January 12, 2019 - Fort Thomas to Duncan, AZ

Day 12 Cross Country Bike Ride

We camped in front of the elementary school in Fort Thomas last night. The school was built in 1917 and sits high atop the hill – quite an impressive entrance!Melvin Jones, the founder of Lions Clubs International (1917), was also born in Fort Thomas on January 13, 1879. Tobey and I are both members of our Lions Club in Fort Collins so we stopped by the memorial which was built in his honor. It seemed like a fitting spot for Tobey to begin today’s ride … and he’s off!Coming into Pima on Hwy. 70, we spotted signs for the Taylor Freeze. Every quarter to half mile there was another sign advertising everything from their famous “T-burgers” to milkshakes, root beer floats, and 48 flavors of soft serve ice cream. Unfortunately, they didn’t open until 10 am today, so we missed out!Headwinds were part of today’s challenge on Tobey’s ride – as well as cool temperatures. It was only 38 degrees when he started out at 8:30 this morning! It warmed to the mid 50s.The Gila Mountains had snow on the tops as we headed into Thatcher and Safford. About 30 miles into the ride, we stopped in Solomon, AZ for a lunch break. Tobey was still bundled up and still battling the wind as he took off. At least the road had a good shoulder!I stopped at a couple of the historical markers along the route. It is always interesting to see events warrant placing a marker.These are scenes as we got closer to Duncan.One of our readers asked what statistics Tobey’s “Ride with GPS” app provides.  Quite a few! Todays ride showed:

Total distance ridden – 62.4 miles

Elevation gain – 2200’   Elevation loss – 1152’           

Ascent time – 4 hours, 35 minutes  Descent time – 1 hour, 34 minutes  Maximum grade 8.3%

Average speed 10.1 mph, Maximum speed 28 mph

Duration of ride – 8 hours 1 minute with moving time of 6 hours 10 minutes, Stop (rest) time of 1 hour 51 minutes

Calories burned – 2329!

It does NOT show temperature or wind conditions. It was definitely a challenging day as he battled both of those and he is tired tonight.

This is a link that will show Tobey’s ride today.

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/30885771

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see the statistics. You may need to swipe up and or left or right to see a map that is red and white and shows what the elevation gain looks like!