Fantasy Island Redux

Today we were back out at Fantasy Island. We wanted to ride from the north end to see if it's any less sandy and rocky than the south end. That would be a big no. We started the Lone Cactus loop at Irvington. I did not enjoy it, there's no warm up at all, and one is immediately thrust in to deep rocky washes. Eventually we made it to the circle where one picks up the second half of the loop.

There has been a lot of erosion on the trails, rocks have been mating and breeding since we were here in the spring. This trail is looking very unattractive.


Bicycle art on the island.

Here we are at the Half Pipe. I cleaned it! I lost my nerve mid pipe, but I walked back to the start of it and did it again without putting a foot down. Yea for me. At the end of the down hill there is a deep sand pit, in which I became trapped, and thus had to do some uphill walking.

The usual Sand Trap at the end of Lone Cactus is now huge. It's sucking cars in to it. Enter with caution.
Here is an ant hill.

So after returning to the north end of the park, we set out to see how things are along the fence line, which is our usual route back to the south parking lot. Things are dire. The sand is just awful! So we set out cross country along the power line, and found a nice old jeep trail that heads south. Eventually it intersects the Bunny Trail, and provides a good route back to the car.
Tomorrow we're going to try Snake Dance to Rez Loop to Fire Loop to Christmas Tree Loop to Lone Tree Loop back to Bunny Trail. That should give us 16 miles or so and keep us off the icky half of Lone Tree and the fence line.
I realize this is not interesting to most of you, but for the people who ride out there, it's a trail report.

Fanatasy Island - Jim rides it All

Tuesday we took the mountain bikes out to Fantasy Island. The trails were very sandy, traction in the flats was just abysmal. We did the Fire Loop. Jim was feeling very brave and confident; me, not so much. There are two downhill pieces on that loop that have just weirded us out for several years. Jim was resolute that he would ride these, and be deviled no more.

Here is Jim, sussing out the Elbow Slammer.

There he goes, down the first downhill. There's another deep wash you can't see in the picture, it's a pretty steep drop off. Jim said the short drop was worse than the long one.

Later, Jim successfully rode The Slide. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that.

When we were leaving we saw this electronic warfare plane in the landing pattern for Davis-Monthan.

It was a good day, we enjoyed the ride.

Pink & Orange in the Desert

Not much happening in the Old Pueblo. We rode up Gates Pass again yesterday. It was HOT! We need to do that earlier in the day. After arriving back at the RV, I was pretty much zoned out for awhile.
Here are a couple of lovely Tucson pictures in the pink/orange palette.


Other than this, I have nothing of import to offer.

NYT Article About Cheese

Today's New York Times has an interesting article about cheese. Here is the link. I don't know how long they leave articles up. So, I'm going to cut and paste a little of the article, this is the bit that gets my hair on fire.


Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies.Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign.
Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times. But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories.
And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
Urged on by government warnings about saturated fat, Americans have been moving toward low-fat milk for decades, leaving a surplus of whole milk and milk fat. Yet the government, through Dairy Management, is engaged in an effort to find ways to get dairy back into Americans’ diets, primarily through cheese.

Would someone help me understand why the US government is using my tax dollars to help a private company poison US citizens with large quantities of saturated fat on really terrible pizza? It's bad enough that tobacco has been subsidized, now this? Talk about not reining in health care costs.

Ok - end rant.

My Current Favorite Commercial

I love this. This is so funny.  Well, I don't know why the video no longer plays, but here is the link to it. 



Well, I don't know why the video no longer plays, but here is the link to it.  

First Week Back in Tucson

We've been back in Tucson for a week. So far it's been hot and really windy since returning. Thursday Jim, Kim and I did the Starr Pass trail hike. This is the horse tank, the vegetation has really grown up. You can see how windy it was from the movement of the trees.

After the hike there was lunch. We went for Sonoran hot dogs at El Guero Canelo. The Sonoran hot dog is very good; it's in a soft bun and there's bacon. What more could you ask for?

We had seen an article in Sunset Magazine about the restaurant a couple of years ago, but never got around to going down to 12th Avenue to get one. However, now we have and we can categorically recommend them as yummy. This is the back of the restaurant, it's kind of cool. Sort of a temporary, permanent structure with fans.

Here are Jim and Kim enjoying the weather.

Another gaudy Arizona sunset.

Today Kim and I drove down to Sonoita to the Callagan winery. It's an interesting part of the state. The elevation is about 4800 feet, it's very green. There are several wineries in the area. Callagan is good, they have good reds and whites.

Callagan vines with mountains background.

Kim and I got home about 4 ish, to a very odd situation. Kim's RV was wide open, mine was locked but it appeared as if Jim had been kidnapped. We could not fathom why Jim and Jim would have bolted to Home Depot in such a rush. There were tools and mats on the ground, but no sign of the men or clues as to the purpose of their departure. Then, ominously, we noticed the spatter. What could it be? It's blood. As it turns out, while working on the seal for the living room slide, a finger was caught in the mechanism. After hours in the ER, the Jims returned home. Kim's Jim will be keeping his hand elevated for several days. Medical staff reported only soft tissue damage, and the damaged finger should recover fully.

We had dinner with Kim and Jim tonight, it was a lamb recipe to die for.

Don and Jamie are back. It's good to see them!

Traffic update: Grande (which becomes Mission) south of A Mountain is a construction nightmare. If you're planning on riding A Mountain and then returning to Rincon West, you may want an alternate route to riding on Mission. It's pretty torn up.