badger: Day 6, Sierra Vista back to Tucson

Friday, March 23, 2012

Day 6, Sierra Vista back to Tucson

Saddleback Mountain without the clouds

Done. Pretty easy ride compared to the previous days. 81 miles, time 4:19, average 18 mph. A fast pace as we had a tailwind from the top of the pass to the city limits of Tucson. Art1 had a flat 1/2 way down the pass; not just any old flat, but the side wall was split. We tried to fix it with a dollar bill, but when we inflated the tire, the bill AND the tube started to pop through. Joe thought he could descend the 6 miles to the next stop if he went slowly. (Art doesn't know slow on a descent). It became obvious he couldn't ride when the tire split open even more. We had to tell some riders coming by to find a sag car to pick him up. I ended up descending down Old Sonoita road by myself, an option to get off the main highway.

We sure had a lot of flats in our group. The roads of AZ need some help. Art had three flats, Joe took out a dry wall screw that went clear through his tube/tire and wheel on day one. He patched the wheel with a piece of plastic from our route map cards and rode the rest of the week on it. We sure had a lot of laughs about that!

Another thing they do in AZ is transport big, heavy, wide loads which are led out by police cars. Cars AND bikes have to pull over to avoid being hit!

I've never seen so many border patrol cars in a state either. And I WAS in Southern California and Tecate, Mexico 8 weeks ago; one border stop, very few patrol cars. Ahhh....good ol' AZ - carry a couple of guns and make sure your pickup is in alignment; off you go! Oh yeah, and make sure you don't pay any extra taxes for anything OR god forbid, get health insurance.

In addition there are SO many heat cracks in the roads, our buttache problems were made worse. I digress....

Our Team