A good solid day's riding, without too much trouble. A 06:30 start meant a beautiful ride into the dawn in the industrial farmland of the Eastern Imperial Valley, with one exception. The half mile next to the mass cattle feeding area was just too grim for my delicate city nose.
15 miles of farmland ended abruptly at the final irrigation canal and I was back out in the desert in the space of 15 metres. 3 miles further on, I was up in the Sahara-esque Imperial Dunes. Fear not though, there was little Lawrence of Arbia poncing to be had, as I was joined by hundreds of locals using the dunes for a vast array of petrol based good times, which I hugely approved of. Desert dunes are essentially of little use outside of a tourist's photo album, so why not strip your jeep down to it’s chaise, weld on some roll bars and hammer it at 100 mph over some. Bright move.
Pushing on up over the pass in the Palo Verde mountains the shoulder fell away, and dips in the road made riding unnerving, but bar one idiot in an RV everyone gave me a wide birth. There were toots and waves galore, including from the US Border Control cops and combat uniformed soldiers in the 50 odd Humvees that came through in convoy. Riding was hugely improved by rain clouds that hung over me all day, proving shade, a gentle tailwind, and oddly no rain, which was a relief given I was in flash flood zones for the bulk of the day. The only other highlight, worth a mention, were the 2 fighter jets that charged over the pass straight at me, as low as I've ever seen military planes.
The last 25 miles of the day was great riding through beautiful flat farm land in the Colorado river valley. With a bowl of mountains at the edge of the valley, and moody rain clouds overhead, it was a scene straight from cowboy central casting.
Lodging for the night is a grim little motel under the embankment of the I-10 freeway, but I've smothered my legs in Bengay (US Deep Heat) and am slowly getting high off the fumes, as I plan tomorrow's 115 mile hike to just North of Phoenix.
Aside from the above, I have one question that's been bothering me today. In every restaurant you go into out here you get free refills on drinks, which begs the question why they have small, medium and large drinks options in every fast food chain. Now I get the hilarious brilliance of sitting at a table with a 2 litre bucket of drink, and I'd happily do it for the gags. I'm just not convinced it's a $3 gag, if there are limitless refills with your small cup.
Route - Brawley - Glamis - Palo Verde - Blythe
Breakfast - Two bowls of Lucky Charms at the motel
Snacks - Two Reese’s cups, Doritos and beef jerky
Lunch - A very disappointing tuna sandwich from the grumpy ladies at the mini-mart in Palo Verde
Dinner - Taco Salad - Casa de Maria, pretty good considering it was a seedy looking restaurant just off the I-10 freeway. The very pretty waitress in a top that can’t have met health and safety guidelines for a food preparation area may have coloured my view, to be fair
.
