Today is almost like another rest day on the bike, but first a few words about our actual rest day! We truly enjoyed our stay in Catalina State Park.  

Gorgeous scenery, great campsites and lovely bathrooms and showers make us very happy.  The owl above tent 6 spends two nights hooting at us and depositing gifts on our tent.

Sister Stacie stays overnight and joins us for a morning hike.
 Ranger Jonathan leads us on an archeological adventure and we learn about the Hohokam people who lived in this area in 500AD.  We get up close and personal with old, very impressive Saguaro Cacti and we learn about an ancient civilization.

We are now in East Tucson after a very enjoyable, short, fairly easy ride on bike trails.

Let’s pause and thank the taxpayers of Tucson for funding such beautiful, well-maintained trails. It’s very impressive and we love it.  A leisurely ride gets us these stats:

Start city: Catalina State Park, AZ
End city: East Tucson, AZ
Miles: 44
Total miles to date: 509
Pedaling time: 3 hours, 3 minutes
Avg. speed: 14.3 mph
Feet climbed: 1300
Fatigue factor: 2 (out of 10)
Wind: S, 5 mph
Road condition: 5 out of 5
We hit 500 miles today. 2500 to go! This could be our easiest day for awhile.

We know we aren’t in the Sonoran desert anymore because here, near Tucson we see prickly pear, a form of cactus trees and the largest solar panels ever.

Lunch is at Freddy’s, which is a combination of Steak and Shake, Ruby’s and Five Guys!  The French fries are fresh and very crispy.

Our (shared) kid-sized custard creation is minty with Oreo cookies and really hits the spot.

The RV resort in East Tucson has a pool and hot tub. We enjoy some water time before tomorrow’s climb into Tombstone, one of Arizona’s most famous cities.

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