Rose Pedals . . .: All Great Rides Must Come to an End

Day 6 - Friday, March 16, 2012
Tombstone to Tucson - 85 Miles

Just when you think you couldn't get any more spoiled, along comes another absolutely fantastic day of cycling. We awoke to perfectly chilly (but not too chilly) temperatures, clear, sunny skies and . . . (wait for it) . . . a tailwind! It's like having the hand of God propelling your bicycle in a forward direction. We departed Tombstone just before 8:00 a.m. It was a fast and fun trip descending out of Tombstone toward Sonoita. Art saw a rather large freshly dead snake in the middle of the road. I did not see it, thankfully, because seeing it would most certainly cause me nightmares for the foreseeable future. For the last 10 or so miles to the first rest stop at mile 16, Art & I got in a long pace line wherein, together with the tailwind, we hammered out the miles at an amazing pace - much faster than I'm used to going by myself. There are some very strong riders in this group and it was great training for me to try and stay up with them. Then we made the turn toward Sonoita where we encountered some big rolling hills (fun) and the Border Patrol (not so fun). The Border Patrol was situated right at the base of one of these big rolling hills. So, while I'm coming down this big downhill building up all kinds of momentum to get up the next hill, the Border Patrol officer makes me stop to ask if I'm an American citizen. After verifying that I am in fact an American citizen, I was then allowed to proceed, which meant slogging up the next hill without any momentum and in too high a gear. Anyway, I was able to haul it up the next hill and get back into my "zen." After we got over those rollers, there was a grand 4-mile downhill right to our lunch stop, and then a gradual descent all the way into Tucson. Although we did have to contend with a certain amount of traffic (and traffic lights) as we got closer to Tucson, it was still a fun ride. We arrived back at our hotel in Tucson at just about 1:30 p.m. Sunny, pleasant and about 80 degrees, I was looking forward to taking a dip in the hotel pool. But first we had work to do - we had to proceed with the bittersweet but necessary task of disassembling our bikes and putting them into the bike boxes for the trip home tomorrow. Somehow, in my melancholic state of mind, I managed to drop two springs from my wheel skewers on the ground when I took them off and could not find them, at which point my mood changed somber to annoyed. After we finished, we hung around outside and chatted with our fellow riders about the week and any other bike adventures they had planned. Some were staying for a 2nd week of riding. We also got to see some old PAC Tour friends who were just arriving in Tucson to ride the upcoming week. After I took my long-awaited dip in the hotel pool, we cleaned up and went for pizza with Ron and Steve. At 7:30, we gathered for an ice cream social as PAC Tour ran a slide show of all the pictures from our week of riding. Needless to say, we had an absolute blast. We met and rode with some terrific people, enjoyed a week of perfect weather and got to ride our bikes to our heart's content. And - as a souvenir, I get to take home my bike tan - at no extra charge! As I always say - it just doesn't get any better than that. : )