It was a nice ride out of Wickenburg on Monday morning on US 60. That changed as I approached Sun City West and Surprise, west of Phoenix. The traffic volume increased and the amount of road debris increased as well. I had to be careful not to pick up a flat from broken bottles or pieces of wire from blown tires. As I passed through Surprise, I turned on to the quiet Thunderbird Blvd and Thunderbird Road. The plan was to connect with the Arizona Canal Bike Path, that runs for 16 miles to Tempe. Somehow I made a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong path after a while and had to back track. That mistake added another 5 or 6 miles to my day. Another tricky part was at the intersection of 18th and Bethany Home Road. The urge is to continue straight on Bethany Home Road but you want to look carefully behind you for the less travelled part of Bethany Home Road through a residential area.
I met up with a couple of the other riders as I road through Tempe towards the Days Inn Tempe at 1221 E Apache Blvd. It is a good place to stay as it provides a free breakfast and there is a light rail stop right across from the hotel which make getting around in a day off easy. I ended up riding 85.8 miles for the day.
We planned to stay there two nights as Tuesday was a planned rest day.
Rode the last few miles to the hotel with a few other cyclists.