Rose Pedals . . .: Back in the Saddle: Kicking Off a New Bike Season

Saturday, March 10
Arrival in Tuscon, Arizona

A new biking season is upon us! To kick it off, we will be spending a week bike riding in Tuscon, Arizona and the surrounding area, with PAC Tour. Today, we arrived in Tuscon around noontime. I'm very glad to report that our bikes made the trip unscathed. We arrived at the Country Inn & Suites and were greeted warmly by Lon & Susan and the rest of the PAC Tour crew. Today was a chilly day in Tuscon - only about 55 degrees, but sunny and clear. Our first order of business was assembling, our bikes, which we did with relative ease. The second order of business (after checking into our room) was taking the bikes for a test run. PAC Tour gave us a suggested warm-up route to Saguaro National Park - a 33-mile round trip. Just after 2:00 p.m. (Arizona time), we started our ride. Our ride to Saguaro National Park was pleasant and essentially flat, just a few slight inclines here and there. Saw lots of cacti on the route, of all shapes and sizes. Art gave his new Moots a real introduction to its first bike season by getting the first flat tire of the season! For those of you who haven't heard, Art bought a new bike this year - a "Moots," which is sort of like the Rolls Royce of bicycles. Well, not really the Rolls Royce, maybe more of a high-end Nissan. But, in any event, it is a very good bicycle. And it's a very handsome bicycle - almost as handsome as the owner. We had a fun "test run" ride. Looking forward to the official start of the ride tomorrow - an 86-mile ride to the historic town of Tombstone. The bikes seem to be working just fine. Me - I'm a little rusty. : ) But that's OK, I'm just glad to be back in the saddle.