This next stretch was pretty light on accommodation options so I set off towards Safford with a couple of options in mind. The ride was more fairly uneventful highway riding through the desert. Stopped for lunch at a grocery store on the Apache Reservation. It was pretty sad as there was virtually nothing on the shelves and the surrounding area was fairly run down. As I finished my bag of Cheetos, a lovely local woman came over and started chatting. She explained how the Apache were originally mountain people but were given the reservation land after various periods of conflict. However there was very little in the way of jobs or opportunities out there. She worked as a health educator and was trying to get the community to take tests for cancer and get vaccinations for things like measles. I’m trying to understand more of the history of native people as a pass through. I don’t think I’d appreciated the complexity of the different tribes and indigenous groups. 

 

Pushed on into and through Safford with the first point of call being a natural hot springs spa that apparently also did camping. Glitzy day spa this was not but they had space to pitch a tent with the added bonus of being able to rest weary legs in some thermal pools. Also a really good vibe of people staying there - got given some salad to eat. Only negative was being woken by people who had pulled their trailer up on the road outside and proceeded to have an argument at 2am. Not sure how my tent seems to be a magnet for late night conflict (I’d had a similar experience at a very remote site in the UK). But the gamble of heading to this place had definitely paid off.