The good thing about this part of our trip was that it was only two hours away from Scottsdale, the not so good thing was we were on our way to Tucson. We weren’t in California anymore.

Okay, sorry Tucson, you just aren’t one of my favorite towns. We couldn’t even find good Mexican food and you should just have oodles of Mexican restaurants. We searched for the best Mexican in town and actually went to one where the service was so bad, we didn’t stay. We found out that the wait staff wasn’t coming in for another half hour. We did wonder why they sat us in the section.

We ended up eating at the Guadalajara Original Grill. Other than the table side salsa which was delicious, the rest of the food was just okay. We heard they were a runner-up for the best Mexican restaurant a few years ago. Have to say the place was packed. As a result, the service wasn’t as good as it might have been at another time.

We stayed at the Hilton Tucson East. It is an older Hilton that was in serious need of renovation. The staff was very nice and very helpful.

Our original plan was to ride the Cactus Forest Loop Road which is a gorgeous scenic route through the lower elevations of the Rincon Mountain District of the Saguaro National Park. It is 8 miles in length. The guide book advertised it as being very narrow with many tight turns and steep hills so I wanted to see it before I rode it.

As it turned out, the road was very narrow, there were no bike lanes, and I worried about it a bit too much for our trikes especially because we have Mac in the trailer. We did not ride it although I might have done it if we knew there would be minimal traffic. The weather was also not in our favor. The cacti were beautiful and the cactus forest was very cool.

Mac had a chance to explore the area a little.  He had to stretch his legs.

We did have the chance to see one of our close friends who lives in Tucson. That was the highlight of the Tucson part of our trip with the possible exception of finding a laundry. We really needed one by that time.  Ahhhhh, clean clothes!

I don’t think we will be visiting Tucson any time soon but it was better than our next stop, Fort Stockton, Texas.