Dark Days in the Desert

Warning: dark reflections ahead, but that was 3 weeks ago & we’ve worked through them. I think it’s important to be honest & show that life isn’t always sunshine & rainbows.

Day 19: Up early, had cereal with a banana (yay!), packed up, swung by local donut shop across the street, on the road by 8am. It was a cooler day (in the 60s), very windy, but at our backs thankfully. We took the freeway again. Ben was nervous today about being on Hwy 58. Not about our safety but about getting in trouble. He was worried a state trooper would stop us & make us go way out of our way. I was just tryin’ to chill on the ride & take it easy but he was pedaling his brains out. I couldn’t keep up with him! I wasn’t worried at all. This was a total role reversal for us. I usually overthink & worry & Ben is chill. Not this morning. I told him to not think about it until or if it happens; we’ll deal with it then. There’s no use freaking out the whole time if nothing even happens.

We had a decent speed going today: 22mph. It was pretty much flat or slightly downhill. At the rate we were going we’d be to our destination (Barstow) by noon! The shoulder was like an obstacle course, having to dip & dive to dodge all the semi tire debris. There are tiny staples or wire in the tire shrapnel so we have to avoid it so we don’t get our own flats. We stopped in Kramer for lunch on a gas station curb. Further down the road we stopped at a rest stop for water & chatted a while with a guy & his 2 golden-doodles. They were so cute. I miss our pets & will take any animal interaction/snuggles I can get. They were adorable, sweet & fluffy. During this stretch we also rode past Twenty Mule Team Rd which leads to a borax mine. I use that stuff in my homemade dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, & some cleaning sprays…& the brand is Twenty Mule Team!

The second half of our ride seemed SO LONG compared to our quick morning start. It was the same distance but everything looked the same & it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere. With very few exits or overpasses & my diminishing motivation to keep pedaling, we stopped to play Yahtzee on the side of the freeway. Not the safest place but we were careful & I was desperate for a break. I had to roll before we could keep rolling. I can’t say with certainty but I’m pretty sure no one’s ever done that before!

With a little brain boost from playing a game, we rode the last several miles & finally made it to Barstow. It was immediately apparent this wasn’t my favorite place to be. Cars didn’t seem to like us at all & neither did the people. A guy biking on the wrong side of the road, & therefore coming straight at us, yelled about our lights as we passesd “what, are you trying to blind me? Shut those fucking things off!”. Sorry, buddy, they’re just doing their job: making us visible. I’m glad they work. If he’d been on the correct side of the road, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Welcome to Barstow!

We quick grabbed food, checked into another motel, went swimming (that felt great), watched movies, fought A LOT about the trip & what we want out of it, got groceries, had popcorn, & went to bed.

Day 20: Cereal with fruit again, wiped down & relubed our chains, on the road by 9am. We had a frontage road for about 20 miles, then back on the freeway. The frontage road got super bumpy & really hard to bike on: tons of pot holes – not good for the bikes. After 20 miles, it ended in the middle of nowhere with no road to the freeway so we had to walk our bikes down the bank & through sand to get to the freeway. Not an easy task.

We stopped at a rest stop for lunch. Several people came up to talk to us. A big group of construction workers asked us lots of questions. One guy noticed I filled up water in the bathroom & said he had colder water in his truck & to fill up there, so I did. That was nice of him. Back on the road, we saw lots of white lizards. Funky & cool! We had some nice downhill for a while. No pedalling = free miles 🙂 We took another break under an overpass (CA calls them overcrossings). We took a nap & had a snack. This spot had great shade. It was 95 degrees on the road, but only 87 in the shade. It feels different & better than back at home, due to low humidity. It’s not sticky, which is nice.

