Day 7: Thursday

Time in motion: 3:17:45
Distance: 53.2 mi.
Average: 16.1 mph.
Maximum: 27.9 mph.
Climbed: 400 ft.
Temp: 65-95°F

We slept in until seven o’clock.  With only 60 or 70 miles left and two days to ride, there’s no hurry.  We ate breakfast at the Golden Nugget before leaving town.  As we walked out of our motel room, we saw a peacock perched on the roof.

Heading east on US 60 was extremely unpleasant because of the heavy traffic and occasional narrow shoulders.  Even when the shoulders were wider, they were rough and covered with debris.

These were our last miles in the desert countryside.  I shot some photos of some cacti against the backdrop of the mountains and a railroad bridge before we reached suburbia.

Thankfully the shoulders smoothed out and became very nice after about 13 miles.  Then I cruised!  It was downhill and we may have had a slight tailwind.  Before long we saw a sign for the city of Surprise.  This sign surprised us (pun intended) because we weren’t expecting to encounter Surprise for another 10 miles.  As we continued, traffic became heavier and heavier.  Soon we were passing Wal-Marts, Red Lobsters, and Staples stores.  It was clear that we had arrived in the Phoenix Metro.

After an unpleasant ride on a busy road the maps took us through beautiful, green, and peaceful residential neighborhoods.  It was a welcome change.

Next we arrived at the Arizona Canal Bike Path.  This bike path goes through a long section of Phoenix and avoids all kinds of intersections by tunneling underneath the roads.  This is an amazing investment by the city of Phoenix.  We enjoyed riding this seemingly endless, uninterrupted path.

At the intersection of the path and I-17 we stopped and checked into the Premier Inn (10402 N Black Canyon Hwy).  We were four hours early for check in so we changed into normal clothes and ate lunch at a Burger King.  Then we relaxed in a Barnes and Noble for a few hours.

I had my second flat tire of the trip when we left the book store.  We rode back to the motel and are relaxing.  Tomorrow we will have our bikes packed up and we’ll prepare for our early flights home on Saturday.