Day 18: Up early, off by 8am. Ben also had a flat so we stopped to fix that quick. The road out of Bakersfield was loaded with garbage! It seemed to be a dumping ground in the middle of nowhere. Despite that, it was a nice change of scenery otherwise. We had hills again 🙂 Pretty, golden, rolling ones. It was a quiet road as we started climbing again. Today we had a 4,000 ft ascent over 30 miles. Call me crazy but I kind of missed big climbs! We had a quiet frontage road for the beginning but then we had to get on the freeway for 15 miles. Gulp… I was nervous at first but it was actually quite nice. There’s a huge shoulder, we wear an ear plug in our left ear to minimize getting startled every time something roared by, there was an awesome tailwind, & the semis can’t physically go that fast uphill so it was only slow vehicles that were next to us.
We stopped in Tehachapi,CA for sunscreen & protein bars at Walgreens, lunch at Del Taco, coffee & WiFi at Starbucks. We chatted with several people about our travels & theirs: one who used to cycle tour, a few locals who gave us tips on things to see in the area, & one currently hiking the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail – a 2,700 mile hike from Mexico to Canada). Tehachapi is along that trail so there were a lot of people in town on the same journey. After running errands, catching up on some things & avoiding the hottest part of the day, we hit the road for Mojave.
The ride there included 10 miles through a huge wind farm, which was so much fun! There were thousands of wind mills (technically wind turbines as Ben so graciously needed to point out, but you catch my drift). It was a 9-ish mile climb to the top of Tehachapi & then a glorious 10 miles downhill. We didn’t have to pedal the whole way down! It wasn’t super steep but enough to keep constant momentum going. I only had to pedal when I stopped to take pictures. It was a nice ride, very pretty, & quiet too. Traffic was almost obsolete; it was wonderful. We pulled into town, checked into a Motel 6, quick shower, picked up Subway for dinner, a few snacks at a gas station, then back to the room to eat, watch TV, do laundry, a little blogging, & finally bed.
Reflections:
1. When climbing out of Bakersfield, we went so slow going uphill you could hear all the lizards scurrying into the brush along the side of the road as we rolled by 🙂 Something I would never have noticed in a car.
2. THERE WERE SO MANY PEE BOTTLES ON THE SIDE OF THE FREEWAY!!! In just 15 miles we saw over 50. I’ve heard of people not wanting to stop to go to the bathroom so they just pee in a bottle but I assumed they held onto it until their next stop to throw in a garbage. At first I thought there was no way they were all pee since they were so dark, like iced tea. I had to know for sure so I stopped & opened one to get a quick whiff. Yes, you read that correctly. I willingly opened a bottle of pee to make sure what it was & yep, it’s urine alright! It smelled like a port-a-potty. Ben couldn’t believe I did it. We both had a good laugh. Well, now I’ll never wonder; I definitely know! Sidenote: damn, there are some dehydrated drivers out there! Yowza!
Well, we’ve got some stargazing to do with my mom & stepdad who are visiting us in Bryce National Park so I better roll! Until next time.
Whitney