Day #41: Willcox, AZ- Tucson, AZ. 85.7 Miles

We woke up at 6:40, because it was really 7:40 (AZ doesn't change their clocks for Daylight Saving). This gave us about 30 minutes to bike before we were engulfed by the extreme heat of the Arizona desert! The heat was so intense that just minutes after drinking, our mouths were just as dry and parched as they were minutes earlier! We drank a lot, and stopped at a few places to get more cold water. One of the places we stopped was called "The Thing." We have been seeing signs for this place for the past 200 miles saying "What is The Thing? Find out in __ Miles!!" In a car, we would have found that it was just a regular convenience store in a matter of hours. However, for those of us on bicycles the suspense has been building up for days... so we were pretty disappointed that The Thing wasn't anything exciting. At a McDonalds  rest stop, we met some people who were so excited to hear about our bike trip, that one man actually hugged my dad!  As we were getting ready to leave, we realized my front tire was flat. We changed it in the McDonalds, which was much more pleasant than changing it in the heat. We rode the rest of the way to the Tucson City Limit without any interruption.  Suddenly, a cop pulled up behind us and asked why we were on the Interstate. We told him we had been biking on I- 10 for a few days, and he told us that we would have to get off until after we got out of Tucson. He didn't give us a ticket, but Officer Abdullah wasn't too helpful when we asked for an alternate route to our hotel. We made it to the Hampton Inn, ate, then went swimming in the pool/ hot tub. We had hoped to have corned beef sandwiches for dinner, but it wasn't meant to be.  We arrived at our hotel at 6:50pm and the Fifth Street Deli closes at 7PM.  We called and asked if they could deliver.  We explained that we were a father son team that had traveled 2000 miles by bike to get a corned beef sandwich from the Fifth Street Deli.  That didn't work.  Then my dad thought he made the manager an offer that they couldn't refuse (involving cash).  Unfortunately, they refused.  We will have to wait until we get to Jeff's in LA for some good sausages and hamburgers.  


We feel pretty good considering the long day (a lot better than our last 80 mile day).  


Thanks for coming along for the ride!


Check out our route at the link below:
Willcox, AZ- Tucson, AZ