Day 19:

I left the RV Park early hoping to be spared some traffic as I tackled the last 20 miles of Hwy 72.  The last miles of MY independent routing, after those 20 miles, I would join the mapped route chosen by Adventure Cycling, which would be AZ Hwy 60.

I still had my hands full staying safe on this road, traffic was moderate so I could use my "convergence zone" method- Riding was safe as long as traffic from both direction didn't converge on me, if it did I stopped and waited on the shoulder until at least one lane cleared. Sometimes a slow process, but since I had promised Patty, when she consented to the trip, that I would come home alive, it seemed the prudent choice.

I was anxious, as I closed on Hwy 60, to discover if it was really going to be that much better of a road, or not.  It was.  Three glorious feet of paved shoulder, which at times grew to six feet!!

I stopped at the first open cafe on Hwy 60 and was greeted with several splendid things at once.  A salad bar with fresh strawberries.  I took the "one pass" option for the salad bar, only $3- it looked like a swarm of locusts has descended on that salad bar after I passed.  While I was polishing off the plate, they posted a sign that read "maximum safe height on any single plate is now limited to 2 feet".  I had a hamburger, too.

As I was paying my check, the waitress insisted on filling my Camelback with fresh water and ice.  I am not exaggerating to say that this was the first generous act by a stranger in many, many miles.

The next town up the road had a splendid county park, right next to a golf course, so I decided that 32 miles would be enough for the day, and paid for a camping spot.  Again, nice hot shower with no time limit.

The camp hosts hailed from New Jersey before retirement, now they spend their time finding small parks where they can live in their RV and work as park hosts.

Day 20:

I left Centennial Park headed for Wickenberg, along Hwy 60, with a beautiful 4 ft wide, smoothly paved shoulder stretching out ahead of me as far as I could see. Wonderful.

The day went well, I logged 57 miles and ended at an RV park that seems to cater to horse people- the park is called Horspitality RV Park.  The owners gave me the Adventure Cycling discount and instructed me to put my tent on the lawn of the Club House.  It was luscious green grass, the first I had camped on in what seemed like weeks, and the hot shower was only a few steps away.  One thing I have to say about this group of horse people, and perhaps it applies universally to all horse people, they were certainly friendly and respectful.  The park was huge, but clean and well maintained.

Day 21:

I left Horspitality RV Park headed for downtown Tempe, where I could visit REI and pick up my new tent.  My MSR tent was having problems with its seams leaking, so the manufacturer agreed to replace my one year old tent with a new improved model.  I had purchased the tent on the Web, so exchanging the tents was going to require a real store- REI agreed to help.

The route carried me through a lot of urban riding, including a 20 mile section of the Arizona Canal System.  Unlike California, a state which also has hundreds of miles of irrigation canals, Arizona is happy to share these wonders with the biking community.  In California, I could find only two bike trails along canals in the entire state- many other trails had once existed, but were closed due to "safety" reasons.  In Arizona, there were paved biking trails along just about every canal I crossed. All I can deduce from this is that the residents of Arizona must be much more capable cyclists- I did not see a single cyclist careen off the path and end up in the canal.

Cycling through towns, especially large towns like Phoenix, can be a slow process.  The volume of traffic always increases, as does the number of traffic signals, so one spends a lot of time waiting for the light to change to green. Plus, it is a lot easier to get off course and add unintentional miles to the day.

My route took me past ASU, in Tempe.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and on the north end of the extremely modern looking campus there is a lake to behold.  The crew teams, men and women's, were all out on the water, or carrying boats everywhere.  The one end of the lake looked like a yacht club;  little marinas, party boats with the ASU logo on the side, docks, and swarms of rowers.  Tyler, you might want to check this campus out, but don't forget to factor the cost of sunscreen into your tuition budget.

I spent the night at my trusty motel of choice, Motel 6.  Across the street, lucky for me, was a nice brew pub and pizza restaurant.  I ordered a huge salad and a deep dish pizza all for just me.  It took a while but I managed to consume all but two pieces, which ended up as breakfast the next morning.

I had a big first today: I passed my first 1,000 miles.  I logged 76 miles for the day and the odometer was resting on 1,005 when the cycling day ended.

