The fun factor always increases significantly when Mitzi and John arrive!  It’s a busy week with six rides, lots of food and visits with Tucson tandem celebrities.

The temperature has also increased significantly each day with temps approaching 90 by the end of each ride.

Let’s review: we have been spending spring training time in Tucson since 2022. The weather is great, the riding features a 52-mile dedicated (recreational) loop around the city, there are lots of tandem riders here and it’s a certified City of Gastronomy. For us, there is a lot to love!

Fueled by our fantastic dinner the night before, we set out for Oro Valley, where the streets are paved in Gold!

Our off bike activities featured an incredible brunch, a visit to the Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona, and a trip to the Loop Store (at the Southern Arizona Heritage and Visitor Center).

We saw where they would be making giant mirrors (for giant telescopes) if they were not in some sort of hiatus period. It was an interesting tour, but it was disappointing because once we reached the lab, there was nothing to see! The only mirrors were in the short film we saw before the tour began.

We were able to attend a second Oro Valley tandem club ride. This ride was four tandems on a very pretty part of the loop.

On our last ride with Mitzi and John we visited a favorite cycling stop, the Estrella Bakery. We first visited it when we were riding across the country in 2017 and were excited to rediscover it when we started visiting Tucson 5 years ago.

It was a fabulous week with friends, but we have another week of cycling and a few special visitors coming up in our next installment!

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