G.A.S.P.

The following day (12-13) was an easy riding experience.  I rode just from west suburban Phoenix (Buckeye) to east suburban Phoenix (Mesa) – about 45 miles.  In between, I rode right through the middle of downtown Phoenix.

Given that I wasn’t in a big hurry today, I kept an eye out for interesting Saguaro Cacti.   I found one that looked just like Bert, waving to Ernie and me and all of the motorists who drive this way everyday, but don’t notice such things. I also passed by some cotton fields, which I was very surprised to see in Arizona. I couldn’t get a certain song out of my head the rest of the day: “When them cotton balls get rotten, you can’t pick very much cotton, in them old cotton fields back home.”

Phoenix is a huge and still growing city.  The next census will probably show over 1 million people in Phoenix proper, and it has several suburbs (four or five) each with over 100,000 population.  If I’m seeing typical winter weather, it’s not bad at all – daytime highs in the 60’s and lots of sunshine.  This could be an attractive place to live for someone like me that is pretty tolerant of high heat, but doesn’t like to be cold at all.