Day 22 (Feb 25th):

An early start from Tempe, more urban cycling, and then back on Hwy 60 headed east towards my destination- another Warm Showers rendezvous in Superior, AZ.  The highway was crowded but for the most part the cycling was straightforward, stay outside the solid white line. But there was one vexing peculiarity to this recently repaved road, about every 2-3 miles there would be a guardrail that would "funnel" me into the traffic lane.  With the traffic as heavy as it was (It was Saturday, and there was a Renaissance Fair going on about 20 miles down the road, which accounted for at least one half of the traffic) this required that I stop and wait for a cessation of traffic before I sprinted the one hundred yards required to clear the pesky guardrail blocking the shoulder.  After a few of these, I began to see the reason for them. 

This country has hundreds of signs along the roadways, warning motorists that there is a danger of "flash floods".  The land has many "washes" which are all dry as a bone now, but which must rage with fury when thunderstorms dump water quickly on this desert soil.  So the highways all have crossings for these washes, sometimes these crossings are simply a severe dip in the roadway, allowing the flood waters to wash over the pavement, on more travelled highways, there is an actual passage under the roadway- sort of a mini bridge.  Hwy 60 had these mini bridges, and it was at each of these water overcrossings that one would find this somewhat dangerous (only for the cyclist) guardrail.  The guardrails narrowed the roadway keeping errant cars from leaving the roadway and abruptly dropping into these dry ravines.  But they forced me onto the actual roadway; with the heavy weekend traffic headed to the festival, I had to stop and yield to the cars at each intruding rail.  It helped me drink more, since I could guzzle water while waiting for the traffic to abate.

Today's route had another first, a flat tire.  Drat.  And the worst tire, the rear bike tire.  The makers of the BOB trailer recommend that the trailer be unloaded prior to removal from the bike, the fully loaded trailer is very unwieldy and attaching or detaching it to the bike when it is loaded is a two person job.  I had been practicing the art of attaching the trailer fully loaded, now the flat tire put me to the test- sadly it put me to the test twice, so let me explain.

I quickly found the problem, a staple had penetrated the tire on the side wall; it completely missed  the Kevlar band that protects the tire where it meets the road and punctured the tube in two spots.  I repaired both punctures (during the repair I was reminded how quickly glue tubes dry out once the seal is punctured, I was carrying two already opened glue tubes- both dry.  Luckily I also had two new, unopened repair kits), reassembled the tire, reattached the trailer, and cycled nearly a mile before I had to repeat the process. 

In an effort to protect against flats, I had not only installed Kevlar belted tires on the bike (for some reason I overlooked the trailer tire during this process, it still sports a normal tire) but also installed "thorn-proof" tubes.  The tubes are heavy, but I hate fixing flats, so it seemed like a good tradeoff.  Unfortunately, the staple had punctured the tube right at the edge of the special "thorn-proofing", so although the patch looked good when applied, during inflation to full pressure the patch tore away from the tube.  My guess is the tube stretches very little, if any, where the tube is thickened for the thorn-proofing, and stretches quite a lot where it is built like a normal tube.  The patch that failed straddled the different zones of the tube.  I was hot and hungry, and ready to be done for the day, so I installed my backup tube and finished the ride.

I was planning to stay with a Warm Showers host for the night, but I didn't expect to have an entire house to myself.  The hosts are an older couple that own two houses in town, the one that they are slowly remodeling they leave available for visiting cyclists.  They had some great stories about recent visitors.  I most remember the couple traveling from BC to Costa Rico with two children- the youngsters where somewhere around 6 and 8 years old and travelling in Tag-Alongs. How the two adults managed two young kids, camping gear, and these tough roads I have no idea.  Stories like this one always remind me that I shouldn't complain about trying conditions, many have done it under more trying circumstances.

The day ended with 57 miles.

Day 23:

I knew that I had the first of many mountain climbs ahead of me today, so I started as early as I dared.  One of the small problems headed east, is that if one starts too early in the day motorists are looking into a bright sun as they approach you, making planning for a safe pass even more unlikely than usual. So I wanted an early start but no sun directly in the driver’s eyes.

I had been warned that the first 11 miles was straight climbing, most of it with no shoulder.  I was glad to find that the gravest part of that information was incorrect.  The climbing part was dead-on, but gratefully, there was either a shoulder or a passing lane for much of the climb.  This day's ride was basically the equivalent of a ride up Dead Indian and then on to Lake of the Woods.  There was some screaming downhill, too.  Again, holding my speed to 25 mph on some of the steeper parts left some of my brake pads behind.

