Tuesday October 15 - Silver City NM to Benson AZ

It was 45 when I got up. I watched some kind of bug crawl across the floor this morning, just to say "Good Morning!". Gotta start working on some better hotels..
All they had this morning was coffee (or rather something brown) so I packed up early and went down the street to a McDonald's and had some breakfast there. Deb called so we caught up while I sipped my coffee. Next door to a gas station where I checked the tire pressure (perfect) and added a little oil since I had noticed it dropping a bit the last week. Not surprised because I have been working this bike pretty hard day after day. I put it in storage in two days and then pick it back up next March when I get a service, oil and maybe a new front tire.
The ride down out of the mountains was very pleasant with almost no traffic. Nice mix of conifers and sage brush. The at Lordsburg I head west on I10, which I was on not that many days ago. Since I got ahead, I am ending up doing a giant loop around Arizona and New Mexico and then back to Tucson. I was originally going to cut the corner down through Rodeo on Rt 80, but when G-Maps said 90 miles to the

next turn, I decided it was a little too desolate and I might have better roads if I crossed the first mountain range that I could see to the west. So back on I10 for another bit and off at Wilcox and then due south. From here down to the Mexican border it was you usual dry grassland but then I started running into big irrigated ag crops and a gigantic dairy which looked like a factory. They were cutting corn and hay down here so they must have gotten water from somewhere. All kinds of signs about flooding so they must get it during the monsoon season and it gets stored in the aquifer somehow.

I hit Douglas which is a much bigger town than I had imagined. The north to Bisbee and a lunch stop at Jimmy's hot dog stand (Deb will remember it). Has not changed a bit. Then a lap through Bisbee (nothing has changed there) and\ then on to Sierra Vista. Sierra Vista is also a good sized town (bigger than Douglas) and there is a military base nearby which feeds it. Then north to Benson where it is laundry night. I caught some sox halfway to the dumpster this morning..
Odometer beginning of trip = 35820
Odometer beginning of day = 40737
Odometer end of day = 41033
Miles today = 296
Miles on trip to date = 5213
Travel days = 15
Zero days = 2
Average miles per traveling day = 348