Quartzite is a dusty town that consists entirely of RV Parks and dirt. There are a couple restaraunts, too, full of senior citizens who need to get out of the trailer for the night. We had pizza and beer at Silly Al's for dinner. We were done before the karaoke started. We were the youngest people there.
I originally planned to have a short day and stop at Harcuvar, but it was downhill all day long, and we got to Harcuvar really early and there was nothing there, so we pressed on. We went 92 easy miles.
We are close to the Colorado River. We had a couple easy climbs, but mostly it's all downhill into the valley. There are still saguaros at the lower elevations, but when you go up a bit it looks like New Mexico, with mesquite and prickly pears and none of the strange, exotic cacti. We went through several small towns with food, but mostly it has been all desert with no people. Driving off-road vehicles is a popular pastime. We saw a lot of people riding four-wheelers, and you see a lot of dune buggies sitting around.
I think the local economy is based on attending to RVs, riding dune buggies, and a little cotton by the canal that runs to Phoenix. Quartzite is popular with rock hounds, I hear, but it looks like it's all RVs to me.
The landscape is widely separated mountains separated by desert plains. The road goes along the flat plains around the mountains, so the riding is pretty easy. There is no water. There are dry washes at the bottom of the hills. It was partly sunny today, little wind, and a high in the mid 70s. It's really beautiful and scenic and the miles fly by.
I didn't take any pictures today, due to the fact that I already took a bunch of pictures of mountains and cactus. You can click to see the cafe where we ate breakfast in the small town of Aguila to see a typical view of this part of Arizona.
Jim's bike worked flawlessly all day. Now I'm getting the flat tires, one today and one yesterday.
Here is the big long ride for today.
