Remembering Day Two of the Big Ride Along the De Anza Trail

Most of Day 2 Finds Us Riding On A Service Road.  The Interstate Highway 10 on our left. Trains and train tracks on our right.

I slept hard Saturday night. Unfortunately, I went to bed with a headache and awoke with a headache. Probably a heat related condition.

We got up and walked about five minutes to the nearby Denny's Restaurant. We each ate a good sized American Breakfast. One of the nice perks about this type of intensive bike touring is that you can pretty much eat anything you want and not gain any weight! Between water loss and caloric burn, you actually get a little skinny. 

The day was overcast. A very unusual condition here in Arizona. But it was still warm. Temps in the 80's F (high 20's C).

Much of our day we travel along side US Interstate Highway 10, a four to six lane superhighway. We are mostly on a two lane service road that parallels the Interstate. Sections of it are rather bumpy. But not a terrible surface on which to travel. About 4 freight trains past by on the rails on the other side of our service road.

We enjoy a high carb lunch of burgers and fries and large cold drinks at Dairy Queen. By lunch time my headache has dissipated and I'm feeling much better.

Unique Decor at Dairy Queen Restaurant & Tourist Trap

The last hour or so of our day we leave the Interstate Highway and travel a smaller state highway through some highly irrigated farm land. I'm not sure what the small plant I see for as far as I can see might be. But I am amazed at how water transforms this desert into a garden.

My right knee is giving me problems near the end of our 90 km (56.5 mile) day. This knee issue will bug me daily. It will see lots of ice every evening.

Six hours and 45 minutes from the time we left north Tucson we arrive at our humble motel.

Our Economical and Clean Motel

Amazingly enough, we still have a little bit of energy left. We actually walk, which actually feels really good after sitting in a bike seat for almost five hours, to an amazing historical location, the Casa Grande Ruins.

These ruins are of the same mystery and caliber as those of Stonehenge. They are thousands of years old. No one knows hardly anything about who built the main structure and the surrounding village.

I think it fascinating that Captain De Anza stood at this same place over 200 years ago and was asking himself the same questions I am asking myself. One difference: He didn't have to pay to see the Ruins :-)

No one knows exactly what purpose the very astronomically and technically designed building served. I'd encourage you to Google it.

The building has many rooms. (The steel roof was built in the 1930's to protect the mud-like material of the Ruins from deteriorating.) Portals are located with engineered precision to catch the sunlight and track and record the solar calendar. Some think the Ruins were a place with great importance to the political, economic, and spiritual understands of the people it served. Interestingly, no one knows exactly who these people were, or what happened to them. A common theme regarding the ancient peoples who called this desert their home.

After our delightful sunset tour of the Ruins, we crossed the road to another American Institution of of the Southwest -- the Sonic Drive In Restaurant. But for us it was a walk in. Our server wore roller skates.  I love the way we eat and the food we eat on these trips!

On our way back to the motel we purchased PowerAde and Gator Aid for tomorrow.

Back at the motel, I iced my knees and slept soundly.