Friday – Tucson, Arizona

New front tyre today, still no insurance though

Well, as I did not have a big night, I woke up fine, so after packing up I headed off to Tucson where I had an appointment with the tyre shop at 2.30pm. I could have tried to get there earlier and maybe get in earlier, but why hurry, I was planning on staying there tonight anyway.

As you can see from the map, I do not really have much choice when it comes to roads to Tucson, either the freeway, or the back way through the Organ Pipe Cactus NM. As I was intending to come back up that way, I decided to slab it. I still did not have a map of Arizona and had not found a visitors centre in a location I could find easily. I had my big road atlas book, so I knew there were some national parks down that way and I really wanted to see the tall cactus that I remember from old westerns 🙂 First I left the highlands and descended into the Dome Valley, where it was very green, keep the visor down, bees!

I had seen the billboards for this place about 30 miles back, it is called Datelands and apparently they grow dates!

A lot of flat straight highway, I am glad I had music 🙂

Then I hit one of the numerous Border Control checkpoints. As it was close to the Mexican border, there are a lot of patrol cars and border patrol people around, to stop illegal immigration. They waved me straight through, I reckon they saw I had no place to hide anyone.

The interstate runs through the Sonoran Desert NM after the Gila River at Gila Bend, that is when the large cactus start to become more frequent. It is a real strange sight at first and they all look different, fun to look at though.

A lot more straight highway and a mountain range before arriving in Tucson about 2.30pm.

I put the bike into the shop, now it was a Honda shop, not a Suzuki one, but they knew what bike I had. But, they did not have the tool to undo the front axle, a metric Allan key, or a ½ inch bolt would have done, but I had no worries, they went down the road and bought one, I just had to wait longer.

So, I finally got out of there, less $200, and as it happens, there was a Days Motel across the road, so I booked in. I had need of some food and some cash so I headed down the road to find a Wells Fargo, which I did find in a shopping centre, I also bought some tucker to cook at the motel.

Once back there, I went to the next door servo and look what I found, they did not fit the stubby cooler, but they tasted real good, and quite cheap too.

3 of those sized cans while doing some net research was enough for me, it is about the equivalent to a 6 pack.

A couple of issues came to light during the day, remember I lost the plastic button parts to my Kisan display unit on the ET highway? Well, I got an email from Chad, he says my bits have arrived and where does he send them. It was too late for the post, so I emailed him back with a forward address, hopefully that will work out.

Insurance now, and I got an email from Cynthia, she has been away, it was now after closing on the East coast, so nothing can be done until Monday. I had a missed call on the phone and rang it, the lady who answered was in the Insurance company, but different department, she told me all the answers to the queries I had asked about, so my mind is at ease, I can fill out, fax the stuff away and wait for my credit card to get a hit next week.

As soon as that gets sorted the better, riding around without any is a bit scary, but apparently a lot of people do it. I also have some more flags sorted out, but they are in OZ and I need a forwarding address for about a week or so hence, that will take some thinking about as I have no idea where I will be, good eh!

I finished my 3rd beer and crashed out about 11, not bad at all. 🙂

Day – 266 miles and 428 km
Trip – 5,635 miles and 9,069 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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