Globe campground
Very cold start, we were glad of an early climb to get the blood pumping and found that most of Globe has migrated from the old center east around the road. Then we had a long straight downhill onto an Apache reservation to a junction where we took a back road down to the Coolidge Dam. Our maps warned that this route would be hard on the bikes but the stretch to the dam was fairly good with little traffic. Near the dam there was a store which had limited food and a lot of beer; and it being Saturday they were doing a roaring trade. Some things don't vary wherever you are in the world.
The Coolidge Dam was built between 1927-30 in an attempt to develop the area, and is an impressive structure. We stopped for a while and took a number of photos before taking off on a deteriorating road to find a picnic spot overlooking San Carlos Lake.
Mark on the Dam
San Carlos Lake and a pier of the Dam
Tim's bike had been making creaking noises for a couple of days from it's bottom bracket, and today began to shift unevenly on the rear derailleur, so Mark rode it for the rest of the day to attempt to diagnose the problem. The road continued to be mainly OK, with the odd rough patch (good by African standards we both agreed) and our only problem occurred near the junction with the main road: we came racing down a hill which bottomed out below a railway bridge. Unfortunately the shadows concealed a mass of potholes but be stayed aboard and the bikes were unscathed.
From here the route was uneventful, we found a store for cold drinks in Fort Thomas (not much else in the town but this shop appeared to sell just about everything) and continued into Safford where the bike shop couldn't help us (the amusingly cynical proprietor said our bikes were way too high end for his "Wal-mart" town. We did find food and stopped for a welcome milk shake before heading on to find an RV Park, at the first we tried there was no-one around and the next was a 55+ community, however they allowed us youngsters to stay for the night on the grass outside an empty mobile home.
Mark sets up camp
This proved to be one of the best places we stayed: everyone was friendly, the facilities were good and we enjoyed time in the swimming pool and hot tub (we didn't go to the bingo though).
