January 27, 2025
Lemonade Run Up the Canyon of Gold
The YouTube Yoga group is just what my hamstrings need this morning, and one of the things I love about this RV park. Three days a week at 8 am my friend Christine plugs her iPad into the TV in the yoga room and fires up a Yoga with Kassandra class.
Kassandra's practice is different every time, and always worth the effort. It's great for working out cycling damage, like a sore neck and shoulders after a long ride, or a back that's spent too much time sitting in a bad position typing this journal.
There's usually at least one crazy move. Today it's Crow pose. You're supposed to lift your body off the ground by balancing on your hands and resting your knees on your upper arms. Uh, no thanks. I'll just hang out here in Child's pose, you do your thing.
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At home I practice yoga on my own, and I always look forward to coming back to the group here. There's something about doing it with this community that's very motivating.
Afterwards, I'm headed over to the Rec Hall to see what the weekly Writers' Group is about. Six of us are here today to share something we've written. The style can be anything - some are memoir, one is devotional, another is fiction. It's interesting to talk with these folks about their process and where they find inspiration.
This journal is what I have to work with since it takes all my writing headspace at the moment. The account of our rough landing in Tucson last week gets some laughs. It's ripening into a pretty good Type 2 fun story.
I need to get going though. Barry and I have ambitions for a 40 mile ride this afternoon. Usually a long road ride means a drive into town; that's the case today.
It takes a long time to get ready. There are the usual tasks - change clothes, inflate tires, pack a lunch, load bikes and gear, faff around. The drive is 20 miles so we should combine errands to justify the trip. We'll bring the recycling bin to take to the community recycling center, plus grocery bags and a change of clothes. Better throw our coats in there too; the temperature drops fast after 5:00. Barry checks the propane supply which is fine, we can cross that off the list.
In my head I'm formulating a use case for driving to town for a ride, inspired by Team Anderson's rules. We could write a script, checklist, the whole deal.
The rub is that lists only work when we use them, and our track record is not great. A bicycle floor pump was definitely on the list to pack for six weeks in Tucson. Yet here we are with a couple of little frame pumps and an electric mini-pump neither of us can successfully operate, resisting the urge to buy another floor pump. (There are three at home already.)
By the time we collect everything, drop off the recycling, and get to Christopher Columbus Park to start riding it's after 2:00. A 40-miler isn't feasible at this point if we want to finish in the daylight. We need a routine in the script about establishing a timetable early in the day for when it's time to go.
Instead we pivot to a straight out-and-back up the Loop by the Santa Cruz and the Cañada del Oro to Oro Valley. That cuts the distance to 30 miles, doable before dark.
Last year we did this ride for lunch at Charred Pie in Oro Valley - awesome pizza there. We're between lunch and dinner this time so I'm going for a lemonade, just to have a destination to shoot at.
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The ride up is beautiful and stress-free. There are no city streets to navigate, no traffic, bumpy pavement or sandy gravel washes, just the velvety smooth bike path.
As we turn northeast on the Cañada del Oro wash, a light tailwind pushes us up to the turnaround point at Oro Valley Marketplace. It's not too busy, just a few cyclists and walkers with dogs or pushing strollers here and there.
The name "Cañada del Oro" – Spanish for Canyon of Gold, came from the gold rush here in the mid-1800s when water flowed in this wash. Gold mining in the Cañada faded away in the 1900s. The name still works for me though, especially late in the afternoon when the low sun floods the wash with a warm glow.
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Oro Valley Marketplace looks lonely this year since many of the stores have closed. I see that Fork & Fire has a Blueberry Lemonade on the menu. These are two of my favorite things; a treat before we turn back.
We're squinting into the sun on the ride back to the Santa Cruz river. A mild headwind whistles in my ears as we spin down the hill. We finish with a negative split, almost 2 mph faster on the return.
On the drive home we stop at Tap & Bottle to peruse their non-alcoholic offerings. The Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher isn't bad, although I'm just as happy with the LaCroix sparkling water we already have in the fridge.
Today's ride: 31 miles (50 km)
Total: 146 miles (235 km)
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