We biked a while further to a gas station to fill up on water again & rest in the shade a tich. It was so hot today! Most of the remaining miles to Baker were downhill with a little headwind so it wasn’t too bad. Biking creates its own breeze too, which helps. Pulling into town we had to stop at the largest thermometer in the world. 97 degrees! We stopped at a motel & I asked if we could jump in their pool, to which they said sure. SWEET! Ah, it felt so good & worked like a charm: cooled us down & served as our shower 🙂

We biked over to Jack in the Box for fries but mostly to charge things & blog. Around 6:30, we found a park, made dinner & waited until 9pm to set up our tent in a corner. In hindsight, it wasn’t the best place for stealth camping. There were a ton of lights & it was apparently a hangout place after dark. It’s too hot during the day to do much so people wait til sunset to be active outside. 6 guys showed up to play soccer on the basketball court. It was harmless fun & actually exciting to watch but not great for going to bed early. People had warned us about rattlesnakes again & I swear I heard something when we leaned our bikes against a tree so I was all freaked out. At 3am, sprinklers turned on right by the tent, which scared the crap out of me. They barely grazed the tent but not enough to move. Needless to say, this was my worst night of sleep on the trip thus far 🙁 Despite that, I was still happy to have gone rogue & not stay in a motel 🙂

Reflections:

1. Perspective was funny. On hilly days, flat feels downhill. On downhill days, flat feels uphill.

2. This stretch of the desert reminds me of several things. A) car commercials where they drive super fast for miles in the middle of nowhere & you see them off in the distance, a cloud of dust behind them. B) where drag racing must happen, on such long, flat, quiet roads. C) the show, Breaking Bad, where drug deals went down or dead bodies were buried. D) the movie, Seven, where Brad Pitt’s character finds his wife’s head in a box. Despite a lot of beauty found in the desert I only seemed to recall dark things as we rode through. I wonder if it’s my survivalist brain associating its lack of water & other amenities with other bad things I can recall from desert scenes?

3. Question: if a vulture is roadkill, who eats a vulture? Another vulture?

4. Motel life makes things easy but we’re missing out on the human experience. There’s nothing wrong with a mostly motel bike trip; it’s just not the type of trip I want.

5. These last few days were a little bumpy (literally & emotionally). Ben & I disagree a lot in terms of routes & how to spend our time. A) Ben likes easy, safe & convenient. I like a challenge; a chance to be creative & figure things out when they get tough. In my opinion, it makes you stronger, resilient, & gives you a sense of accomplishment. B) I want to take local recommendations & back roads with more scenery, not just the quickest way there. C) I’m not afraid of hills or a hard route; Ben seems to avoid them like the plague. D) I’m OK taking a little extra time & making our trip longer but Ben seems to be in a rush & not willing to extend our trip a little. E) It seems when Ben runs into a problem once he tries to avoid it forever instead of trying to overcome it, where I can’t stop until I’ve worked it out. F) We’ve been rushing to Vegas & I don’t want to do that again. It compromises routes & my overall goal of this trip: to see the country, meet people & have unique experiences. There’s nothing unique or interesting right now.

6. We have clashing goals for this trip & I’m not sure what the solution is. This has been my dream since I was a kid & I don’t want to compromise. I know it sounds selfish but I don’t want to look back & think “hmmm, that wasn’t the trip I’d been planning or the trip I wanted”. We’ve done a lot of things for Ben (pottery art shows, photography shows, flipping houses-all of which I’ve enjoyed) & now I want this trip to be my thing. I want to be in the driver seat with Ben as my passenger like I’ve been for his projects. I’ve loved helping him & was happy to do it & look forward to more in the future, but now I want my turn.

7. This past week has just been a string of motels, TV, boring freeway desert & fighting. Not my favorite & definitely a low point in the trip so far. I wouldn’t do it again if we were to do it over. I would take the longer, hillier, more scenic route.

8. Loaded touring bikes are a talking piece. So many people have questions & what to hear all about your journey. It’s been a great & easy way to meet new people. I’ve loved it!

9. Throughout this stretch of desert I’ve noticed CA gives a name to a every ditch that has a little bridge over it & coming into Baker there was one called Mobi Ditch. How clever 😉

MILEAGE:

1. Glacier Pt/Wawona 43

2. Oakhurst 25

3. Lake Millerton (via Bass Lake) 46

4. Kingsburg 55

5. Wasco 71

6. Edison 35

7. Mojave 55

8. Barstow 72

9. Baker 63

We’re taking a brake today so hopefully this day off will be productive & allow me to catch up. There’s so much to fill you in on: Vegas, Zion, Bryce, family visits! Until next time…

Whitney