The Opa’s Grill ride

January 10, 2021

Just another loop ride, but with a reward at the end. We’re rewarding ourselves for our 10 day streak of 42+ mile days with a late afternoon lunch at Opa’s Grill, a reasonably good Greek restaurant with a very nice open-air patio with a few widely spaced tables. Over plates of moussaka, pilaf and Greek salad we enjoyed sitting in the shade until the wind picked up enough to give a bit of chill to the air, and then biked on back to the apartment. Opa’s makes a nice spot to end a ride, when the day is warm enough to dine outside - we can just wheel our bikes in to the patio and lean them against the wall next to our table.

In other news

It’s been awhile since we’ve updated you on our plans after we leave Tucson, if I remember correctly. Nothing especially earth-shaking is happening with Team Anderson, but maybe you’re ready for something less gripping than another 4,000 coronavirus deaths and the invasion of the nation’s Capitol.

We’ve told you that after a month we’re leaving our casita on Mabel Street and moving on. I don’t think though that we mentioned yet that this is another very short move - only about a mile south, to a different casita in town here. Looking around the map, we couldn’t find any place that looked better for hunkering down this winter than right here. We’ll be in Tucson until early February, and then start working our way back north.

We don’t know what will happen when we leave here yet, but we don’t expect to return to Portland until late March at the earliest. We just can’t see any good reason to leave the sun just yet. It’s for our health, we tell ourselves - the best thing we can do is to stay somewhere in the south where we can get out and exercise as often as we want and keep soaking up the vitamin D. Hopefully by April we’ll be able to get vaccinated and return to a more normal version of our abnormal lives.

Riding south toward Valencia Road. This is one of the prettiest branches of the network, but one we haven’t ridden often.

For polygon month. There’s a very irregular octagon in there, if you stretch your mind a bit. Or, you could just step back and admire the overall pattern.

Northbound from our short out and back to Valencia Road. This sinuous stretch might be my favorite mile in the network. It reminds me of photos of the streets of Rio, and makes me want to samba.

This guy again! I think it might be the same bird I photographed on my ride to bike my age in miles two weeks ago. He must live here, beside the softball field at Angie Acuna park. He entertained us for the ten minutes we stopped here, flitting from one perch to another after dashing out for a quick snack.

On the way back to town along Julian Wash, we stopped for a lengthy conversation with Gary, who stopped us to ask about our bikes. Perhaps the longest in person chat we’ve had with anyone since leaving home two months ago.

Whipping down to the underpass beneath Valencia Road.

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Kelly IniguezThat looks like my sort of ride - this way and that way. Eventually the mileage goal is met!

Kelly
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezYup. A very nice outing. The weather continues to be very fine down here. You left too soon!
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3 years ago

Ride stats today: 44 miles, 1,000’; for the tour: 1,898 miles, 65,600’; for the year: 10 riding days, 428 miles, 13,600’, and 1 flat tire

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 1,839 miles (2,960 km)

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