Day 6 (Sun, 17 Feb)

Day 6 (Sun, 17 Feb)

I rode from Buckeye, AZ to Mesa, AZ today.  A short 47 mile ride from the western edge of the Phoenix suburbs, through the southern suburbs of Phoenix to Mesa (which is southeast of downtown Phoenix).  Pleasant temps again and Sunny!!  The primary goal of the day was to get to Mesa in the morning so I could spend time in the afternoon with my Uncle Allyn and Aunt Carol who live in Scottsdale, AZ.  We were able to spend all afternoon together.  My three cousins Sherri, Debbie and Rick were also there (I had not seen them since I was quite young) along with Sherri and Debbie’s husbands and many of their kids.  They all live in the Phoenix area.  We had a great time catching up – it was a special day for me!

Uncle Allyn was also able to get me to a local bike shop where I re-loaded on tires, tubes and cycling food.  Allyn used his local “pull” and got me a great discount on the purchases – about 30% - saving me a lot of $!  Like my dad, Allyn is a longtime cyclist and has done a lot of road cycling in the Phoenix area as well as the Bay Area (where they lived until 1985).  We traded lots of great cycling stories.  Finally, I was able to load up on a ton of great carbohydrates (pasta and pizza) which helped tremendously on the mountain riding I did on Monday – thanks again Allyn and Carol!

In the pictures below: 1) numerous views of the majestic mountains west of Phoenix, 2) Retired DC-10s (hadn’t seen those for years) and 747s at the Phoenix Goodyear Airport, west of Phoenix, 3) the panorama picture (and the picture after it) is of the Salt River (south of downtown Phoenix) – not much water left after Phoenix basically consumes it (I also learned from Allyn that most of the residential water in the area is taken from ground water and that the canal I saw on Fri/Sat coming from the Colorado River actually flows past Phoenix and is primarily used for the Tucson area), 4) the last picture is of downtown Phoenix (taken from just south of it).