Detour to Lordsburg, New Mexico

March 24 Safford to Duncan 47 miles

Duncan was not on our original itinerary. In fact, that itinerary may no longer be of much use as we are learning more about ourselves, abilities and changing the route. We met a cross country rider in Globe who said not to do Needles Eye Pass in AZ and that he had met the Woman Tours group farther east and they didn't ride the pass this year. Well, Georgia 'had been there and done that' and didn't need to do it again so we changed our route also.
The road to Duncan was an uphill ride with a whole lot of nothing to see. No wildflowers, no cactus, just dry grass and broken glass along the road. Georgia decided that the Lord was holding this part of the world in reserve for the Millennium when it would be a gorgeous paradise. We accomplished the 47 miles surviving boredom, heat and hills in spite of it being a poor attitude day for Georgia. If the effort is 90% mental and only 10% physical she was seriously lacking. For some reason it was just tough.
Once in Duncan the real adventure of the day was finding a place to sleep. We called the number on a sign along the road for an RV park and a woman met us there to tell us where we could camp. But no bathrooms or showers. She told us down the road there was another RV camp with facilities and to try them. If that didn't work try the only motel in town which charges only $30/night. If neither of those worked out she said to just come back and sleep at their park for nothing. The other RV park charged $15 for a spot on the gravel and the motel was full. We ended up at the first place after all but it was majorly inconvenient. Another thing we learned that night is how much we take "facilities" for granted.

The ride into Duncan had been hilly and a challenge but not as difficult as Needles Eye would have been. But Duncan is such a sad little town. Dusty, dirty, dilapidated....kind of a ghost town with people. What causes people to choose to live where they do? We haven't learned the answer to that one yet.