Late start...

We had planned on doing a 26 mile ride last weekend, starting at the north side of Tempe Town Lake. Our daughter and her husband were going to come up from Tucson to join us. However, my daughter called the night before and said they wouldn't be coming.


We got up at 6:30 am and just as we did so, the phone rang. It was our daughter. She said her husband wasn't coming but that she was about an hour to an hour and a half outside the valley on her way up and "could we wait for her?" We said yes.


By the time she got here and we had the bikes and trike loaded in the van it was between 8:30 and 9 (a little later than we had hoped to get started). We headed over to the marina parking lot by the lake. As we pulled in, we were greeted by two young men in fluorescent vests who told us that there was a boat regatta that day and only those involved in the regatta could park in the parking lot. They said there was another lot farther away, but I noticed that the bike trail to that lot was blocked by some fallen tree debris.


So we headed over to our other starting point at Eldorado Park in Scottsdale (the 18 mile route start). My wife said we could do the 18 miles up north and back and then head south to the lake and back, giving us around 26 miles.


We managed the 18 mile portion, but by the time we passed back by the van, it was later than we had anticipated and was beginning to be rather hot (we are getting into the 90's here...normal for this time of year, in fact a little lower than normal).


We figured we would try the start from the lake another weekend (this time checking the city's calendar to see if there were going to be any more such exclusive events that would keep us from parking there).