Two factors made this a short mileage day, the first being the 4,000 ft or so of climbing, the second was the fact that I was about to enter an Apache Indian Reservation.  It seems that the safest tack is to plan on staying on the western edge of the reservation (oddly, at a large Indian casino) for the night, and then shooting across the reservation in a single day, stopping after a minimum of 50 cycling miles.  That seemed convenient, so that was the plan I adopted.

57 miles for the day, unlimited hot showers at the casino RV park, and a nice night of camping.

Day 24:  (Feb 27, 2012):

The weather forecast for today is anticipating SSE winds of 25 mph by mid-day, with gusts to 40 mph.  Since I am heading in a SE direction, with a need to cycle a minimum of 47 miles, I decided today would be a rest day.  I think I have cycled 8 or 9 days since my last rest day, so I am due. 

I wish I was spending my slack day somewhere a little less commercial, instead of camping on the lot of a major casino, but we will make due, BOB and I.  BOB is going to sit in the sun all day and rest his wheel bearings and I am going to investigate the casino restaurant and discover if they are offering any legendary casino all-you-can-eat buffets.

The weather forecast is predicting more co-operative winds on Tuesday, but along with the friendlier winds comes cooling temperatures.  The high tomorrow is expected to be mid 50's and the low tomorrow night 29 degrees!  I will spend part of my day today perusing the motels ahead.

0  miles today.

Day 16  (Feb 19th):

After a nice day off, it was time to move.  I decided that Joshua Tree National Park was too close not to take and day and visit the park.  Most of the park is at elevations of 4400 ft and above , so there was going to be climbing.

I found a great breakfast stop and tanked up on food and coffee.  It took the entire day to ride up to the Keys View and snap a photo of the Imperial Valley and Salton Sea far to the south and WAY down there.  The Salton Sea is below sea level and I took the photo from a 5,100 ft elevation.

I ended up fighting a nasty and cold headwind descending from the view point and was again grateful I had a pair of winter gloves in my trailer bag.  Once I added the heavy gloves and another layer under my riding jacket, I was ready to scream down to town, 3,000 ft of elevation loss in about 15 miles.  A total ride of 59 miles.

I had a connection with the fire station in 29 Palms, and they gave me a very secure campsite in the backyard, complete with access to showers, WIFI, and dinner.  There were only 3 fighters on duty, so I had a chance to pick their brain about Paramedic training while eating a real Midwestern meal- meat, potatoes, and salad.

Day 17:

I didn't know it yet, but the honeymoon phase of the trip was ending.  I had decided (after talking with two experienced cyclists who have trekked across this terrain numerous times) to head straight east across the desert on Hwy 62, headed to Parker AZ.  The total distance was 120 miles, so there was a night of camping out in the desert.  Much of my dissatisfaction with riding on the high desert was not the cold weather, I had clothes to deal with that, but the deplorable riding conditions due to the total lack of paved shoulders combined with high volumes  of very large vehicles moving at Interstate Hwy speeds. 

In general, I was finding that if there was a vehicle approaching from behind and the oncoming lane was EMPTY, I was OK.  The driver would use some of the empty oncoming lane to pass me, usually giving me at least 1/2 a lane ( there are always a few that refuse to budge from the very center of the lane, no matter how empty the oncoming lane may be).  I began to see that my vulnerable moments happened when the oncoming lane was not empty, and the vehicle overtaking did not slow to allow the oncoming traffic to clear before they passed me.  Most of these two lane roads are far too narrow to make a three vehicle pass comfortable for any of us.  It was an EXTREME exception for any overtaking vehicle to slow...it probably happened 5 times in 400 miles.

The first leg out from 29 Palms was bearable, the roads were straight, so I could keep a good eye on both lanes, but I was worn out after 64 miles and found a nice quiet place to camp.  I was certain I would hear a burrowing owl call during the night, but if it did, I was sleeping too soundly to hear it.

Day 18:

I struck camp early to finish my desert ride to Parker AZ and my long awaited crossing of the Colorado River.

