3:00 pm: In my car again with "In the Dark" by Billy Squier on the radio. I've heard more Billy Squier since I've been here than I have in the past 10 years!

Mark (high school physics teacher) called this morning. Coincidentally, he has a gig tonight and he gave me the particulars, so I'll meet him at "Hazy Daze" tonight. I got a late start to the morning and eventually my plan for today fell through. I was planning to ride out to Colossal Cave, which is 17 miles southeast of Tucson down Old Spanish Trail Road. A 34-mile round-trip ride with a big break in the middle was eminently doable, but it turned out to get to Old Spanish Trail Road was 10 miles! That thing I was saying about distances being deceptive in Tucson. Once I got to Old Spanish Trail Road and did the math, it would be a total of 54 miles, which I was not prepared for. I half-heartedly headed down Old Spanish Trail Road to see how I felt, but after only five miles, the heat and the altitude were hampering my efforts and I wisely abandoned the ride. I hated abandoning, I hate giving up, but it was wise. There was very little shade and if my bike had a mechanical, I would have been screwed left, right, bent over, and upside down. Even changing a flat would have been hard. I was more than 2000' higher than what I'm used to riding in, and 20-30 degrees hotter.

The revised plan for the afternoon is drive up Mt. Lemmon, which was the first sign that brought me here in the first place. After today's abandoned ride, though, which was pretty flat, there is no way I'm going to try riding up any of Mt. Lemmon.