Paul and Siona's travels

• DAY 45: Wednesday 13th April 2022 – Globe AZ to Tempe AZ
• Distance:
• Elevation gain:
• Accomodation: Sonesta Select Hotel

Today was a slight “cheat” day. We rented a U-Haul in Globe and drove 80 miles to Tempe AZ. My bike had a broken rear spoke and a distinctly egg-shaped back wheel, and there was no bike repair shop in Globe. It seemed a touch irresponsible to try and make the distance through more very empty country. This also had the advantage of missing out a ride along US60 that all of the Southern Tier cycling blogs describe as scary and dangerous (driving the road, we tend to agree with that assessment) or a very long and hilly detour through the Tonto National Forest. We picked the truck up from a U-Haul agent at a pawn shop in Globe. The owner turned up to open the shop 30 minutes late and it was full of dodgy looking guys pawning their stuff – and by stuff, I basically mean guns. It is slightly unnerving waiting to hire a truck while a guy tries out a gun to try and decide how much it is worth! The drive was uneventful and we drove straight to a bike repair shop – “The Bike Cellar” in Tempe. The staff there were tremendously helpful and had the problem fixed in a couple of hours, also replacing the rear tyre, the chain and some cogs in the gears which were dangerously worn out – all for $100 parts and labour which seemed very reasonable. Tempe is a lovely town, home to Arizona State University. Tomorrow we start the last 700km of our ride towards San Diego, although it will take us a whole day just to get through the huge sprawl of the Pheonix Metro area.

• DAY 46: Thursday 14th April 2022 – Tempe AZ to Peoria AZ
• Distance: 54km
• Elevation gain: 220m
• Accomodation: Holiday Inn Express Hotel

We spent the entire day today cycling in the Pheonix Metro Area ( “The Valley”), an urban area with a population around 5 million people, which doesn’t sound great but was actually really enjoyable and a big contrast to the empty terrain that we have been in for most of the ride. The roads out of Tempe generally had good cycle lanes, separate from the road through parks at some points, and the route avoided the busiest roads anyway. The scenery was pretty much textbook middle class, affluent American suburbia and it looked a lovely place to live – if you don’t mind getting in your car whenever you want to nip down the shops! Later in the day we joined a series of trails along an irrigation canal and dried up river bed which made for nice cycling. Most of today’s elevation gain came from getting out of the underpasses that went steeply down and up everytime the route crossed a main road – great to stay away from the traffic though. All went well until the path was closed for construction. As usual, the first couple of “detour” signs had been diligently placed and then they disappeared. We ended up cycling the pavement (OK, sidewalk) along a very busy road for a few km before we got back on the bike path – it felt like we had gone the wrong way, but we had no idea which was the right way. At this point, we saw the other side of Pheonix – hundreds of homeless people living in tents in the underpasses and along the sides of the irrigation channel – a crazy contrast to the rich suburbs that we had passed through earlier. The rest of the ride was uneventful – nice cycling along multi-use trails. The trail literally passed the back of the hotel that we had booked for tonight and made a very pleasant and easy finish to the day.

• DAY 47: Friday 15th April 2022 – Peoria AZ to Wickenburg AZ
• Distance: 78km
• Elevation gain: 480m
• Accomodation: Quality Inn Hotel

An easy start today as we were straight back onto the New River Multi-use trail. It was then a lovely ride on the trail along the “river” which didn’t look like it often has any water in it. Sadly the trail ended after 6km and we were back on some busy roads, although they had excellent bike lanes – Pheonix has had the best bike lanes that we have seen anywhere in the US (or the UK for that matter) – well done Pheonix! We headed North out of the city and then turned onto AZ74 West towards Wickenburg. The traffic here was crazy – we had a decent shoulder, but constant traffic thundering past a few feet to your left still gets rather wearing after a while. It didn’t help that half of the vehicles seemed to be towing something – cars towing boats or jetskis (hint for people towing a huge boat on a trailer – it is wider than your car!), RVs towing cars, my personal favourite an RV towing a full size pick up truck with a golf cart strapped on the back (well, you wouldn’t want to actually walk anywhere I suppose when you get to your “campsite”). We realised that much of the traffic was headed to Lake Pleasant Regional Park and in retrospect the Friday of the Easter holiday weekend was probably not the best time to be cycling this road. A lot of traffic turned off at the lake and the road got slightly less hectic. We finally joined US60 for the last 13km to the town which was even busier but had a wide shoulder so wasn’t too bad to cycle. We had planned to camp at the “Horspatality RV Park” which was marked on our Southern Tier route map as an accomodation option, but the rather obnoxious woman running the place told us that she “didn’t take tents” and seemed to take great delight in sending us on our way. She also said that in Arizona you can’t turn up at an RV park without a reservation, which sounds like bollocks to me. At this point we noticed the “Trump 2020” t-shirt that she was wearing (give it up guys, it’s over) and the “make America great again” flag flying above the office – she’d obviously decided that us cyclists with tents weren’t “her kind of people” I guess – which is fair enough, as she wasn’t our kind of people either – We were glad not to give her any of our hard earned cash! We’ve stayed at a lot of RV parks on this trip and they have all been tremendously friendly and welcoming, even though they don’t get many people in tents, but not this place! We got back on the road and decided to find a motel instead. We quickly found the Quality Inn where the receptionist was lovely and we have a nice room for the night.

