Another day on the road

One can never really know what the day will bring.

I mapped out my route and confirmed with my host on the other end.

Pretty much every morning that I wake up here in Arizona I say " looks like another lovely day!" That's just how it is here in the desert area. The previously forecasted rain was not to be, much to my relief.

Had a hearty breakfast and some kumquat's (which I thought were just mini oranges at first).

I love that I get to try all sorts of new foods.

The fact that I got to have Taco salad with ground moose meat was pretty cool as well (apparently my host, Ron, hunts moose up in Alaska where for years he lived).

It felt to be on the road again after a restful Sunday. The morning was still cool at 10 C, but it was fine with arm and knee warmers. Perhaps it was the wind that kept things cooler than usual, because I didn't start peeling layers off until after noon.

It's President's day here in the US, which reminds me it's Family Day back home in Canada.

The route I chose was along a busy road and 79 had hardly any shoulder, so I had little choice but to press on, which was fine by me.

Passed some roadkill along the way, two mangled coyotes, two bloated beef cows, one javelina, and one housecat.

It's sad when those are the things one notices, but at least I didn't take pictures.

I did also notice four different roadside wildflowers blooming in lovely shades of yellow and purple. 

Once I got to Florence I had to turn into the wind and deal with a stretch of pretty unpleasant shoulder to ride on. The roads seemed to get busier and busier as I got closer to the big city.

All the constant traffic rushing so close beside started getting to me after a while, so I was happy to stop when I saw a Dunkin' Donuts. They served iced tea which seemed like a good idea, since the day had warmed up considerably.

My host, Tyler, biked down to San Tan where I met him and biked the last 25 km to his place.

I like that, for the first time in this trip, I could take my bike right inside the house (which is where I keep my bike at home), in fact, Tyler had a whole room just for bikes.