Update 3/2
We departed the hotel at the Apache Gold Casino at 9:20 AM after a good breakfast. The weather was clear, and the wind had died down so that it was not a factor as we headed out. We stopped at a super market on the reservation not far down the road and asked a local about the road to Safford. He said it was like a roller coaster. He was right, and our speed reflected it. When we reached Bylas we stopped for a late lunch and stocked up on food for what we knew would be a long ride. Just a couple of miles before Pima the front tire began to lose air, so we stopped. Sure enough, we had run over a "goat head," a thorn which cyclists in and traveling through Arizona claim was only created to puncture bicycle tires. After replacing the tube, we were still a few miles from an RV park which would accept tents, so we put on our lights. After a 69-mile day we arrived at an RV park in the town of Thatcher where the manager offered us a vacant RV for not much more than the cost of a tent site, so we accepted. We were about four miles short of our planned destination of Safford, but it was dark and we were ready to stop.