REI

January 26, 2025

AFD#2

Today’s ride plan is complex, so we spend some time talking through the scenario to improve our chances of extending our AFD streak into a second day. It’s a forked script, with us beginning with a bike ride to the REI, a business stop. After that Rachael will bike back home on her own while I bike out the other side of the mall for a loop around the northwest corner of the loop: northwest down the Rillito Wash to its merge into the Santa Cruz, and then south on the Santa Cruz and back home. After I’m home again I plan a second outing: a walk to the nearest streetcar stop for a ride downtown where I’ve got another business stop, this one to the Hub on another nonalcoholic beer quest. And then back home on the streetcar and foot again.

Complicated! Wish us luck!

I’m just outside the door and decide to take a photo of myself off script, when I realize there’s a hole in my departure script. I can’t take a photo because I left my phone inside. This needs to be added to indoor script to validate the phone, our most essential object, made it out the door with me. Phew!

And if we had actually created the business script and could consult it, it would spare us this embarrassment. Were going to REI again primarily to return the cable lock I just bought there a few days ago. We’re returning it because it won’t open, even though the code for initially opening it is labeled on the lock.

So this is pretty lame. I read the recent reviews of this Kryptonite lock on the REI website, and all four give it a one star review. The lucky ones returned it because they couldn’t unlock it when it came out of the box. The unfortunate ones could unlock it, reset it to their own code, and then had to have the lock cut off their bike because they couldn’t open it again. Seems like something I should point out when I return it.

If we had a well developed business stop script though, it would remind me to take with me any items I planned to drop off there. Fortunately Rocky thought to ask this when we were halfway through The UofA campus, where she found a nice bench in the sun to wait while I biked back home to get it.

Leaving campus, I stop for a shot of the sculpture. Maybe I’ve seen it at this time of day before when the different colors show so clearly, but I don’t remember it.

With our false start, we aren’t out to REI until 11:30, an hour later than originally planned. Were out quickly though. Rachael watches the bikes again while I go to the service desk and the malfunctioning cable lock is quickly accepted for a full refund, no questions asked. I do my bit for the general good by pointing out that it’s not the best product to have on their shelf, but I’m back outside in five minute to relieve Rachael - this time I watch the bikes while she dashes upstairs for a quick pit stop.

Five minutes after that I escort her back to the start of the eastbound loop so she can backtrack for home; and then I continue west along the perimeter of the mall to its western end where a short unpaved connector links the mall to the eastern end of the loop. It’s not easy to spot this trail at first, because it’s penned in by a pop up circus: the Paranormal Cirque is in town, and the passageway is squeezed into such a narrow space that it almost needs to be walked.

I make it through though, and once on the other side I come to one of my favorite sections of the entire Loop network. For the next few miles the path is nearly empty as it follows a squiggly line with the wash on the right and bird-rich mesquites and fields on the other. Nearly always along here I encounter mockingbirds, phaenopeplas, towhees, sparrows and hummingbirds. I’m not far along this path when I come to a stone, sit down on it, switch glasses so I can see better, and pull out the camera.

Delightful riding just west of the mall.

But then a truly bizarre event occurs: a woman cycles up from the west and calls up to me: “You’re Scott, I presume?” What? again?

Is that you again, Jan? Yes, but it’s not that Jan, Kelly’s friend. This is the other Jan, a friend of Wendy’s whom we’re planning to meet with at Ren Coffeehouse. Very bizarre. Jan the second and I get introduced and then chat for about ten minutes, me pointing out the mockingbird singing away in the background while she points out the Anna’s hummingbird I can’t quite see.

Well save tomorrow’s meetup to introduce you to this Jan, but since I’ve got the camera open and in my lap already I lift it up and take a few shots as she approaches. When time comes to move on, I give her instructions on how to navigate to where the loop resumes on the other side of the mall; and then as soon as she’s gone I point the camera up toward the crown of this tree where the mockingbird was just singing from.

And this is when I discover that there’s been a second packing failure today, another one where the existence of a Business Stop script might have helped. It might have reminded us that the visit also included a shopping component, to buy a new SD card because mines disappeared somehow. The script might have reminded me that we had this second aim today; but since we didn’t pick up a card, I’m here in a good birding spot with a fully charged camera but no ability to store anything, including those shots of Jan. So now you’ll need to wait for tomorrow to know anything about Jan, including her appearance.

_________

I’m less than a half mile from the mall, so it makes sense to me to go back. I return to the REI, and the women staffing a booth at the front door are still there and agree to watch my bike while I dash inside again. I’m greeted by the same guy who received the cable lock, and yes, the store does have a small camera section; but unfortunately it’s not one that also sells SD cards. Surprising, it seems to me. So it’s probably just as well I’d forgotten about this errand, since Rachael wouldn’t have been amused by the snipe hunt I’m about to spend most of the next hour on.

