Birds!

Some bikes ask me why I keep coming down to Tucson every year.  To me that is such a “Duh!” question, but even I, a bike with an attitude, can not be quite that rude to answer like that.  So., let me explain it nicely (well….as nicely as I can).

Each year we come down it is a little bit the same and a little bit different.  Each year it is PAC Tour and many of the bikes (and their riders) are familiar frames.  But each year we get new people (and sometimes riders bring different bikes….grrr….really…those humans think they can do that — when will they learn that the important side of the pair of bike and human is the bike, not the human?!?!?!?  But, I digress….)

Each year the routes are similar, but different.  Sometimes we come down for the longer weeks, but as of late we’ve been coming down for Historic Towns (aka, ‘wussy week’….am I allowed to us that term?)  But, of all the PAC Tour routes, this one has the shortest routes.  When the humans aren’t in very good shape, this week is ideal…time enough to ride, but more time to relax.

Which then begs the question, “Again, you’re doing the same thing again?”  Well…..”duh!”  Oops…is it rude if I answer my own question like that?!?!  But, seriously…each time we come we see something different.  If it isn’t the weather bringing heat one year and snow the next; it is different riders telling different stories; it is new bikes and new people; old bikes and old friends.

I’ve already told you about the snow this year — oh, and, btw, there is snow on the ground here in Patagonia!  But, also, this is the year of the bird.  Never have we heard the birds so loud and full of song.  We were “chased” down Mission Road by a phainopepla.  At the time we called it a blue-black cardinal shaped bird, but later learned that it is a bird that has a symbiotic relationship with the misteltoe — find one, find the other.  Who knew?

So, yeah….sure it is the same, but, nope, it is different.  And the sameness allows us to relax and enjoy the new.