Day 6: Salome to Sun City West (Phoenix suburb) (6/7/2025)

 To donate to Ryves Youth Center (all money goes to them, none to me:) https://secure.qgiv.com/for/ridacrame/

For more information on Ryves Youth Center: https://ccthin.org/ryves-youth-center

Today I rode about 90 miles from Salome to Sun City West in Arizona. At one point I crossed over the Hassayampa River. Here is a picture of the sign. The word “Hassawampa” on the sign starts with the letter H. What do you think the word after it is that starts with the letter R?

Anyway, here is a picture of what the river looks like right now when you stand on the bridge and look down on it:

Does it look wet or dry? Why do you think the river is dry right here? 

This part of Arizona is a desert. A desert is a part of the world that gets very little rain. When there isn’t much rain in the desert, sometimes the rivers and creeks actually go dry! When it rains again, then they fill up for awhile.

I travelled on a highway that took me most of the way to Sun City West. Look at the sign and see if you can tell me what number the highway is. You’ll see that it has a “6” then a “zero.” Do you know what number that is?

  

It’s 60! I’ll  be on Highway 60 for a little bit longer on Monday, then I’ll get onto highway 70 eventually.

I took a few more pictures of some saguaro cactuses. I wanted you to see how massive they really are, so I took my picture next to one. Here is a picture of me standing next to a saguaro. I’m almost 6 feet tall. How many feet tall do you think this saguaro is?

Today when I got to Sun City West I went to the house of a very kind man named Bob. Bob likes to help out cyclists who are riding across the country so he is letting me stay in his house this weekend. He also took me to a nice restaurant where I was able to get a lot of food to get my energy back. We spent a lot of time talking and he told me about the time he rode his bicycle across America. The best part of taking this trip is all the wonderful people like Bob that I get to meet along the way. Taking care of other people—like making food for them, drawing pictures for them, or just talking to them—that’s an important way of showing love. How do you show love to the people in your life that you care about?

I hope you like the rest of the pictures I took today. Tomorrow I will be resting in Sun City West and I will keep riding again on Monday, so you may not hear from me for two days until Monday. I hope you are having a great summer!