My first time ever to start a ride at 2am! Alex opted for this start time so we could beat the AZ August heat, and it worked. We both were doing the ride because we like the route and we wanted to satisfy our RUSA R-12 award requirement of riding a ride of at least 200k, for 12 consecutive months. This would be our August ride, and for me, a ride to see how my carpal tunnel would handle the extra time. We flew west bound and then south bound under total darkness with some early clouds that hid some of the stars. Later the clouds would dissipate. Our goal was to reach the southern turnaround point by sunrise! We and we exceeded that by getting back north to the Gillespi Dam Bridge before sunrise. Temps were in mid 70's as we were down that way. But started to rise as we headed north. We got to see my favorite critter, a road runner, run across our path! We rode the usual Alex style of side-by-side and never drafted! That drafting would have been nice and the final leg from the Shell on SVP back to the end as we had a head wind. Among the obvious heat benefit of starting at 2 am, was the joy of actually cycling those 10 miles from the bridge south to the turn around and back to the bridge, because the low light levels helped to focus the mountain silhouettes, where were stunning in those magic hours of dawn. We did take extended break times at the Tartesso park to hydrate, refill water, eat some of our food, and get soaked with water on the return stop! Nice place to stop. One remarkable item was as we were on the return leg from around the Buckeye Municipal Airport we had about a 5 miles to reach Tartesso. The temp raised from 78 F to 86 F in that distance! Yes it did get warm for the last 27 miles home from Tartesso, but with conversation we made that time pass quickly.