It's the end of my spring break. Weds we were near Payson Arizona. Wintry weather had swept through Monday, leaving snow, but temps were not too cool in the afternoon. The roads were not too bad for about 8 miles from Kohl's Ranch where we were staying, back toward Payson but then narrowed to two lanes with absolutely no shoulder, so we turned around. We took two little side trips- one to Tonto Village and had a cool drink in a funky cowboy decorated cafe. Then we rode up another side road to the Tonto Fish Hatchery- four miles up with a stiff climb of 600 feet in a little over a mile. Total 27 miles.

Thursday we stopped in the Verde Valley and rode to Tuzigoot National Park- about 37 miles round trip. The weather and scenery were pretty nice- but the roads were not too great. Outside of the town of Cottonwood, there was enough of a shoulder but some really awful pavement (the main road was freshly paved!), and in Cottonwood there were no shoulders or bike lanes.

Today I was going to work in my classroom, but called to schedule a home visit as well. Turns out, the family had just moved - still in the district but much further out than I thought. So I had an adventure in finding the place, including riding about 1/2 mile on a dirt road, and it was 48 miles altogether. Beautiful weather for trying my new arm coolers- but I did not have time to get to the classroom.... Guess I'll be there tomorrow.