2018 Luna Lakes I Pre-Ride

Though neither of us is really conditioned for it, Isam and I quickly put this tour together. Since he’s in town, and Phil had generously loaned us his Surly LHT for Isam to use, it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

Isam and I drove up the long way out US60 through Superior and Miami. We soon got a strange message on the car GPS that asked us if we wanted to re-route due to traffic conditions. Out here? Hoping for further explanation, we pushed yes. The re-route was a 7 hour detour around Show Low that actually took us up onto I-40 for heaven’s sake! What the…?

We stopped at several places looking for wifi, finally settling on an America’s Best Value Inn. The desk clerk had no knowledge of road closures and graciously allowed us use of wifi. Google Maps and even the ADOT site had no issues to report.

Still, in Globe we pulled into Hank’s Café to further inquire. Indeed, no one there had any knowledge of road closures. It started downpouring outside – perfect timing – so we ordered some soup and a patty melt sandwich to ride out the storm. Good food and good vibe in there. They had a tub of butter you wouldn’t believe.

No sign of closures out 60E out of town, so we started feeling more comfortable. Nothing we could do would make our GPS comfortable though. In fact, nothing in the GPS could be accessed to find out what the “traffic” had been about. We finally flipped it off.

Isam and I listened to a Radiolab podcast about the management of nuclear weapons. Very cool stuff that makes you think.

Well, we made it just fine through Show Low and over to Springerville. We set up at America’s Best Value Inn west of town, then hit up a c-store for additional snacks. But mostly, we were happy with our early dinner, and definitely happy to be in town without a 7 hour detour.

Isam and I played 10000 Dice on the motel room table. We both just recently learned this game and found it a good diversion from the usual mind numbing TV.