This turned out to be the worst stretch of highway that I had yet encountered.  About 20 miles west of Parker, the road entered some rolling hills, where the hills masked the approaching traffic, frequently from both directions.  Added to that, the entire edge of the road was cut with deep "rumble strips", which were impossible to ride over at any speed faster than a walk.  Because of these strips, I had to ride inside of the white line if I wanted to be on the pavement.  And the final insult was the "shoulder".  On some of my earlier roads, when the traffic was heavy, I would just ride on the gravel shoulder- I gave up a lot of speed but I gained a much safer riding environment.  But the gravel shoulder on this road was much too soft to ride, In fact it was almost too soft to walk.  Because of the dangerous traffic, I must have dragged my bike and trailer for two hours along the side of the road, only riding on the road when I could see the traffic in both directions clearly.  Whenever there was traffic approaching from the front, I would exit the road and wait for them to pass.

By the time I arrived at Parker, I was so spent that I didn't even stop to look at the Colorado River.  It was a shame to miss the event, since I do not think I have ever seen that river, but at the time I was too exhausted and hungry to care.

After some food, I needed to get on down the road another 20 miles to get to my campsite.  I spoke with a nice, well-intentioned older gentlemen that assured me that the highway I would be traveling would be much quieter, trucks used a different road.  He is not much of an observer, for this was an even busier road than any previous ones.  The first mile out of town there was a wonderful 5 ft wide paved shoulder, but then it vanished.  This road was much too busy to try and "time" my sprints on the pavement between bursts of traffic, so I walked, pushing by bike along a soft gravel shoulder- mostly sand really- which was graded at about 25 degrees sloping away from the roadway.

At this point I was beginning to wonder if it was just me, had I lost my nerve?  Maybe other cyclists would ride this route without a mishap.  As I pushed my bike, looking for the easiest path through the weeds and other obstacles I started to see other bike tracks in the sand.  Soon I realized that since the last rain, I was the 5th bike to make the trek through the weeds on the eastbound side of the road. Had I possessed a little more scientific curiosity, I would have checked the sand on the westbound side of the road for tracks there, too.  I needed to cover 11 miles of this road, inexplicably, there would be about 1/4 mile of nicely paved shoulder and then about a mile of no shoulder, then a 1/4 mile of pavement, then no pavement......for the entire 11 miles.  That section of highway took 4 hours.  I walked all of the sections where the shoulder was unpaved.

That was followed by another 9 miles of a different highway, no paved shoulder, but with slightly less traffic.  On this highway I was able to revert to my earlier system, where I would ride until oncoming traffic approached, at which point I would be on high alert for anything approaching from behind- if I detected any noise approaching from behind, I would vacate the road until it was all clear.

I made my campsite just as the sun set- I rode and walked a total of 67 miles in 9.5 hours of hard traveling.  My patience with the situation was wearing thin.  I camped at an RV park on the gravel (only tent amongst hundreds of motor-homes and travel trailers), but there was a most welcome hot shower with unlimited hot water!!

I embarked on this trip with the idea that I would escape from some of the frantic pace that life often demands, and instead pedal quietly along some country roads, working hard to accomplish the miles, but enjoying some scenery and some good food, while meeting some nice people along the way.

At this point I have ridden about 800 miles, with about 400 of those miles on shoulder-less roads with high volumes of very dangerous traffic.  It was clear to me that I had made a very serious error choosing my route- I was a very unwelcome interloper in this desert land, where very few people live but many pass through.  And those that are passing through have zero interest in the land around them, they only want to get to the next man-made destination in the shortest amount of time possible.  There was no kindness out there to spare for a lone cyclist.  I found this high desert to be a sad and heartless place, not because of the lack of water, but because it was just a wasteland to the traveling humans, who had better things to do than visit the desert.  The only place I ever saw any human activity away from human habitation was at JTNP. I never want to see this place again.

Day 10:

The weather forecast for the local Tehachapi area was for high winds, up to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph.  I decided to spend the day recuperating and wait for better winds.  Luckily, the forecast for my second day was a strong TAILWIND.  I checked out the town, which except for the blowing snow, was cute.  The town was a mix of Jacksonville and Klamath Falls; the local industry- wind machines- gave it a working-town color, and the tourist trade provided several great restaurants and bakeries.

Day 11:

see email to Patty  51 miles.

