It was washboarded for a while and quite a bumpy road. There were still puddles in the river from the rain a few days ago. This section doesn't have much vegetation growing in it while others have quite a bit. I suppose it's how the water hits. I rode past a large power plant. The huge white pylons carrying the electricity go down the wash for miles.

This area is quite overgrown and shady in many places. It's so pleasant (and unusual) to ride my bike through shade. I ride around a corner and come up on Dodge Avenue. This is one of the few bridges where there isn't an underpass. I crossed over and then down the other side.

I could see a park on the north side of the wash. All the dog people go there to exercise and work with their dogs on Saturdays. There are several smaller washes coming in on both sides of the Rillito on this mile and there are footbridges laid next to them. They must be getting ready to add this to the River Park.

The north side of the Rillito from Swan to Craycroft already is paved but that's the only stretch east of Campbell. Right now they only have the concrete reinforcement on the sides. They do color the concrete so it looks like mud and rough it up so it looks somewhat normal, so it doesn't look too out of place.

It will be great when they finally get this stretch finished and then they only have to link it up to Campbell. Right now you have to ride around the railings which curve up a ways into the incoming washes and then ride down and up the other side. With the construction it's even easier to ride across since the construction equipment has smoothed the path.

I passed a homeless camp that's been there for a couple of years. I was glad there was no one there as some of them are not nice people. I was on a sandy path, more a road for four wheel drive vehicles. It was very difficult to ride on but interesting. I rode through a field of golden daisies.

I stopped to visit my mother at the nursing home. She was still in the dining room and almost woke up. I didn't stay long, just talked to her for a little bit and then kissed her goodbye. She doesn't wake up much anymore. Everyone is very nice here and I'm grateful for that.

After leaving her I rode on east on the north side of the Rillito. It was nice to be on paved road. I enjoy the dirt roads but they get a bit difficult. At Craycroft I had to leave the river as there isn't the reinforcement on the sides and it's too overgrown and bushy to get through. I tried to get back to it on the other side of Fort Lowell Park but the dirt road only lasted a few thousand yards before it disappears again. There were a couple of house foundations.

I stopped for lunch and to look at several apartments and finally got home when it was getting hot. Looking at apartments is something I enjoy doing. I've spent the rest of the day resting and relaxing.

I also finished another good book. I'm so excited to be reading again though I notice that I'm reading non-fiction books. The book was "Shadowed Ground" by Kenneth Foote. He looked at how we commemorate, obliterate or ignore sites of violence and tragedy. It was very interesting to think about how we handle places that aren't always as noble as we wish they were.

He covered sites from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War, civil rights, Japanese internment camps, African American heroes and Native American stories. It was a very sobering review of how long it takes to reconcile our differences and acknowledge our mistakes.