Update 3/3
We departed Thatcher, AZ, at 8:20 AM, and again we hit lots of "roller coaster" hills, but they were not as frequent or as severe. The weather was great again, and the wind was light and variable. There was a big swing in the temperature: 45 when we departed and 87 at about 2 PM. The countryside in the Gila Valley was beautiful and completely different from anything else we had seen in Arizona. We stopped for lunch in Duncan, the last place for services in AZ. We again were riding late in the day, so we stopped and put on our lights. Our 80-mile day was finally concluded at 6:30 PM when we reached Lordsburg, NM, after 7 hours and 20 minutes in the saddle. We weren't aware of any campgrounds in the area, so we settled for one of the first motels we saw.