Day 12:

The winds forecast was for a westerly flow, which was borne out during the days ride.  There was a pleasant and light wind from the west as I began the day.  Made excellent time, although I did take a brief detour to the Palmdale Air Park to wander around the static display of dozens of miltary aircraft, all the way up to what looked like a B52.  Officially the park was close, so I couldn't view the inside diplays but the volunteers were happy to open up the outside displays for me.  I tried, but I couldn't get the DC3 started.

About noon the day started to take an ugly turn.  The forecast had suggested a slight chance of rain in the afternoon, which is what developed, but it never mentioned dropping temperatures and the chance of snow.  The rain started about noon and the snow about an hour later.  The wind picked up, mercifully it continued as a tailwind, and drove the rain and snow almost horizontally into my back.  Since I was nearing my destination by then, Victorville, traffic naturally began to increase, which made the ride  in the snow all that more uncomfortable- I had to be mindful of the traffic and the added danger from the precipitation.  When I departed at the beginning of the ride, I had expected to camp at the end of the day, by the time I arrived in Victorville, the weather had me whipped and I was happy to find a Motel 6 for $39.  A hot shower brought me back to the living. A total of 61 miles for the day.

Day 13:

Again, the winds are against me.  The forecast is for headwinds out of the ENE up to 35 mph.  Since I am heading straight east enroute to my next stop, the headwinds would make a 65 mile ride impossible, and miserable no matter what distance I managed to ride.  So, I took the safe choice and spent another night in the Motel 6.  Evidently Motel 6's highly touted $39/night is attractive to more than just weary travellers- the place was crazy loud most of the night- From what I can gather, the weekly rate attracts a rather strange "working" crowd.  I'm not certain what their work is, but they are busy. 

Day 14:

Feeling well rested, I managed an early start from Victorville, with two promising signs.  The sky was cloudless, so I could look forward to some welcome sun, and the wind was nearly calm.  The downer for the day was the highway, the only logical route was CA 18, a highway that has a LOT of truck and RV traffic, as well as plenty of fast moving automobiles.  And virtually NO shoulder most of the way.  At this point in the trip, I have had some tough winds and some climbing, both of which have required some perseverance to overcome.  The traffic is another matter altogether, most especially when there is no shoulder of adequate width to provide a comfortable separation from the fast moving traffic.  I made the best of a bad situation.  I developed my own method for safety.

As long as the oncoming lane was clear of traffic, I could feel certain that overtaking traffic would move over into the open lane and give me some room.  The anxious moments arose when the oncoming lane was occupied, especially by a larger vehicle- a semitruck or large motorhome- and the overtaking traffic had no place to go, so I expected that they would squeeze in with me.  When that situation arose, I would either take to the gravel shoulder, if it was sufficiently firm to support my tires, or just move off the road and stop until the traffic abated.  It made for slow going, but it provided relief from the constant worry that I might get clipped by a driver not paying attention.

I have come to respect the professional drivers piloting the "semi" style trucks, they will almost always give me the entire lane when the oncoming lane is free of traffic, if it is not they will often slow to my pace until they can pass safely.  Not always is this the case, but certainly the majority of the time.

The drivers of class A motorhomes do not have the same consideration.  Evidently, there must be great pressure on them to get to the next RV park (maybe spaces are hard to get this time of year) because they ALMOST NEVER slow down, or alter their speed to allow for the opposite lane to clear before they pass.  They keep to the center of their lane, maintain their cruising speed and just plow ahead.  Perhaps it is because they don't have the experience of a full time truck driver, maybe they don't know how truly huge their rig is, maybe they don't care. This is snowbird country right now, so I expect I will see a lot of them.

One of my goals for the rest of the ride is to seek roads that either have a generous shoulder or little traffic.  I will happily add miles to my trip to achieve some relief from the stress of riding in fast traffic without an adequate shoulder.

I did have some very nice section of highway, where the traffic was light, the wind was giving me speeds over 20 mph and I could relax and enjoy the scenery.  The days ride covered 67 miles.  My overnight is at my second Warm Showers site, a small cabin in the desert that the owners maintain just for traveling cyclists. 

Day 15  (Sat, Feb 18):

A day to relax at the cabin, tune up my bike for the next phase, and do laundry.  I pulled all three wheels and have been amazed at the number of thorns in my tires.  I have easily removed 30-40 thorns, all of which would have caused a leak in  normal tires.  The main bike tires have Kevlar belts, and I hope are immune to normal thorn punctures, but I went over each of them with a flashlight to find and remove every threat.  The tire on the trailer has no Kevlar, and it had the most embedded thorns.  The only reason I can see why I have yet to have a puncture must be due to the thickness of the tread on the tire.  It is a rather beefy tire, and maybe the thorns are not long enough to push into the tube.  I will probably replace this tire with one that has a Kevlar belt when I next visit a bike shop.

