Flyin' down the open road

We had a great day today! 79 miles, 2000 feet climbed and 2700 feet downhill. Always nice when the downs beat the ups! And best of all - a tailwind all day!! Globe AZ to Safford AZ. We spent much of the day riding through the San Carlos Apache Reservation and the Gila River Valley. This is our last night in AZ. On to New Mexico tomorrow. And of course that means another margarita party to celebrate crossing into another state. Our scenery is starting to change. We seem to have pretty much said goodbye to all manner of cacti and are beginning to see more scrub brush and some taller trees. On our ride today we had mountain ranges on either side pretty much for the whole day. For the last part of the ride we had the snow-capped Graham Mountain on our right. Many of the small "towns" that we passed through today are pretty much vacated; the area has obviously seen better economic times. The communities of Thatcher & Safford seem to be thriving, though. Our last stop before our destination was the Taylor Freeze in Pima. Had a great raspberry shake there. I was tempted to get a second treat and sit back down to contemplate the fact that I had another soft tire. Once again, not yet flat, but a truck tire shard had worked its way through my tire and had made a tiny hole in the tube. It appears I'll be getting lots of practice at changing flats :( We're at over 600 miles cum, or over 1000 km. So - more than 20% done. People are getting stronger everyday. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm certainly not losing any weight so far. Might have something to do with the pie and ice cream stops??