Saturday November 5, 2011, 63 miles (101 km) – Total so far: 2,248 miles (3,617 km)

Last night we had a great pasta dinner at our friends Howard and Carol’s home in Tucson. They used to live in my hometown of Oxnard, California and were very good friends with my mom and dad. In fact their two children looked at my mom and dad as grandparents. Their son, Jon, daughter-in-law, Yvonne, along with their son Zack were also there. We had a great time as it was like being with family. Lots of old stories of my mom and dad. Jon and Yvonne are well known and respected mountain bikers in Tucson. Jon brought over his bike stand and tool box and tweaked on my bike. He found a few problems but said it should make it to San Diego but not much further. After hearing their stories of mountain biking both Jocelyn talked about it during today’s ride. It sounds like a lot of fun and comradery. Unfortunately we don’t have mountains. Tucson is a beautiful city and very biker friendly. We also had lunch yesterday with an old family friend of my wife’s family. I had never met Pat but he and his wife Shannon treated us to a delicious lunch at their home overlooking a beautiful canyon. We also visited a local bike shop and bought more patches, glue and new socks as we have worn through an old pair. In other words we had a great time in Tucson!

Howard and Carol drove us to an I-10 frontage road where we began our ride out of Tucson. Several miles down the road I felt a back and forth sliding on my rear tire. So it has finally happened – I had a flat! I found several pieces of wire that I had probably picked up a few days ago coming over the trashed shoulder from Benson to Tucson. A wire had finally worked its way in. Oh well – I went over 2200 miles without a flat. The current score is Jocelyn 7 Mike 1. Tomorrow we will ride to Gila Bend – along 65 miles with nothing in-between.