What would you call a day that starts with you missing your first wake-up alarm of 3:45 am, yet were awakened by a second alarm at 3:50, then while eating breakfast as you try to get out the door to the start of the bike ride, your cat decides to pee in an unusual spot, so you have to clean it up? Oh and once you drive 40 minutes to the start location, you begin your ride at 5:05am only to encounter a front tire flat in the first 5 miles? Then you finish your ride at 1:50AM, put the bike in the, drive 40 minutes to home, pull bike out of the car and the rear tire is flat? Well - that served as bookends to a fantastic day of cycling 250 miles all around the Phx valley! Started with a nice sunrise in Queen Creek, AZ. Sunny with some wispy clouds, a bit of wind at places, coolish temps, a cycling partner, great sunset filled with red and orange colors on the far west side of the white tank mountains. Kyle, my cycling partner for the day, was doing is longest ride ever. He had never been to 200 miles before yet along doing the 250 we were about to complete. He did great on the early flat part out to Queen Creek as we pedaled into the pre-dawn hours, Then north on Ellsworth and all the new construction in Queen Creek, and far east Mesa. Then the drag up to Usery Pass and Usery Park Visitor Center. THere were about 10 cyclists along the journey. We stopped at the visitor center, which is always a welcome water/bathroom/sight-seeing stop. Then the fast descent down Usery to Bush Hwy. Traffic was not too bad on the Bush. The Extra caution that Mike added to the route around mile 44 for the piece of missing asphalt seemed to be ok, at about 1 mile from the Bush Hwy. Then the climb out of Saguaro Lake. Kyle's pace was a bit faster than I wanted to do, so up he went and I finally reunited up at Beeline. A great clear day to ride the Salt River canyon. Down to Fountain Hills and wouldn't you know it, we saw the fountain just as we were in downtown! There was a big festivity around the lake. The construction is still present mile 67.4 - 67.7 by the control but again we rode in the construction zone as no workers were present. Then a quick water stop at Subway and out of the control at 67.9 and there passing in front of me was an orange colored Ashton-Martin! Cool. The climb out of Fountain Hills went smoothly. At mile 71.0 at Adero Resort where we turn onto the trail, it amazes me to see homes being built 1-2 miles up the canyon. In fact the next day I drove out here with brother Jim/Sue to see the activities and up to Adero Canyon Trailhead! Amazing homes. Heading down Via Linda is always a joy to see the sights and have speed. Then the quick stop at Aztec Park to get water/bathroom to start the long trek up the Carefree! Lots of traffic on Pima, so for a change and to see what it was like, we jumped on the bikepath at mile 86.6. There is an underpass of Pinnacle Peak at 87.6 and the paved path ends at 87.8. The ride across Stage Coach and Lone Tree is always gorgeous with the views and the homes. Then finally the descent into Cave Creek where we stopped at Dairy Queen for a long lunch of 40 minutes at mile 106.1. Then over to to the old Burger King at115.3 for a quick stop before the push to mile 125.9 gas station and Lake Pleasant Pkwy. Spent a few minutes here and chatted up a guy on a bike with a pull-trailer that wanted to talk. He saw us on the main road turning into the station and turned around to follow us in! He spends a ton of time cycling and hanging out on all the trails/roads. Our next stop was mile 146.9 at Walgreen's for water. I forgot to mention that Kyle had been giving my some of his electrolyte mix, watermelon flavor. It was pretty good. I think he poured some of his powder into 2-3 bottle fills. All I know is that I did not experience any cramps and felt good muscle wise all day and the next day. I also took 2 electrolytes tablets of my own along the route. Now the race was on, mentally to reach the Shell at mile 160.9 before sunset! We did and it was a gorgeous sunset! Kyle needed to eat so he got a Subway and I watched the sunset colors. Then went in and got a foot-long wrapped of pepperoni and cheese, 560 cal, all tightly wrapped in an easy to eat configuration. I did not want to eat a sandwich, just seemed like too much work to chew all that bread. Hindsight today tells me that was a harbinger of my low energy later in the trip. Then a bathroom water refill at Tartesso mile 173.1. Now for the crossing of the farmland. Kyle's main light battery died, so we stopped to hookup his battery bank, Turns out that did not work for some reason, so we stopped again for him to put on his backup light! Great that he had a second light. Also somewhere in this section around Buckeye, my self-contained headlight died, as expected and I switched to my AyUp light with small new battery. We got to McDonald's and the lobby was still open with lots of teenagers dressed like prom/Spring Dance. all fancy dressed. Of course I got the usual apple pie double deal, 250 cal each! Yum. Again hindsight shows I did not consume enough calories in the last half of the ride. The Shell station + McD ~ 1,000 cal for 150 miles. I think I did have 1 -2 items of snacks as well. No real issues across the rez with dogs, except one that did a fake charge at me from the side but stopped well away from me. Kyle who was a little ahead of me at this point of ride had 2 coyotes cross his path. Then back into Chandler and finished up a great day of cycling. SUMMARY No cramps or real issues but I should have eaten more on back half.