November 22, 2020
Tucson - Amado, AZ via Mission Road
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I canceled our Quality Inn reservation for the return - using points wasn’t worth it. The hallway hasn’t been vacuumed our entire visit. I did see someone emptying the trash and I thought they might also pick up trash laying around. Nope. There’s been a Qtip on the floor next to the hallway trash can for days. The lint is still on the dryer. Although I think someone swept that floor and mopped . . . it is odd how tremendously ill cared for the place is. It seems they are encouraging someone to shut them down. They aren’t doing the basic cleaning. Forget COVID cleaning. Every time I go in/out the door, I wash my hands. At work I am in charge of a hand held fogging device and I fog all of the door handles (among other things) three times a day. That’s not happening here. The workers are pleasant though. It’s odd.
I might have to buy a souvenir T-shirt to wear. My Ibex shirt has taken this opportunity to wear out. I’ve developed another run in the fabric right over one boob. Had I caught it earlier, I could have sewn it the ends. It’s too far gone now.
I am scheduled to leave the motel at 9 AM, estimating that I’ll arrive at the San Xavier Mission in 45 minutes to meet Hank. We’ll see how our riding paces match while riding to Amado. We have a climb up Mission Road to start. It’s a nice ride with little traffic. Plus, it’s Sunday. That’s to my favor as I need to ride several miles down Valencia before making the first turn. It’s a good thing they have generous bike lanes here. I’m not accustomed to riding with six lanes of traffic!
I’d better get on with the morning. I’m trying to hydrate now with an accessible bathroom. The bushes here don’t have much coverage, and I’m traveling with a new partner!
Sunday morning is a good time to start a tour because of lack of traffic. At the Tobacco Barn At the corner of Los Reales, there was a giant line of cars spilling over onto the roadway. I don’t think for cigarettes? At 9 AM on Sunday?
I had a quick 6 miles to the San Xavier Mission. I was happy to be riding on Sunday. Hank showed up at 9:46 - we said our hellos. A friend, Lee, gave him a ride. Lee and his wife had ridden the TransAm in 2013. I could have chatted much longer with him. But we had miles to ride.
Backroads Bicycle Tours had four vans in the parking lot and were giving their new tour participants the talk - "You need to tell us what you want, we don't know if you don't tell us". The leader giving the talk also emphasized the food at the rest stops. It sounded more upscale than my Cliff bars and apples - but the price was more upscale also!
Hank and I took off - he followed me and of course I went the wrong way. Bertha (my name for ridewithgps) beeped at me. Hank also knew which direction we were supposed to go. I warned Hank, I was very good at getting lost and he was welcome to be the lead navigator. He did not take me up on the offer, but I got turned around fine and off we went.
Unfortunately, our introductory ride together was a climbing ride up Mission Road. I tried to ask very open questions so Hank did most of the talking. I mostly succeeded. We have ridden Mission Road before, going the other direction. I didn't look around near as often this time, Hank was too interesting.
We kept waiting for the Backroads riders to pass us, but they never did. I don't know where they would ride from that departure point, except for up Mission Road. It was a delightful ride on fresh pavement. You've got to love that! We had very little traffic. There were more bicyclists than cars. Isn't that a fine situation to be in?
We had roughly a fifteen mile climb to the top, then a smile inducing five miles down to Green Valley. The view from the top of the climb was spectacular. Different cacti and mountains all around. Green Valley was down below us. We were there in no time. Any store we would have wanted was close by, but we needed nothing. Hank had driven our route and knew what Bertha was going to say before she gave me the cue. I was a little surprised at the skinny frontage road turn near the interstate - but it was the correct direction and didn't last long.
We had nine miles of frontage road to Amado. We had a slight head wind. I was tired and ready to be there. I had ridden at a slightly faster pace than usual, or perhaps it was because we talked the entire distance and I always felt slightly out of breath. Those who know me won't be surprised at my talking all the way! We stopped a couple of times because of hot foot. We were only 1.5 miles from the Inn and I asked for a hot foot rest stop. I could have made it, but we were early and what the heck.
I told Hank, let's go on into town and check out the grocery store and the town. The Longhorn Saloon was an eye catching sight. There were three stores total in town, one on each corner and the Saloon taking up the street on the other side.There was a closed restaurant and a grocery store. Hank went in to ask about dining - they serve food until 8 PM. That sounds great. We are lucky there's a food option in town. Otherwise we would have been carrying food from Green Valley.
We turned around and rode the .75 miles to the Inn. Masks were required and the owner took our temperature as we walked in. There was some confusing as I had inquired about two more rooms as we thought more people would join us. He had reserved those rooms for us, which I felt bad about. To my memory, I had inquired if there were more rooms, not actually reserving them. We got it all straightened out. This year they did not put up the giant Christmas tree and there was not a made to order breakfast, just a sack breakfast. There was wine for the afternoon and the beautiful view of the grounds.
the Amado Inn is for sale and the owner said they didn't put up the Christmas tree because they are closing on the 15th of December. I didn't take that to mean they were closing permanently. But perhaps they are?
I told Hank I didn't want to mention it, but the wind forecast is fierce tomorrow. I'd like to get an early start to beat the most of the wind. We ride south and then turn north. The wind is SSE. If we get make the turn north, the wind should help us out. Since we have a sack breakfast, it sounds like we can start when we want.
Hank and I didn't even shower, we just sat out on the patio and enjoyed the view and a couple of glasses of wine. Jacinto called from Green Valley to say he had stopped at the store and bought chips and salsa (our standard after ride snack). He would see us in an hour.
Our overnight here is extra enjoyable because of our dismal location in Tucson. The grounds are well cared for, there's a fountain on the patio. It's a peaceful respite.
We are a little late on our 5 PM dinner. Wine will do that to you!
We had a good riding day. It was a bit tougher than I expected - but I had four lightly loaded panniers. Hank was happy with how his recumbent handled with the Ortlieb recumbent panniers.
Jacinto ended up using only two rear panniers and they were quite full. He seemed to have a good ride. He and Hank sat on the patio and talked while I showered and got this journal caught up. Now the guys are showering and then we are going to dinner. I think I might have a steak at the saloon!
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Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 76 miles (122 km)
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