To Mammoth & Back

Today Todd and I rode to Mammoth. It's fifty miles straight north of Tucson along Oracle Rd. The road rises for the first ~37 miles to Oracle, where you begin a descent down to Mammoth. Both Mammoth and Tucson are at roughly 2300 feet, while Oracle is 4500. The conditions were great; it was already 65 degrees at 10 when we left. Although when we got within 4 or 5 miles of Oracle, winds began to pick up and clouds began to form. The temperature felt like it dropped, and Todd and I were reduced to taking 13mph pulls into the headwind. We fought a head wind all the way down to Mammoth.
The return trip was completely different. We had sun the whole way, and a pretty strong tailwind for the first 10 miles south of Oracle. It was nice to be able to cruise at 37mph. The ride ended up being 5.5 hours, 100 miles, and 3644 calories. The first truly big ride of the season.

Monday Night Football

Probably the first time in many years, I watched football on Monday night. Mike came over toting Brooklyn Pizza and beer. The game was good for the first half, but it was kinda sad after that. It reminded me of the Bulls in the early 90's when they would play the Raptors. The Bulls would have the best record in basketball, but still get their butt handed to 'em by one of the worst teams (not meaning to infer anything about Florida). The pizza was a little greasy but good and will be good fuel for tomorrow's ride. Forecast: 70's & Sunny.

Sunday Lemmon

This is the way most weekends are going to be. Saturday Shootout. Sunday Mt. Lemmon. Todd, Mike, Matt, and I rode to the bottom of the climb together. Today wasn't quite warm enough to ride to the top, so I did multiple runs from the bottom of the climb. The four of us started the climb, but Matt soon settled into his rhythm, which was a whole lot faster than I wanted to go. I didn't even try to stay with them. It's gonna take a few weeks to get used to these hills, but I'll come around. All in all, another good day on the bike.

Saturday Shootout

The shootout is the Saturday ride here in Tucson. It starts out easy, but turns to a race pace for about 20 miles of uphill false flat. I didn't do too well, but I'm not going to complain about a ride where I finish with two Sierra Nevada, one Aerospace, one Navigators, and an assortment of other elite riders. Can't find better riding anywhere in the country right now.

Ah, the South West

The ride today (up Mt. Lemmon) was punishing. I came back home and fell asleep. It started to get cold around mile 10, but the road was perfectly passable. This picture was taken at dusk. Gotta love those sunsets. It's supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow, so it'll be a day for the job hunt.

Sun setting, Moon rising

Yesterday evening, my hosts took me out to Sabino Canyon Park to watch the moon rise as the sun set. The attraction of watching the moon rise isn't to just see the moon, but to see the larger appearance of the moon, which is caused the the atmosphere. My photos didn't come out that well because my camera was made to be small, not to take great photos, but I can assure you that it was worth taking the hike. As the title infers, the sun was setting at the same time as the moon was rising. That offered some good photos as well.

The new home

This is where Todd and I'll be staying for the next couple months.

view of the Mt. Lemon foothills from where I'm staying tonight.

pics

Take a good look at that second picture. Yeah, that's right, it's a motorcycle.

The Real Adventure Begins

Life isn't life without the hard parts. I found out two days ago that the person I had been counting on to have a place ready in Tucson for Todd and I to move into had bailed. He found a place that he could stay for free, and so backed out of living with us. This in and of itself wouldn't have been so bad except that I had been operating under the assumption that he'd already gotten a place for me to move into. The search was on, and long story short, I have a perfect place for Todd and I.

Another part of this adventure was the snow stormed version of New Mexico that I had to drive through last night. I've never travelled long distances after that place had a lot of snow. It's an experience. I'll post pictures when I get to a faster connection. In contrast, the weather here in Tucson is wonderful. Upper 60's and breezy. I'm so glad I followed through with my plans and got my butt out here. Well, time to go out for a ride. Many, many pictures to follow.