She'll be comin' 'round the mountain...

A scootin' kinda day - we decided a circumnavigation of the White Tank Mountains was in order.  Heading north from our park...

Apparently that sign on the right is telling us there will be people and bicycles levitating above horses ahead.  We didn't see any of that.

Our fuel tanks were low.  Low enough that we had the "how far do you think you can go?" conversation before heading out.  It was a good thing this Fry's gas station was only 14.5 miles from where we started...

Heading west from the town of Surprise...

As soon as you leave civilization behind you, the White Tank Mountains are ahead...

As far as mountains go, these are not the highest, but they do jut right up from the west valley floor.  It wasn't long before we could see saguaro cacti on the hillsides...

About 10 miles west into the desert, you come to the Festival development...

Festival Ranch (family homes) and Sun City Festival (for the 55+ crowd), an oasis out here in the desert.  Lots of development across the highway from that... I would show you the photos of the ground moving being done to make more homesites and a golf course, but my camera battery died.

Continuing around on Sun Valley Parkway, this highway eventually passes on the north, then the west side of the White Tank Mountains, connecting to I-10 west of Buckeye, AZ.  Instead of continuing around through Buckeye, we decided to do a U-turn and take this same highway back.  The riding is pleasant - not a fun "twisty" road, but it is a divided 4-lane with virtually no traffic once you are past Sun City Festival.  The speed limit is 55; the scoots can do that without breaking a sweat, but riding 45 while taking in the desert scenery is nice.

Another saguaro view...

That one is a bit of an over-achiever.  These powerline towers reminded me of the 70s video game Space Invaders...

With a tuckered out camera battery, we had to stop to get these shots with our phones.  An obligatory selfie...

Joan took this one of me (proof I was riding)...

You can't really do a decent job of taking photos with a phone while riding; much easier to do with an actual camera.

We stopped for some BBQ for lunch once we were back in Surprise.  Surface roads back to the RV park.  We put about 90 miles on the scoots... pretty cheap entertainment, since we both did better than 100 mpg when we filled up.