Monday 21 Jan
A long, long ride today of 300 miles and the first 100 having to be done on the Interstate. On the Interstate I notice a turn off for Dateland and a sign at a diner for the place of the "world famous Date Shake" and this reminds me of the New Zealand drink L&P which is "world famous in New Zealand".
Off the Interstate and we are into real "Injun" country with names like Mohawk Valley and Tohono O'Odham Nation (although looks to be some Irish mixed in there somewhere along the line). But the largest influence is Mexican as we continuously skirt along the border as we travel to Tucson. Along the way we have to stop at three border checks, just to make sure we don't have an illegal stashed somewhere. But as the car in front is given the all clear and the Border officials see we are a motorcycle, we are waved through without being asked to stop or show our documents. It would, after all, be pretty difficult to hide a Mexican on the bike! Along the way we make a detour at Why (and why not?) to go to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - a vast piece of landscape covered in the tall cactus synonomous with the old westerns and, because of their structure, they are called Organ Pipe cactus.
Eventually, we arrive at Tucson and first impressions are that it is a large and sprawling town with many highways, interstates and intersections. With a population of over 900,000 we can understand why. We decide to check into the first motel we can find and establish our bearings in the morning.

Tuesday 22 Jan
Our navigation skills are really put to the test this morning as wefirstly find the Tucson Triumph dealer, just to call in and say hi and grab a local Triumph t-shirt and then on to the BMW dealer for a routine service and a rear tyre. As we plan to be in Tucson a few days we have decided to book into a local B&B and are currently at The Bed and Bagel B&B and have the use of the spa pool, laundry and PC and views of Mount Lemon in the distance. Re-lax-ing!!