Day Eight - Saturday - Pertrified Forest (Hollbrook) to Sahuarita (Tucson)

Estimating about317 Miles for today.

Leaving Petrified Forest today by noon then heading south through Tonto National Forest to Sahuarita just south of Tucson, AZ.

Road to Roosevelt Lake that we planned on taking but, didn't because it turned to 24 mi of gravel

After leaving the Petrified Forest we headed SW to Tucson via Rt 377, Rt 277, Rt 260, along the Hashknife Pony Express route to Payson through the Tonto National Park. Then Rt 87 and 188 to Roosevelt Lake and Dam. This was a beautiful ride through the Tonto Basin which had many different views of water, mountains and curves. We stopped several times for pictures and to remove clothing. Temperature when we left Holbrook was 43, and now we were in the 90s.

14:30 The temperature in the 90's, and we are finally happy to start shedding clothes. Leaving Tonto National Forest and Roosevelt Bridge/Dam.

At one stop, park rangers stopped to ask us where our park stickers were, and said we had to leave as soon as we shed our clothing. We stopped at the Roosevelt dam for more pictures, it was a rare site to see the large body of water at the base of the mountains. Then back on the road to Rt 77 and Rt 19 to Tucson where Bill's friends live. We rode along spectacular views of mountains and canyons along the way. Bikes are running well, but a few minor concerns are Tony's bike has developed a shimmy at low speed deceleration from front tire wear, Richard's bike sometimes has trouble shifting from 1st to 2nd and Glenn will need new tires when returning to MD.
We have 3 PUCKERS OF THE DAY: oil, gravel, and dirt. I'll elaborate later, too tired to text. Good night.

Well yesterday we had 3 "Puckers of The Day":

"Pucker #1 of The Day"
For Bill and the Gang it was the U-Turn on the divided hwy after missing our poorly marked exit and the exits out here are few and far between. Well first we had to back our bikes 30 yards down the hwy, fortunately there was very little traffic.When we made our cut to cross the hwy we found ourselves in 5" of loose gravel.

"Pucker #2 of The Day"
For me and the Gang it was going through a mountain pass at 60mph as we came across a sign that said caution Highway freshly oiled. The road didn't have any makings left and was glistening with oil.

"Pucker #3 of The Day"
For Richard and the Gang it was the ride in the dirt and turn around on a bumpy unfinished dirt road in a back country community. Bill was trying to find his friend Tim's house and made 1,2,or 3 wrong turns turning us into dirt bikers for a moment. The kids in the neighborhood went running inside to get daddy and a gun. Not funny Bill. Also, had to miss all the cows walking down the dirt roads! Finally arrived at Tim's house at about 6:30 and found out that our "bunk house" was actually a concrete floored workshop with no bedding. That's when Bill claimed his bedroom in the BIG HOUSE. After hearing about scorpions and tarantula and poisonous toads, the remaining four of us decided to stay at the Holiday Express. Not funny Bill.

Hollbrook (Petrified National Forest) to Sahuarita, AZ