3:10 To Yuma

Well, as I look at the forecast for Ohio, I get no pleasure by imagining how my cycling buddies must be suffering. Heck, it was not that warm in San Diego either, only 64 degrees, so I was not in much better shape.  Had a good meeting with the people at TaylorMade golf but was unsuccessful walking out with dozens of free golf balls.  Did pick up a logoed pen.  Then jumped in the car and began driving but back to that later.  First, our hike/trail run on Saturday was a hoot but there were a few no shows.  In the end, it was Mark C and I running with Steve O (who rode his bike to the start and stashed it in Mark's car) and Mike Rea hiking.  Mark knew the trails so he started running and I fell in behind.  Alley Park is HILLY!  I don't remember much other than going up and down then up again and again and down a steep slope taking one step at the bottom of a gully before heading back up a super steep hill.  I wondered, "How much longer can he go on like this?"  The answer"  LOOOONG Time.  Eventually, we began hitting forks and Mark would say "Short or long".  I managed to gasp, "Short" over and over and finally regained the parking lot with 3 miles, which doesn't sound like much but geez, those hills.  Rested for a minute and we headed back out for another 2 miles. Fun work-out.

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OK, back to the trip, I headed east on I-8, driving over the mountains to AZ.  Glanced at the clock just as I entered Yuma and it was 3:10, I kid you not.  Real desert around here with giant sand dunes.  The other thing noteworthy for this part of AZ are the vast and I mean VAST RV parks.  You could put hundreds and hundreds of RVs into these places so this must be where a lot of snow birds come.  Then there are the thousands of acres devoted entirely to growing and harvesting hey.  Not fruit or veggies, just mile after mile of giant areas of stacked hey bales.  And finally, I made it to Tucson where the forecast for the next few days is around 80 and sunny.    I'll not be back in time for the balmy Saturday with forecast high of 41 but I am trying to find out if there are plans for a ride.

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