got higher up the mountain. The wind was also making it even colder. We completed 6,250 feet of climbing and decided to turn around and head down the mountain. We ended up with 41 miles of travel. It was a great day from a training point of view. The views were excellent the gradients were less than Mount Graham (thank goodness!). When we arrived back at the truck, we looked directly across the street and saw a Subway sandwich shop. That is where we went. That was a good sandwich. If we would climb this mountain three times in a week, we would get into shape and loose a lot of the weight that we are trying to shed.
Thursday, November 10, 2022 - Today, we decided that we did not want to ride the bikes, so we went into downtown Tucson and visited the old Tucson Presidio. It is a fun place to visit and we learned a lot about the historical activities of the region. After the presidio, we had lunch ad a Mexican restaurant located across the street. The food was excellent and this restaurant is considered a historical location in the town. We then went for a short walk on the "Turquoise Trail" that is painted on the sidewalks and leads you though the town. We had a sheet of paper that explained what we were seeing as we walked the trail. We had to return a little early since our parking meter had run out of time and we did not want a ticket.
Friday, November 11 2022 - Today, Lisa and I drove to Green Valley to meet with Karma and Robert Rhodes. Karma is a niece whom I had not seen in many years. We had a great visit at the Rhodes' new home and then we went for a drive to a place called Madera Canyon. I wanted to see Madera Canyon since it is listed as a great place to ride bikes. We drove the road up the canyon and stopped in a couple locations where there are excellent bird watching sites. We were able to buy a cup of coffee and the sit an watch a whole host of different and unique birds. They are magnificent in their colors and behaviors. I hope to, at some time in the future, meet with Karma and Rob and go birding at Madera Canyon with my new, long lens. I'm sure I could get some great photos. After Madera Canyon, we returned to Green Valley and drove through the area and Rob and Karma showed us several fitness centers run by the Green Valley Parks Department. WE then decided to go to Tubac to walk around the town and then go to lunch at a Mexican food restaurant called "Wisdom." The food was great and the conversation was excellent. On the way home, we stopped at the historic Canoa Ranch just south of Green Valley. This is a large ranch that has been preserved to show what it was like to live and ranch in the region during the late 1800s. We walked along the lake, but we were a little late to go inside the buildings.
Saturday, November 12, 2022 - On this day, Lisa and I decided to ride the Canada de Oro bike trail off of the Chuck Huckleberry Loop Trail. This trail starts in north Tucson and the goes for eleven miles to the northeast up to the Oro Valley area of Tucson.