The Wife Helps Out

Day 4:
Left Turlock Lake with some apprehension, due to the weather forecast suggesting strong winds from the SSE.  Forecast was correct and I battled those cruel and relentless winds for hours, ending the ride in Merced. A motel was my only choice, the shower and warm room with a bed were much appreciated. Managed to ride 35 miles but it felt like a lot more than that. Motel $50.  Food $12




Day 5:
Rode from Merced to Millerton Lake Campground, passing through Medara on the way looking for a new cell phone battery. No luck with the battery. The last 20 miles were on a fairly busy road and the road had no shoulder, and an ample  supply of rude drivers.  
I think I need some guidance from more experienced riders on how to manage the situation better.  If I stayed on the white line, which meant my wheels were  almost off the pavement, motorists passed regardless of the oncoming traffic, even large trucks. This resulted in many instances of two cars and one bicycle trying to share the two lanes. Undoubtedly it made both of the motorists uncomfortable, but by then all they could do was motor on, and all I can do was hold a steady line, or occasionally dive for the ditch. I tried taking up more of the lane but drivers still tried to pass me while the opposite lane had oncoming traffic. I did not move into the middle of the lane, that might have eliminated the "passing squeeze", but it would have forced drivers to slow way down and only pass when the opposite lane was clear- which may have lead to a different problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Finished out the day with 69.5 miles and a good feeling...the campground was worth the extra miles
Camping $30 (ugh), food $8

Day 6:

Left Millerton Lake and found a great diner for breakfast.  Finally saw some cyclists out
on the roads, even saw a heavily loaded "camper" biker.  This was the first ride were I encountered anything close to a real hill, Millerton Lake is surrounded by a rim, about 400-500 ft high over which the road must pass.  So I had to climb it boths ways.  If I did it ten times that would be the climbing required for the Tehachapi Pass- I think I can do that.  Ended the day at the KOA in Visalia.  75 miles.  Food $22,  Camping $30.

Day 7:

Yesterday was my longest day to date- both in miles and time in the saddle- so I decided to shorten today's ride, instead of pushing on to Bakersfield in one day, I will do it in two.  Spent  some time in camp checking my bike and rode from 1030 am to 330 pm, covering 54 miles of VERY flat farmland.  If you ever wonder how the US can produce enough food to feed everyone, you need to visit this country.  It is nothing but tilled fields ( maybe rice) and miles of fruit and nuts trees, not to mention vineyards.  We should all drink more wine, this area looks like it could use a little more prosperity- place, it's MADE IN THE USA.  Let's make drinking wine an act of patriotism!
Food $12.  Motel $53.

Day 8:

The final push to Bakersfield. Left my motel 8 am, after weak coffee and a couple of the "breakfast bar" pastries that the budget hotels boast as breakfast. The weather was very different today, no sun at all, overcast all day with sprinkles through the afternoon.   Cool, too, in the low 50's.  Very pleasant biking weather.

Had a learning experience with dogs today.  Only 30 minutes into the ride, I saw three dogs leave a ranch that was set back from the road a hundred feet or so, and set up an intercept on me.  I should have had a clue that I couldn't outrun them, the clue was that they weren't barking much at all, just running very fast.  I thought I could sprint away from them but they closed the gap and stayed right on my pedals for over a mile.  I tried yelling, I tried water, no luck.  The leader of the three was a scary beast; giant head of a boxer, with those red eyes and big meaty jowls. They were milling around me in a big circle, and every so often the big one would take a lunge at my foot.  Finally the big guy got his teeth into my right shoe, so I decided it was time for a direct confrontation.  I had my hands full keeping them away from me while at the same time bringing my rig to a safe halt.  It took a bit of a shuffle, but I worked my way to the back of the trailer, where I could yank out my BOB flag, which made a nice medium range weapon.  What I really wanted was a handgun. It took about another minute to lay my bike over and work my way over to a nice big rock.  As soon as the big one saw my move, he broke away rapidly.  Unfortunately, my lead was off and I missed by several feet.  All three then held off about twenty feet, all the while barking in a vicious sounding way.  I took the opportunity to pry a very satisfying piece of rusted pipe from the orchard dirt and took off after them on foot. Had they been foolish, and allowed me to close on them, I would have bludgeoned all three of them to death. There would have been no remorse on my part.

