January 2016 Update
Hellhound for Benson

January 11-12, 2016

What happened…

Amanda writes: As Andrew mentioned he launched the idea of going North to renew Visa’s and I latched on to it super fast. For our consistent followers you know that I struggled with our impulsive departure from Mexico in November 2015. I wasn’t ready to be finished with the USA and so with Andrew thinking about it I went to work with making it happen. I posted the need for a ride on a local online forum and within 24 hours we were loaded onto a truck with our bikes and all our gear headed for Tucson. As luck would have it our friends Sharon and Gord were headed up to Phoenix for a week to visit with family and they own a truck. They were happy to have us tag along and Sharon seemed pretty agreeable being cozy in the back seat with us. We’re so lucky to have such great friends. I really enjoyed chatting with them for hours and getting to know them.

Let me first rewind a bit. Before all this happened we had been spending a glorious 5 days with our friends Larry and Mary. We finished house sitting for friends and confirmed that we would dog sit for them later in the month. Having made the commitment we needed to find a place to stay for almost 20 days. Renting a place for such a short time is difficult and can be expensive. We decided to accept the generous offer from our friends. We are are so fortunate to be surrounded by amazing friends who opened their homes to us. We had four different offers of people who would all put us up for a few days or a week and our plan was that between all the offers we could bridge the gap until our dog sit started. We first met Larry and Mary last year in San Carlos and immediately hit it off with them. Both avid sports fans and totally laid back; it turned out to be a good match indeed. We enjoyed an NFL weekend on TV, some dancing and just hanging out and getting to know each other better. Larry and Mary are truly kind and generous people who come from big families. I enjoyed listening to their stories of childhood growing up in the USA and their adventures around the world. On one of our nights chatting and surfing the internet, Mary showed me this beautiful picture of a place called Bisbee, Arizona. It looked like a quaint little town nestled in the mountains covered in snow. As our planning for heading North started to come together this place seemed to be calling our name. And after we arrived in Tucson, Kyle and Jules confirmed it’s a pretty cool place and so off we go.

Andrew writes: So after our house-sit at Glenn and Jennifer’s amazing beach house was done, we had a few weeks to kill until we house-sat for them again. Amanda and I talked about camping out on the beach, or renting an apartment, or trying to shack up with friends. Mary and Larry Collins, who we know from baseball, were one of a few people who offered us a place to stay, and so we moved in with them for a week. It was great, we would enjoy happy hours to watch the sunset, take turns making dinners, play games, and watch football.

At some point I was feeling bored and blurted out to Amanda, “We should go ride bikes in Arizona, and renew our 6-month Mexican visa.” With that idea gone from my brain into the public domain, an amazing plan developed almost overnight, and within 48-hours, we arrived in Tucson with all of our gear. Our friends Kyle and Jules, who we stayed with for a night in March, were gracious enough to host us, and we spent two days taking in the sights, smells, and feel of Tucson.

Tucson is a nice town, it’s large, but still has a small-town feel in some ways. We felt safe riding around, and there are a lot of bike paths and lanes. We stopped in at online retailer “BikeShopHub”‘s storefront and they were amazing. We warrantied a bunch of stuff and just spent an hour chatting with the staff about bicycles. We killed almost a whole afternoon sitting inside the REI, naturally not purchasing what we came in for, but finding other things that all of a sudden became “must-haves”, and I gorged myself on all I could eat pancakes at Denny’s for lunch followed by a double-stuffed all-American, all-meat pizza for dinner. Kyle and Jules did a fabulous job taking care of us, and we did our best to be good house guests, like when Kyle ordered us to drink as much beer out of his keg as we could.Oh America, you’re awesome.

So tomorrow we’re starting our ambitious 7, 9, or 11-day bike tour back to San Carlos. We’re going to start with a 55-mile (90km) uphill ride to the town of Benson. I’m scared; not because I’m riding on the Interstate for half of that, but it’s a lot of miles to ride, and all on our first day. It’s the kind of ride we normally do in two days. Wish us luck!


Today’s Photographs

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January 2016 Update
Hellhound for Benson