What a great route around the entire valley! Always amazes me that it is 250 miles to ride around the Phx Metro area. I got tired and a bit cold, or rather tired of the cold, from mile 189 to the end. I really enjoyed the ride and route. Not really busy with traffic, often a good shoulder and good pavement. Ample water/food stops. Diverse views. There were a couple times in Sun City area, where sun angle was low and I was riding into the sun, so used the sidewalk for a couple miles. Just don't trust the drivers. Some comments on route: 1. Mile 23.1 Observation. I hit this intersection at a red light so had time to look at the street signs. The road ahead is labelled on street sign as Ellsworth Loop Rd. the road to right is Ellsworth Rd (sign on right). Very understandable when looking at Google map on why these names and one notices that Google Maps uses the name of Ellsworth Rd for both of these! That is probably why the auto-cue generator is not indicating a road name change. I see Google actually uses both names on the map, in this area. Mile 24.8 name returns to just Ellsworth Rd. 2. Mile ~55.5 on coming down the Beeline, the shoulder has what one could describe as the usual car burned-out area of pavement, but the pavement is actually gone and a large hollowed area of a couple inches deep exists. I really thought I was going to take a tumble as I hit this area. If one stay to the right at that part of the shoulder, you should miss the worse of it. 3. Mile 176.6 Note the cattle guard on the descent from the overpass, the south side of the grate has a bit of a drop off. 4. Mile 175.8 note the road narrows to a 2-lane, with no shoulder, stay left. After 28 miles of a great shoulder and in the dark it is hard to see this coming on the downhill from overpass, which is still very wide, but right after the cattle grate, it narrows quickly approaching intersection of Palo Verde Rd / Yuma Rd and if they are too far right it can be a challenge. 5. Mile 188.8 note that water/restrooms are available at Earl Edgar Rec Park, just off route by going north on Miller to the Earl Edgar Rec Park and turning right and go to end of parking lot. I am not sure of the hours, web says 11pm close. I see from Google that the water is outdoors and so I assume it would be 24 hours. Inline image 6. A point of clarity, the control at Mile 199.8 has a market associated with the gas pumps. The pumps are open 24 hours, but the market closes most nights at 9pm. McDonald's closes at 11. Other than a crappy 1.9 miles from 239.2 - 241.1 on AZ 347 with bumpy shoulder and from mile 195.2 - 195.6 ( no shoulder, dark, could be lots of traffic) the other 246 were fun to ride. I thought the stretch on Carefree Hwy Mile 119.2 - 125.0 would be very bumpy, but it was not too bad, now that I ride 32mm tires. Traffic was not too bad, Ellsworth had the most in the morning but by the time one got to mile 26.5 area, that traffic had reduced. Some highlights included Salt River Canyon when the traffic was fairly low. Seeing all the motorcycles up in Cave Creek even before noon. I chose to eat breakfast in Fountain Hills. It was a bit early in the ride but I was hungry. I got to Shell station (mile 156.9) on Sun Valley Pkwy just as it got real dark. So the ride after that was dark which I enjoy. Yes there are some bumps here too, but can ride in main traffic lane since low traffic. Mile 200.3 - 213.6 was interesting bc of the Nascar traffic leaving PIR (mile 208.0) even at 10pm! The road was marked off with cones ( up to PIR) so the east bound traffic (me) was riding on the "shoulder" while there were 3 lanes going west bound! So many cones and cars. Luckily the east bound traffic was mainly me. From Mil 200.3 to PIR I think 3 cars passed me from behind, but each case I pulled over to let them pass. As got to the PIR started seeing the huge semi-trailer team trucks going east bound! I must have seen about 15 trucks pass me, mostly on Broadway startign mile 210.7. They were shiny, big, lots of lights all around the truck, big lettering, some had car numbers on back. Cool. By mile 213.7 I was back to being a solo rider on a quiet, still wind, cool-cold night, cycling along. This stretch from 213.7 to 228 always keeps me alert for reservation dogs. Had just 1 dog come out and he came out and crossed in front of me like a white ghost ( lol he was a white dog). At mile 234.8 I spent 20 minutes changing a flat tire at 39F. I was never cold. I laid the bike down and used the headlight to shine on me as I sat on ground and fixed the flat. Of course I was kicking myself because on Thursday before the ride, that same tire went flat. I attributed it to pretty closely spaced sticky things ( thorns, but didn't see them poking from tread side or wire pieces of the tire itself). On Thursday I rubbed them down so they would not be sharp. Thought about putting on a new tire, but opted not to. So yes, the flat I had tonight was from those same 2 sticky things, since they were in a noticieable spot relative to the stem hole! UGH, So when I got home, the next day I put a new tire on! Fun ride, saw a couple road-runners! The traffic was not bad. It would have been nice to have a bit of company. I was dressed warm enough. At the start I had woolie socks, green woolie(the heavier of my 2 woolie undershirts), jersey, Bull Shifter vest, Orange wind breaker jacket, blue arm warmers, cycling gloves, and the light weight full gloves, a skull cap. I also carried but never used, a black cycling leg pants. At breakfast in Fountain Hills , mile 67.2, I removed the green woolie undershirt, orange jacket and gloves, and arm warmers. Tied the green woolie to handle bars. Rest in saddle back. I put everything back on at the Shell station on SVP mile 167.5. I was never really cold with that gear. There were times when my feet got a bit cold, but that never lasted long, It was funny that after my food stops, I noticed I started to shiver, as the blood was working on digestion, so especially after the Shell on SVP where I initially was keeping the orange wind breaker for later, the shivers started, so stopped right away and put on the orange.