Big ride for me today, at least biggest my road bike has seen in the past few years. It was all of 60 miles and 4 hours. The time flew by as Shane and I talked up a storm.
We rode up Oracle (which is akin to riding on the freeway), then climbed towards SaddleBrooke ™. I have never actually been to Saddlebrooke, and if you cannot guess, I was ever so excited. I have often wondered if the sea of red roofs that is readily visible (impossible to miss) from any viewpoint in the catalinas, is really necessary. It’s the same old tired out AZ formula: cookie cutter houses, perfectly landscaped yards, gates, golf courses, et cetera. This just happens to be one of the largest ones.
As you approach the top of the hill there is a large iron sign reading, “Spectacular view of Saddlebrooke just ahead!” I wish I were joking. I want to install a similar sign near the top of Charouleau Gap, so that when you climb out of the CDO basin from the back side you are warned in advance that a spectacular view of saddlebrooke is approaching.
I thought it was also funny how there aren’t any bike lanes, but there are plenty of “cart lanes” (labeled as such). I was also slightly impressed that there were a few services in SaddleBrooke itself. I thought the idea of moving away from the city was so that you could burn gasoline every day to drive back to it. At least the folks here can fill up on gas on their way to burn more gas. The amount of traffic on the road into Saddlebrooke was equally impressive. I don’t look forward to climbing that hill again.
I am being too hard on the ‘master planned’ community. It isn’t that bad. It’s worse than that. It’s also better than that. There’s plenty of good, honest folks out there, enjoying life in the best way they see. But I do continually wonder if there isn’t a better way, or if this was all really necessary. And anything that further perpetuates people’s (unecessary) reliance on automobiles is bad in my book.
More roadie miles? Maybe.
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