My friend at REI suggests I try Home Depot as my next best bet, which makes sense to me too. Their website claims they have a large camera inventory, and they’re just two blocks south of here. Unfortunately that’s one block too far, putting it out of the Tucson and into the larger Wetmore Mall, on the other side of busy four lane Wetmore Road. The nearest safe crossing is a few blocks to the west at Oracle Road, so I bike back there and then double back to Home Depot, where I’m given the surprising news that there’s no camera store here.

What about those hundreds of cameras their website advertises? Oh, those aren’t here. If you want one you order it through the website to be picked up here. They’ll be happy to get me some memory too, if I can come back in a day or two. Uh, no.

The agent suggests the next best bet, a store just to the south on Oracle Road; but when I look it up on the map, just south equates to roughly two miles. So I give up on the birding idea and just head north for the loop. Knowing what I know now though, I could have picked up some memory at the CVS that was just across the street from me when I crossed Wetmore.rwenty minutes ago.

Do you recall me saying I utterly detest shopping malls? Nothing that happened today has altered that opinion.

It’s not an easy trick getting back to the Loop from here. Knowing what I do now, if would have been easier to return to the Loop by backtracking around the east end of the mall to REI. I thought I knew what I was doing here though from past experiences dropping off the car for servicing in the Wetmore Mall and then biking up to the loop up Flowing Wells for a ride while I’m waiting for the car to be services.

I cobble it though and end up on what turns into a five mile maze of unpleasant industrial roads and dusty, de-ended alleys with too many viscous dogs that make me anxious that someone’s gate or fence isn’t secure enough and I’m about to lose another chunk of my calf like happened back in Dayville during the Covid year. After nearly five miles of biking past walls and fences lined with concertina wire I decide I’ve had enough Type 1.5 Fun for the day and appeal to Google to show me the way out of this labyrinthine maze.

And Google does, for which I’m thankful. After another mile I’m out of the maze and crossing the freeway at Prince Road, the exit that leads to the emissions testing center and the only drivable access to Sweetwater. And actually it’s a decent enough route if you find yourself stuck in the northwest corner of the city, which I don’t really recommend.

Crossing the freeway on the Prince Street overpass is quite attractive with the artwork on the left and a beautifully framed view of the mountains ahead. Thanks just this once, Google!

So we’re past the freeway but still behind the wall. It takes a bit more evasion action before I can get down to the loop itself. But it’s all good, I know where I am again, and there appears to be no chance I’ll be out after dark again.

Aah! Back in good old Type 1 Funlandia. Let the good times roll!

I’m glad to come back to this place and the new artwork that I believe was added since last winter. This is just south of the Prince Street overpass and a new, short paved connector between it and the overpass. It’s one of the really wonderful things about Tucson and its bike infrastructure - they’ve got it on the continuous improvement model.

Each vintage poster is worth a look, with a different one on the backside.

It reminds me of the Capo Nero Tunnel near San Remo on the Ligurian Coast, a tunnel I’d love to reexperience some day and that I hope you’ll get a chance to see yourselves.

The Capo Nero tunnel, over a mile long, is the last, longest and most interesting tunnel on the cycle path. Opened to cyclists in 2014, it is also a museum honoring the Milan-San Remo bike race, the longest one day bike race on the professional circuit.

I’ve got time, so I decide to continue following Google as it pulls me off the Loop onto a spur to the right. This isn’t the right plan, because it turns out it’s trying to route me back up to my original destination, not to home.

This reminds me of our first tour of Portugal in 1997. We stopped for a break just across the border and watched as a dos sauntered u to my bike, gave it a sniff, and lifted his leg. Welcome to Portugal!

When it’s obvious that at best this will add several more miles to a ride that’s already quite long enough I turn back but am stopped when I hear a mockingbird.

Mockingbirds are large enough and commonly perched prominently enough that odds are good that I’ll get an identifying shot even with the phone, so I wait, look around, and finally spot him up at the top of this tree, just as he flies off too quick for me to aim his direction.

So I’ll just note that a new bird was seen here, in the very unlikely chance that I don’t see another one in the next five weeks.

Take note: a mockingbird was seen and heard here, in case a better chance doesn’t come along.

Back on the Loop again, I’m home a mile later and not stopped by a train this time. And while it’s not really late in the day yet, it’s late enough that I’d rather just walk down to Time Market for another slice than take the streetcar down to the Hub.

And while it was a day that went off script and had a few disappointments, there’s nothing that rose anywhere near what I’d think of as an adversity. A normal, good day, sort of like one where you get a flat tire at a convenient spot and time.

We’ve got a streak going, Team Anderson! More like this, please.

Another very nice offering from the reliable, uber-economical Time Market.

The full meal deal: a small kale salad, the slice of the day and a different IPA this time sets me back €18.

Heart

Comment

Link

Bob KoreisI love how the start/end of the ride looks like my Etch-A-Sketch attempts.
Reply to this comment
5 days ago

Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 310 miles (499 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	8
Comment on this entry	Comment	1

Bob KoreisMaybe you've already solved your SD card issue, but I was just thinking that the campus bookstore might have them.
Reply to this comment
5 days ago