I think I made a mistake trying to outrun them- especially over such a long distance.  Once I realized that they were going to catch me, I should have stopped immediately, and had the confrontation then, instead of risking the high speed maneuvering with them so close to my pedals.  After my heart slowed, and I was back on the road, I vowed to purchase some potent pepper spray for the future. For at least 10 miles I fantasized about shooting a prolonged burst right into that big slobbery face of the lead dog.  That is one dog that needs to tangle, fatally, with a car real soon.

After a couple of miles it occurred to me that I should check my foot for a puncture wound, luckily all he got was boot.

Finished the ride early, about 1 pm.  54 miles for the day.  The bad news was the market that Google Maps showed a mile from camp was CLOSED.  Dinner was pretty skimpy.
Camping $11, Food $0.

Day 9:

Today was my first big challenge, ascent of the Tehachapi Grade- from Bakersfield at 400 ft elevation to Tehachapi at 4,000 ft.  The forecast called for a sunny day with mid-day temperatures of 50 deg F.  It never made it.  I could see my breath all the way, it never really warmed above 40 degrees; luckily, the wind developed as forecast, light and directly astern- tailwind. 

It was a lot of hard work pulling the loaded trailer up that grade, and body temperature control proved to be a challenge.  I shed outer clothing as much as I could, but because I was sweating so profusely, I had to keep a jacket on to keep the wind from cooling me down too much.  By the time I made the summit, I was drenched.  Up there it was 40 degrees and the wind was really blowing, the wind cut right through all of those wet clothes and I was soon freezing. The worst were my fingers, my gloves were sopping wet and could do nothing to keep my hands warm.

After I warmed up a bit at my motel ( I was hoping to camp the night, but the forecast was for 30 degrees as the low temp, and only 40 degress for the high Monday) I took a look at Ride With GPS, to see how much climbing I had just done.  Although the elevation change is easy to calculate (4,000 ft at the top and 400 ft at the start), Caltrans played a dirty trick on me- there were two descents on the route that required climbing almost 1500 ft twice.  So  the final tally for the ride today was 42 miles and 5,000 ft elevation gain. 

Food $19
Motel $81 (ugh)  I was desperate.

Biking across the USA

Geoff and BOB head across the USA

(pictures to follow, once I master the technology)

Total miles:174
Total food :$42
Total Lodging:$132

• Day One:  Left Sacramento after a warm sendoff from Patty.  Rolled along The American River bike path, encountering a swarm of crazed runners (some of them on their way to complete 50 MILES (Camille?), so many of them that I left the path and struck out on the roads- the cars proved more predictable than the runners. Ended the day in Lodi, after 58 miles, and spent the night in a Motel 6. The trailer is going to take some practice.  Plus, it is heavy.  
• Day 2: Rolled out  of Lodi headed to Lake Stanislaus with a cloudless sky and 60 degrees.  Scored my first burrito, from a taco cart.  Logged 42 miles, with no problems at all.  The campsite was perfect, with FREE hot showers.
• Day 3: Headed to Turlock Lake, 32 easy miles with no problems.   Campground featured a special hike/bike fee of only $5, with FREE hot showers.  Rain was predicted, so I found high ground to pitch my tent.  Rained on and off through the night, but not very hard. 
• Day 4: Awoke to find a low overcast but no rain, so I decided to  press on.  The weather forecast called for 10-15 mph winds all day from the SSE.  Those winds were nearly my undoing- I fought those cruel, relentless headwinds for 5 hours and only managed 42 miles. The land is so flat in this area that there is very little to oppose the wind as it blows, except an occassional hedgerow or stand of trees- and when you emerge from the lee of the trees, the wind usually catches you with renewed force. I finally adjusted my course to put me in town where the buildings blunted some of the wind.  I sought refuge in another cheap motel and packed my legs in ice.  As I was giving Patty my nightly report, my cell phone died (it had been getting very HOT during use all day) so it looks like I will need to navigate the old fashioned way until I can get a replacement.