Something To Chew On
November 5-11, 2018
By Becca Bona
California Chronicles Part III
If you’re just now joining the story, this is the third piece in a series focused on my first real road trip adventure. The destination: California. The mantra: “Collect moments, not things.”
My boyfriend and I were smack-dab in the middle of Arizona Wildcat football post-win traffic, with one broken bike and two sinking hearts.
“What do we do now?” I asked, concerned that we were stranded for good.
“We’ll get an Uber back to the Airbnb, and then come back and get the bikes,” my boyfriend replied.
I’m glad he’s quick on his feet, because I was ready to give up, have another brew, and possibly even sleep in a taproom somewhere working bikes or not. I could only think how this setback might ruin our next night’s plans to camp in Tucson’s Mountain Park.
Our Uber driver was surprised to find a couple of cyclists stranded in the traffic. “You should be careful biking when there’s this many people on the road,” she chided us, “These Wildcat fans are no joke.”
Once at the Airbnb, we hopped in the car, drove back to the bikes, and finagled them back on the rack. Then we made it back to the Airbnb again, round two.
By this time it was dang near one o’clock in the morning.
“What are we going to do?”
I was thinking of our big cycling plans for San Diego – riding along the boardwalk, something that I considered penultimate on my bucket-list. We’d never make it with a broken bike, though.
“We’ll figure it out,” my boyfriend said, as he searched nearby cycling shops from his phone.
The good thing about a broken bike in a college town, is that there are ample shops to chose from when fixing it.
We got up (groggily – mind you) the next day and headed to Sonoran Cycles Bike Shop on the university campus. Some nice gentlemen (students, I presume), were ready to solve our problem. While they worked my boyfriend and I explored the campus, eyes wide at a hookah bar and eclectic boutique on the main drag.
As we sat sipping our creatively named coffees – Fruity Pebbles and Flower Power – we regrouped. The temperature would be near 105 degrees at five o’clock. We knew camping was out of the question, so we got a last minute Airbnb.
When we finally picked up the bike – a mere $18 fix – we were beyond stoked.
The surprise didn’t stop there, though, as we made our way to our home for the night, our jaws dropped. It was in Northern Tucson, and we had ample views of mountains and Saguaro Cacti. We had plans to go out to eat, but we had a private balcony and decided instead to make it our mission to see the sunset over the city and then get up to see the sunrise the next morning.
