Bike tour, Day 3: The road from Arivaca

[expedition_retirement]

The third day of our tour began with us packing our luggage for the transfer to our second hotel on the north side of Tucson. We then boarded our shuttle vans for the ride up in the the desert to the little town of Arivaca. Located about 30 miles west of the interstate highway, this little town is isolated deep in the desert ranch country, about ten miles or so north of the Mexican border. We began our ride at a parking area for the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, just past the town. Because of the strong winds, our leaders shortened our ride a bit, cutting off a portion of the ride where we would be battling the winds, leaving most of our ride with both tail winds and a mostly down hill pitch.

When we reached the town, just minutes into the ride, we stopped for ice cream at a local general store that looked like it had been transported from another era. From there, our ride was all out in open range lands, with desert in all directions. The majority of the vehicle traffic we saw was from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and we past several CBP trucks parked out in the bush. On our drive out to Arivaca in the morning, we passed through a CBP checkpoint on the interstate, where we saw a car that was being very thoroughly searched (including the removal of interior body panels).

With the downhill slope and the tail winds, this was an incredible fast and easy ride. The scenery wasn't awe inspiring, but it was pretty in its stark, desolate way. Near the end of the road, there was a pull-out with a memorial shrine. It wasn't clear if this was just a religious shrine or if it was build in someone's memory, but it clearly was visited on a regular basis, with various offerings left behind. Nearby, there was what appeared to be a rough grave site. I couldn't tell if it was an actual grave, or another memorial to someone. Either way, these were rather poignant out here by themselves in the middle of the desert.

As we neared the end of our ride, we had to slow down and pass through another CBP checkpoint. The checkpoint was closed when we arrived, and we were able to just proceed through, but it was slightly intimidating to have to ride through with all the barriers, signs, and warnings.

Our ride ended at the Longhorn Grill & Saloon, which faced us as we rode up to the final intersection of the trip. After lunch, we reboarded our buses and made our way back to Tucson and our second hotel.