The long Good Friday...

Today we said goodbye to Yuma and its single brain cell and hello to Tucson which seems much higher up the food chain entirely. One of my favourite movie quotes relates to this place... In 'An Officer and a Gentleman' Richard Gere and his fellow new recruits are lined up by the drill sergeant chappy who asks one poor unfortunate where he's from. The lad replies "Tucson, Arizona, Sir", to which the drill sergeant adds "There's only two things come from Tucson, Arizona, boy... Steers and Queers. And you ain't got no horns!" Ok, small things amuse small minds... That said, Tucson is a pretty town and you certainly dont get the impression that it is in the middle of a desert. One strange observation is that there are 43 Tattoo parlours and only 6 bars. Consequently, there are a lot of mainly women wandering round with more ink in their skin than a bic ball-point factory would get through in years. Once again, a recurring theme is that the locals are very courteous and friendly and wherever we've stopped have been only too willing to give advice on places to go and things to see (admittedly they dont always have a clue what they are talking about but their hearts appear to be in the right place).

The trip here from Yuma was equally spectacular as it was different from previous days on the Tour. Long straight roads that stretch almost indefinitely into the heathaze provided some of the best biking yet. Now we do have an admission here... Arizona do not insist on the wearing of helmets and with the weather a beautiful 75 degrees it was time for the shorts, t-shirt and hatless brigade to emerge. As the following bit of video shows there is nothing more exhillarating than whizzing along at 90 with the wind in your hair and the sun warming the cockles of your heart and other exposed bits. Click on.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_0ZnzRenP8  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFVBXqPqLts or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hr8av5GEY  if you'd like to take a look. However, we don't recommend that any youngsters out there try this at home and as a group we are wholeheartedly in favour of a safety first approach to motorcycling. However, this will go down as one of the most memorable experiences ever.

I have heard some excuses in my life but Neil's whimpering that his back was so stiff and painful upon arrival in Tucson and 'can we see if I can get a massage?' has to go to the top of the list. Sometimes it's necessary to embellish this blog for the amusement of all two of you who read it but this episode just wrote itself. After much groaning, an hour and a half later Neil emerged a new man. I should point out in the interests of his relationship with Alison that Neil's masseur was a professional, if you know what i mean (though i'm not sure if that helps his case much). Also worthy of mention is that Digger played his joker in Tucson (we are each allowed one night when either fatigue or too many bevvies early doors leaves one too 'tired' to go out. It was previously expected that Digger would not contemplate playing his at any point. Pete used his in Yuma while the remaining infants have yet to play theirs.

Flagstaff is our destination tomorrow. Today goes down as the only day of the trip so far when we haven't got lost. A small fact this but when you've spent much of the past week going the wrong way down lots of blind alleys it's significance should not be understated.