Tag: bicycle touring

J&P 11: Florence to Tucson

Posted on February 19, 2011March 4, 2015 by Rich

I slept pretty well, despite the steady flow of tar and nicotine. At 6:30AM I opened up my door for some fresh air, and waited until 7AM to meet Jesse. We rolled out to catch an electric sunrise over the state prison and then made a few cruises through Old Town Florence, which looks sort of like an unimproved Tombstone. We pedaled over to the Holiday Inn where there was a Burger King and, I was hoping, other choices, but found none. We returned down the main drag to Old Pueblo, already open for breakfast. I had a pancake sandwich

J&P 11: Mesa to Florence

Posted on February 18, 2011March 4, 2015 by Rich

Out of the house about 9:30AM. I got about 3 miles from home before realizing that I’d forgotten my Artie, the (soon-to-be-a-collector’s-item) mascot of the J&P rides. Worth a 6 mile detour to go get it? Nah. I didn’t want the group to be waiting on me. South down Lindsay, then east on Ray to Higley, my rendezvous point. The bike was rolling well and I was motoring, around 18 mph, although I think a tiny tailwind was helping out. At the intersection, I waited about 25 minutes, until 11:10AM, and finally gave Jesse’s phone a call, He picked up

J&P 11: Preface

Posted on February 17, 2011March 14, 2011 by Rich

This being my third J&P Tucson Tour in a row, I was already pretty good at getting ready for it. I decided to take my Surly touring bike with loaded panniers. This wasn’t necessary, since the tour offers to tote everyone’s bags in a van, but I really wanted to begin conditioning for this summer’s long multi-day riding. Pulled out my list from last year, piled everything in one place, and quickly realized that trying to fill 4 panniers with such a small load was silly. I ended up just using two rear panniers, and even they had plenty of

Back to Tucson: Near Century

Posted on December 7, 2010December 31, 2010 by Rich

Hard to believe it, but for the second time in four nights, my room was stiflingly hot. The heater was not on, and so once again it was coming from somewhere else, an adjacent room maybe. At one point, I turned the thermostat to COLD and turned the switch to ON, but got a continual blast of even more heat. Apparently the building had only the heat activated at the moment – and this room lacked a window air conditioner. I lay on my bed unable to sleep for quite a while, and considered calling the desk for maintenance or

Sierra Vista AZ: Through Palominas

Posted on December 6, 2010December 14, 2010 by Rich

Up at 5AM, then just dozing with MSNBC’s Morning Joe on the TV. I figured I’d better address the saddle sores acutely, and so washed well, applied a bunch of antibiotic cream, and then 2 big square padded bandages. On top of all that an extra generous dose of Chamois butter. Better to nip this in the bud (or butt). At 8AM, Jesse and I met up and took another roll through Douglas. This time we tried to find a café from the Google map, but unfortunately found only a local Iglesia de Luz del Mundo at 12th and A

Douglas AZ: Through McNeal

Posted on December 5, 2010March 16, 2011 by Rich

What a hot room! Even though my heater was off, the air got stifling. I finally touched the walls and found them very warm – the heat was radiating in from the office or some other source. About midnight I reached over to the window air conditioner and cranked on the fan only. With it being 40°F outside, I soon had a nice equilibrium 70°F, however inefficiently obtained, and so ran the fan all the way until 5AM. I met Jesse at 8AM. We rolled again to the old west main street (Allen Street) and found the OK Café for

Tombstone AZ: Riding on I-10

Posted on December 4, 2010March 16, 2011 by Rich

I woke up to see 2:21AM on the clock, and never got back to sleep. Keyed up to go, with dreamlike thoughts swirling around my head, I lay in bed sort of quarter dozing, waiting for the morning. At 6AM I opened my door to find Jesse ready to go. We considered Denny’s again, but instead drove the X5 about 6 miles north of Davis-Monthan AFB to Joe’s Pancake House that got great reviews. It turned out to be perfect – friendly service, local customers, homey comfortable atmosphere, good coffee, and tasty fare. I enjoyed coffee, eggs, pancakes, and grits.

Tucson AZ: Starting Point

Posted on December 3, 2010December 11, 2010 by Rich

I spent the entire day fiddling with my gear, deciding what to take and what to leave behind. Temperatures in southern Arizona had been cold, with many nights down in the 20s, although the forecast was for warmer weather. In the end, we decided to nix the tenting this trip and stay in low-end motels. Without a tent or sleeping bag, I had plenty of pannier space. I decided to take all four bags anyway for better weight distribution, and felt funny with them being almost half empty. I dragged out my laptop and charger to take along, then weighed

Yankton SD: Reunion

Posted on July 21, 2010April 6, 2020 by Rich

Bob and Diane both woke up real early. At the sound of them, I got up too and walked over to use the park’s restroom. It had a great tiled shower with hot water and sinks with mirrors, good for a thorough cleanup. Nice way to start the morning. Randy was up when I returned, and table settings were being prepared by Diane and Bob. They poured coffee for everyone, and then effortlessly (it seemed) started bringing out plates full of pancakes, blueberries, syrup, butter, and cartons of OJ. Did I say our new friends were generous? This was really

Springfield SD: Bob and Diane

Posted on July 20, 2010April 6, 2020 by Rich

Rain in the early morning. As usual, it was a pleasing sound inside my tent, and, as usual, it stopped early on, around 7am. I got up before Randy and decided to again take advantage of the beautiful swimming cove we had, this time with towel, soap and shampoo. Wading out into the water, then up to my neck, it just felt so great. The water temps were around 77F, maybe 78F, very comfortable. A nice breeze flew in across the lake surface. Three bright yellow goldfinches flew past. No one else around at all. What a simple joy. While