Tucson to Tombstone March 20 2012

It froze really hard last night. It had rained about 8:00 PM and there were drops of water on the tent and when I crawled out the tent was covered with these quarter inch drops of ice. The tent zipper was also frozen and I had to pull it real hard to get it open far enough to crawl out. At least we had the rec. center at the camp ground to go into to warm up and have breakfast. Bubba was in there making scrambled eggs which was a nice change from the bowl of frosted flakes. There was also a drip coffee maker so we had decent coffee for a change as well.

I bundled up and headed out as soon as I could and the morning is always the best time to ride. You have the least traffic, the lest wind, and you can often get some by yourself time. It was a kind of chilly as the sun was just over the horizon but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and not a hint of a wind. The road lead me south from Tucson in to the desert and though a bunch of rolling hills which had lots of curves. It was great fun charging up the hills and around the corners. There was a good climb about 10 miles in and as I gained altitude I noticed that there was a significant amount of snow in the ditches which had fallen over night. It was very strange to see cactus sticking out of snow. By the time I reached the 25 mile mark I was at the summit and there was a one mile section of 5% down hill grade. By the time I got to the bottom I was close to 35 mph. There was rustling in the deep grass right beside me and a coyote shot out right in front of me. The coyote was no more than 10-15 feet in front of me. I don’t know who was more surprised.

At the 35 mile mark Wallace who was on a mission caught me and we rode into lunch which was this little place called Cunningham’s Ranch House on the right (but was actually on the left – Bubba’s directions—left Wallace and I shaking our heads). The bean soup and chicken fried steak special were excellent. After lunch Wallace and I rode along together and then got doing some serious pace line riding at one point Wallace was pulling at close to 32 mph. We had a little down hill and some cross wind which was some times a quartering tail wind. It didn’t take long to eat up the remaining 40 miles into camp,, and Wallace and I rode into camp before any one else. Don and Liam had challenged us at one point after the second sag but they never really had a chance.

We are staying in these little cabins in this RV Park about 2 miles out of Tombstone. The place is pretty much a dump but the cabins are ok. I won the flip and got the bed with a real mattress. Ken and Wallace are in the bunk beds which have nasty looking rubberized mattress. We are being picked up and taken into Tombstone for the gun fight at the OK coral and supper.

It would have been a great day as the road was great, the scenery beautiful, however it was just a little cold at about 45 F. I guess I shouldn’t complain as it would have been dreadful a 100 F.

Terry