We are here.

Well, here we are. Welcomed in the beautiful home of our friends Leza, Bryan, Luna and Nico.
In the late afternoon light we enjoy a well deserved rest, reminiscing on our blessed journey. There were so many magical moments along the way that we truly feel blessed.
We want to say thank you for all the kind words and encouragements along the way. It fueled our spirits and our soul.
"A thousand miles journey begins with one revolution..."
And here we are in Tucson.
We will be painting in the next few weeks to get ready for an artshow at the Tucson Village Farm.
Then, new year's eve we fly to Costa Rica.
Love
Martine

Parked at the Tucson Village farm

Our friend Leza runs the garden farm. It is wonderful and yummy. We will have an art show fundraiser here on Dec. 17th. Come on down (if you come from Canada on bikes, it may take 3 1/2 months). We have arrived and are super excited.

Tonight we celebrate

Beer and lemonade for everyone

Lunching along the bikepath

From highways to bike paths all on one day

Martine and Sylvie

Sylvie is hooting all the way down the hill

You can see downtown Tucson in the distance

Last day on the road

Tucson is just the other side of them there hills

Our last morning

Today we arrive,..........
Yahooooooooooo

Saguaros everywhere

Catalina mountains

On the other side is Tucson. Yahooooooooo

Still climbing ( 33 miles)

Andy and Lily

We don't know it yet, but this will be the longest riding day of the trip. We biked for 8 hours, climbing for 33 miles towards the Catalina Mountains and then descending for 7 miles with Sylvie hooting the whole way. We are excited. Tomorrow we arrive in Tucson, our North American destination.

Tonight we stay in the lovely home of Jared and Becky

Saguaro forest and arizona sky

Biking toward the Catalina Mountains

Our first signage that we are close to Tucson

Going down

Gonzales Pass

Yay for Saguaro cactus

Heading to Gonzales Pass

On the road again

We are 3 days and 107 miles from Tucson

Pouring the silver

While we wait...

Here is Andy's latest Love vélo création. It is cast silver.

We have had the privilege and good fortune to stay at Charles and Mari's guest house attached to Mari's studio. Mari has mentored us through silver casting and inspired us for new art endavours.
We have been truly blessed to end up here and wait out for Andy to feel better. He is outside painting pictures right now so I think he's almost good to go.

We are 3 days' riding away from Tucson.

Martine

Sylvie a 9 ans!

Notre grande fille a eu 9 ans hier. Nous restons présentement au studio de Mari Jackson, une artiste à Superior, Arizona.

Il y a une maison d'invité attachée au studio. Hier, nous avons célébré la fête de Sylvie avec 2 cyclistes, Chris et Ross qui ont passé la soirée et la nuit ici; c'était très sympa.

Nous demeurons ici quelques jours de plus que prévu parce qu'Andy n'est pas encore 100%.

La vie est belle!

Salt River Canyon

We started biking again from Showlow through a beautiful forest of Ponderosa Pine. It was a really lovely ride. We stopped for an early lunch/ tire changing stop by the side of the road. A couple had passed us and turned around and came to see if everything was OK. The man gave us 40$?!

We got on the road again and the wind started to pick up. Again, a woman passed us, turned around and came back. She told us that we shouldn't ride the Salt Canyon, that it was long, steep and gnarly.

Meanwhile, it is windy (gust to 50 miles/hour). We have already ridden 20 miles today. There is a storm brewing and Andy feels sick from a head cold. Time to hitchhike!
Now you'd think it would be tricky to get a ride with our rigs (I used to) but we seem to always find a ride when it is needed. We really hitchhike for safety reasons so by the time we have our thumbs out, we are pretty determined...

We got a ride with Byron, a retired aeronautical engineer from Phoenix who was pulling a trailer full of wood; we piled our bikes on top of the wood.

Our jaws dropped when we saw the canyon; there is no way we would have ridden this road with our kids. Way too long and gnarly.

Byron took us to Globe where Andy is getting better. We put the money from the generous stranger towards our hotel stay. Thank you Random Roadside Arizona Stranger!

We will be heading north to Roosevelt Lake for a break and to celebrate Sylvie's birthday.

We are getting close to Tucson!!!

Martine

Let's go!

Biking cowboy

Sylvie whispering to a butterfly

Let's go that way said Lily

The last 36 hours

We left the Navajo reservation late morning Thursday. We had been riding for about half an hour when we decided that we were not having a good time because the shoulder had disappeared and the road was way too busy. So we started hitchhiking.

We got a ride with Victor Mata. Victor lives about 120miles from where he picked us up. He offered to take us as far as he lived.

We stopped at a zoo on the way. The girls loved it. We then had dinner with Victor and his wife Missy, daughter Brooke (who has the same birthday as Sylvie) and son Tyler.

We spent the night and enjoyed breakfast with them before saying good bye and getting on the road again (I'm reading jack kerouac).

Thank you so much to the Mata family for opening their home to us.

Martine

Brrrrrrr!

Ce matin il fait très froid, -6; on repart après quelques jours de repos. Ils y a risque de neige alors on verra ce que les prochains jours amènent.

Nous rêvons de temps plus chauds.

Martine

Andy cooking breakfast.

Heart on a leaf

Love is everywhere.
Last night we had a lovely time with Rick and Ami, a great couple who live on the road. They invited us over for sorbet and story telling. A welcome visit on a windy evening.

Faeries in the desert

Hiking Canyon de Chelly near Chinle, Arizona, on the Navajo reservation. The largest reservation in north America.

On the edge of the canyon

Family outing at Canyon de Chelly

We left our bikes at the campsite and went exploring with Tom in his jeep. Tom is a fellow traveller we met at the campsite.

Faeries going for a hike

Halloween

The faeries easily extorted candy fro
Fellow campers and the visitors center.

Dressed up stuffy on Halloween