Maidei goes on a world tour-Part 1 of the Bicycle Mystery Tour

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Maidei arrived in Tucson today, with her box of wonderful travel souvenirs and mementos. I made sure she was snug in my jersey pocket, and we had a late afternoon ride to Saguaro National Park together. Pics coming soon!

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Madei is really enjoying her visit to Tucson! She has had morning and evening visits to Saguaro National Park, and came with me to my classroom. The 7th graders really enjoyed finding out about her travels and wanted to have their pictures taken with her.

We have seen a LOT of interesting wildlife so far: A very robust Regal Horned Lizard, Desert Spiny Lizards, Western Whiptails and Lesser Earless Lizards. No snakes though. Today we saw a Gila Monster, hiding under a bush. We've seen loads of birds, including a Harris' Hawk, a migrant Western Tanager, a Broad-billed Hummingbird, and all the common desert species. We also saw 2 sleeping javalinas outside the window of the visitor center at Saguaro NP.

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Photos of Madei in Tucson so far- they include (not in order, sorry), getting ready to ride up to Saguaro NP, the entrance to the park, the display at the high point of the loop ride (resting after our 500 foot climb), learning about ecology with some of my students, posing with me and Dogmama from TE, who happened to join the Zona Cycling group ride today, and the picture of the Gila Monster. Madei was a little scared, and didn't want to pose with the Glia Monster ;-)

[Catrin]

I've started figuring out the Animaps interface, it is a cool toy to play with....errrrr....I mean a good tool with which to map Maidei's adventures

It is slow going though, especially in Australia. There isn't any way to search for the location other than panning to the area you need. So I go to Google maps to figure out where something is in Australia, then pan and zoom to find it. She has traveled a lot, it would be interesting to figure out just how many miles she has traveled over the years!

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How funny you mentioned that- one of my cycling friends asked me about that on the ride today! She has already gone over 85 miles with me.

[shootingstar]

What a great idea to let the students in on Maidei's trip. Good to see you and Dogmama!

Lots of lizard types in your area.

Catrin, you have alot of patience to plough through previous entries to figure out Maidei's journey. Look forward to seeing the map, even if it's only 1-2 countries at the beginning.

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Here is a link to more photos from Madei's 2nd visit to Saguaro National park. My DH took these. The Saguaros are in full bloom and the Palo Verde trees are past their peak but still full of yellow blossoms. The last pictures are from the Audubon Birdathon awards/barbecue (which Madei did not attend).

https://picasaweb.google.com/1117972...17838570553154

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Maidei took her last two rides with me. On Weds, May 16, we did the Ride of Silence in Tucson. About 100 riders followed a 10 mile circuit in honor of those who have suffered loss of life or injury due to crashes with vehicles on the road. We rode to the start and came home as it was getting dark, but with plenty of lights.

Today, May 20, we did an ascent up the lower part of Mount Lemmon, to about 4200 feet Molino Basin. It was just high enough to get out of the lower Sonoran Desert and into the lowest oak trees, yuccas and grass of the upper Sonoran Desert. We just didn't have time to ride up into the pine forest higher up. We got a bit of a late start- almost 7:30 am and it was pretty warm climbing up the mountain. Coming down was delicious- over 30 mph for most of the way to the base. We met my DH at the cafe for iced mocha and a pastry.

The photos are in the wrong order: on the right is Maidei at the Babad Duag overlook, about 3 miles up and 3300 feet elevation, then at 4000 feet, and the left hand picture is our final stop at Molino Basin, under the oaks but sunny grassy hillsides are in the background- about 4300 feet. Last pic- Maidei enjoying the cyclists hangout and part of my iced mocha at Le Buzz Cafe at the base of the mountain.
I'll be sending Maidei on her way this week to her next destination with Melalvai in Missouri.