• DAY 48: Saturday 16th April 2022 – Rest Day in Wickenburg AZ
• Distance: 0
• Elevation gain: 0
• Accomodation: Quality Inn Hotel

A rest day in Wickenburg today – we weren’t particularly due a rest day, but we are well ahead of schedule to reach San Diego by 30th April and it seemed like a good opportunity to be off the roads on what we guessed would be a busy Saturday of the holiday weekend. Wickenburg is a very pleasant little town (in a slightly overdone Wild West/cowboy-themed sort of way) and is obviously quite a tourist spot, so busy today.

• DAY 49: Sunday 17th April 2022 – Wickenburg AZ to Salome AZ
• Distance: 94km
• Elevation gain: 260m
• Accomodation: KOA Salome

We had an early start today to take advantage of the cool morning temperatures for a 90km+ day through the desert. We also hoped that since it was Easter Sunday and the US seems to have enough churches to accomodate the entire population 3 times over that everyone would be getting in some worship and leaving the roads to us! This seemed to work – despite the fact that we were still on US60 the road was quiet and we had some lovely cycling, making good distance. As the day went on, the road got slightly busier but was still nice cycling on a good shoulder. We’ve got used to cycling through deserts, but this was the hottest, flattest and most desolate so far. By time we were getting close to Salome it was scorching hot with the temperature into the 30s. 4km from the campground, we had mechanical issues when Siona’s pedal seized up – being an expert bike mechanic I thought I would fix this by spraying some WD40 into it – this unfortunately didn’t start the pedal rotating but did nicely lubricate the thread holding it to the crank shaft – 400m later the pedal fell off! Another repair and it just about held on to the campground. Tonight we are staying at a KOA campground – we’ve generally avoided these as they always seem a bit overpriced compared to other places. On the plus side, unlike State Parks, they don’t charge you $20 for a campsite then another $6 each per day to enter the park to be able to access your campsite. The KOA campground was actually really nice – they had organised a free meal for everyone staying on the site over Easter, so we got to eat ham, potatoes, stuffing and gravy and chat to a nice couple who were touring in an RV who gave us wine as well – A nice evening all round!

• DAY 50: Monday 18th April 2022 – Salome AZ to Quartzsite AZ
• Distance: 58km
• Elevation gain: 190m
• Accomodation: Stagecoach Motel

We continued west along US60 today through more lovely desert scenery. It was already hot when we left the campsite at 8am and quickly became the hottest day so far. Luckily the first 30km was downhill and we made quick progress. Traffic was fairly light and and the road had a good shoulder so it was enjoyable cycling. We reached Brenda AZ before 10am to find that the only cafe in town was closed on Mondays. Brenda seems to be pretty much just a collection of RV parks. We were unusually low on food supplies so were very happy to find the “Country Store” on the far side of town where we bought breakfast, cold drinks and lots of ice! Siona had another “pedal loss” incident so we had to stop to reattach it – hopefully we will get a new one tomorrow in the next major town. 7km later, the road merged onto Interstate 10 (again!) for the next 20km to Quartzsite AZ – I’m not sure what criteria the Adventure Cycling Association uses in planning these routes, but for me avoiding interstates would be number 1. To be fair, I10 is pretty much the only road heading west in these parts. Cycling the interstate is never pleasant, but the road was mostly downhill and we soon reached Quartzsite and the Stagecoach Motel (continuing the Western theme) although it did have an attached Chinese restaurant which was new. The other new theme here was camels – pictures, sculptures etc. everywhere. Apparantly this place was the home to a US Army experiment in the 1850s where they tried using camels instead of mules to shift supplies west through the desert – feeling the temperatures in April, it kind of makes sense.

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