Tonto Hills Motel

Hazy Sunrise, Tonto Hills, AZ
Hazy Sunrise, Tonto Hills, AZ

Friday Morning 8 September.

After spending the summer on Bainbridge Island, WA, Martha and I arrived here at our Arizona home Wednesday afternoon.  It feels more like a motel.  In three hours we depart for San Diego to begin a new Adventure.  Pac Tour Southern 2017, 28 days, 2900 odd miles, bike tour San Diego to Savannah.  We’re working crew, which means I get to ride alternate days.  I’m nowhere near fit enough to ride every inch every day, having spent much of the summer hunched over a computer writing C# to create data maps of lightning strikes.

Last year I rode 300+ mile weeks to prepare for the Pac Tour Northern, riding from Seattle to Boston.  Most weeks this past summer I was riding less then 100.  Right now I’m at least 5 pounds heavier than when I started the Northern.  Probably more.  What would be the point of hopping on the scale anyway?  I anticipate feeling weird seeing my old PacTour buddies in top form when I’m soft and flabby. So be it, we sow, we reap, we weep.

Martha and I are both looking forward to the journey – rolling out of motel beds in the wee hours each morning to help with breakfast, discovering new places together, preparing and serving lunch to old friends and new ones.  I’m hoping to “ride into” the trip, hopefully being in reasonable shape by the time we hit the Talamena Parkway in Arkansas.  We’ll see how well that works…