Opening Day of Cactus Season! (Day 3)

On the east coast I am an incorrigible morning person, which translates to waking at the crack of butt-crack here: 4:30am or so. There's no alarm even; I just pop awake in the dark full of maps, cacti identification, and the intent to google "best churros tucson".

Yesterday's 4:30am was quite convenient as I was about to try my fourth attempt to get from Tempe to Tucson. My bicycle had been there for days already. The night before was attempts #2 and #3, involving a FlixBus that never showed up, their app vs website giving contradictory updates as to the actual arrival time of the bus (is it 20 minutes late? is it 190 minutes late?). 9pm still waiting, sitting on my bag at the Tempe bus stop,  I received a FlixBus notification: "You have arrived at your destination! We hope you enjoyed your trip!" What trip. At that point I gave up and starting hiking back to Adorable Ann's house to re-strategize and warm up and sleep on the couch. 

FlixBus rescheduled me for free on the 5:50am ride yesterday, so I enjoyed a sunrise bus blast through the desert. The selections of craggy red hills glowed with neon edging until the sun blinked over the flat landscape, everything tinting orange. Arrival in Tucson plunked me in a sleepy neighborhood, low houses, cacti lazing about, no rushing cars. What a contrast to where I stayed in Tempe! After walking two blocks from the bus stop to our Airbnb (how fortuitously convenient! and when we booked this place we hadn't even known I'd be taking a stop-gap, failed-flight bus ride either) a white car drove up: airport delivery of my bicycle bag. Reunion! Thank you Delta for delivering that, it was the least you could do after that broken gate bridge hassle. 

Desert bus ride

Gorgeous post-flight assembled machine

I also reunion-ed with Katie Math, my fast fit bicycle buddy for the next week, an unflappable person, in contrast to my sensitive-to-everything person. We laughed over how we've both been mis-gendered lately, someone having called her "little buddy", and someone calling me "sir." We decided those would be our Road Names for the week, "Lil Buddy" and "Big Sir". We both sport functional super-chopped haircuts and flatness everywhere in our clashing bright bike jerseys. I'm just 50% larger, like the SUV version of a sports car.

Are you, like, the SAME person?
(We're so thrilled to do our first Arizona bike ride!)

We set out west through the city of Tucson towards the famed Gates Pass for our first wake the legs ride. "This is WAY better than the trainer!" said Katie ahead of me in the bike lane. "I know! I'm putting in work and actually GOING somewhere!" We smelled wafts of taco joints, powered through intersections, bumped over the railroad tracks, and then increasing numbers of tall saguaros started to replace the houses and shops. Climbing up out of the city, it was amazing to look behind me and see this impossible congregation of humanity in the desert; we're really not supposed to be there. My legs were pumping and the sun was blaring down on us, we flowed up, down, and around the smooth pavement up to the pass. I thought about how it takes 50-70 years for a saguaro to grow a single arm. 

The rarely seen Teddy Bear Dumpy Cactus.

Classic views from the road.

 

I felt the poignancy of Doing The Thing you've been waiting months for, riding that awfully boring trainer for. Our east side climb of Gates Pass was low-burden, and at the apex we found a sweeping view of valley moonscape. Just moon studded with cacti. This is Tucson Mountain Park, all plants and terrain of the Sonoran Desert. The west side of Gates Pass was a coil of road descending, un-kinking itself onto the moon of cacti below. I felt like I'd forgotten how to bank my turns, but I still was a soaring hawk as I flew down from the pass. 

Fun with cacti. I think these are Cholla.

We did a loop in the park, relishing the looming cacti and the mountains in the distance. My thoughts on default-mode kept going to how I wanted to text Mom a selfie of me smiling on the bike with a saguaro behind me. She always would say to me, "I just want you to be happy." I knew it was important to her.  I wanted to send her photos that would say without words, "Mom! Look! I'm feeling so great right now! It's possible! This is amazing!" 

WEEEEEEEEEEE

The return east back up to the pass meant crawling up that curving swoop I had sailed down as a hawk. If there's glory in your heart flooring it to max, mashing up a steep curving grade in the windless sun-baked nook of the pass, it sure didn't feel like it. But then there was the top and I was awarded breath again, and the flying descent down the other side, Tucson off in the distance. 

Our opening day ride, Gates Pass and Tucson Mountain Park

 

 

 

 

Be sure to thank your water source.
I didn't know if I'd need to refill my 1-L water bottles, but definitely yes.