February 14, 2024
Day 8 - Oro Valley Out and Back
Happy Valentine’s Day … some buy flowers, some jewelry, some other things but we agreed an “experience” shared was the best gift of all … at least that’s what I think I heard on the topic.
We started today at the Mike Jacob Sports Park with the intent of riding the Oro Valley as it is a much talked about portion of the Loop. Our original plan was to ride up the valley and then take some other roads back. Half of that came true but we decided to simply ride back down the path and then head down towards Sweetwater Lake.
As we had heard, the Oro Valley is quite popular with all forms of cycling. Lots of road bikes, usually in packs of 4-5, a fair number of e-bikes, and our favorite, about 12-15 recumbent trikes of all brands. For the most part, the other riders were courteous and the road bikes were good about calling out. The further we rode, though, the less traffic was present and the ride was quite enjoyable with the fantastic weather.
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During a short break at the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial River Park, we had a nice conversation with some other trikers and how the location of daughters and granddaughters plays a huge role in where you live and ride. They had recently moved to Tucson as both of their daughters had moved there ahead of them and they consider themselves “sunbirds” versus the more common “snowbirds” we know.
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Not to be forgotten, we opted to go out on the town and ate BBQ at Rudy’s. The brisket was good and the atmosphere quiet … touristy. So we added food to our Valentine’s Day experience and can now count ourselves in the more traditional Valentine’s Day crowd.
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And because birding is now a Cycleblaze event, here’s a few shots from today.
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https://www.tucsonhummingbirds.com/other-hummingbirds/
3 months ago
Tomorrow we take on the full loop … as that is the thing you do when you are in Tucson. I have, however, made a slight modification to route around the VA center zone … bad roads and few too many trail side occupants.
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3 months ago
3 months ago
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 1,319 miles (2,123 km)
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