LEAVING TUCSON

Leaving Tucson on the road south seemed more like leaving a Mexican town rather than anywhere in the U.S. Most signs were in Spanish and the choice for tacos exceeded the choice of burgers. Arizona is a difficult state to get across on a bicycle. I was already on a warning from being caught on the interstate and if I was caught again, I'd be fined. Basically, I'm trying to cross the state from north west to south east without using motorways and it seems impossible to do so without occasionally using back road dirt tracks. To use the dirt tracks is difficult for 2 reasons;

1. We're presently getting a lot of rain here. And dirt track turn to mud in the wet. Mud is a nightmare on the bike. It makes it impossible to cycle and difficult to push.

2. I'm just 50KMs from the Mexico and I'm running parallel with the border. This region is very heavily policed due to smuggling and illegal immigration. The last thing I want is rude awakenings from my campspots from border patrol police or those they are chasing.