Day 21

I know the titles of my daily blog postings are not very creative, but it is the only way I can keep track of how long I have been gone. I have lost track of the dates and days of the week. I guess that means the vacation is going well. I didn’t realize until someone else told me, today is the 4th of July.

As I was looking at my map to plan today’s ride, I noticed I was going through Las Cruces, New Mexico. A friend, Tom Ferguson, moved there a couple of years ago. I called him to see if he was interested in having breakfast. Since I was only a little over 200 miles away I figured I could make it by 9:00 AM. Turns out I got there about 40 minutes early. We had a Mexican breakfast and it appears Mexican food initiates a gastrointestinal reaction in Tigger. It’s a good thing we were on the motorcycle rather than in a car. It was great to catch up with Tom and introduce him to Tigger.

Tigger and I went to Saguaro National Park today. It is close to Tucson and is part of the Sonora Desert. The Saguaro Cactus is a symbol of the American Southwest. They are very impressive structures. A large one can soak up to a thousand pounds of water in a single rainfall under the right conditions. Tigger is such a ham and he had to show how tough he is. If you look closely, you will notice he is sitting on a rock and not directly on the cactus.

Tomorrow I am heading to Durango, Colorado. A very close friend of Jane and I, Ted Steffens, lives there. Ted was supposed to accompany me for a week on this trip but some undisclosed strenuous activity gave him a hernia and he recently had it operated on. I’m going to have to have a discussion with him about what a man as old as him should and should not be doing. He is way older than me and the only reason I hang around him is so he feels a little younger for a while.