Little Fish, Big River, Bigger City

So...after my last update, I bopped along through the last bit of Arizona for most of a day before crossing the Colorado River into California. That's where it hit me that I'm so freaking close it's crazy. Of course, I was still just about 300 miles away at that point or so. Now...two days later, I'm 120 miles from the end and have started making plans with friends via email and cell phone to meet up at the finish. I could probably get in on Friday at sunset, but am going to hold off until Saturday morning when it's easier for others to get to Ocean Beach where I'll land sometime Saturday morning. I'm dying inside because I just want to race up the last mountain from here and get there but since I've missed all the timelines and holidays I originally set for myself, what's one more day?

So, a few updates before my battery dies here...two days ago, after crossing into California and farm country, I saved about five little lambs from the highway. The rascals had gone through a fence and were headed up onto the small two lane highway where trucks were doing about 75 mph past me the whole way. I "shooed" the little dudes back through the fence and then I went over it myself and ran after the flock until they were clear on the other side of the large field. I then found the farmer and let him know that they could get through his fence in one area. I then went on and landed at "Palo Verde" a small town of 300 people. I passed a bar where a few folks were sitting outside and chilling out.

Here's the freaky part...something made me go back to have a beer. I guess it was part of just being under 300 miles to go, being in California, I don't know what all, but I went back. It turns out...yea...get THIS...one of the guys actually met me in Marathon, Florida in the restaurant where I had stopped at the end of my first day and my first 49 miles!!!! What are the odds of that??? It turns out Mark and his buddy stopped to chat with me as I sat there eating dinner after being toasted on that first day. They thought I looked really green and there was no way I'd ever make it...then on tiny Highway 78 I pull into "The Lagoon Saloon" in a town of 300 at the same time he happened to be there hanging out. He said he'd seen me in Key Largo as well along the same trip and we were both floored that I would run into him again. It's a huge country to bike across, but it's a small, small, small world to live in, that's for sure. In any event, I somehow spent $31 by drinking several $1.25 beers and playing a few $0.50 games of pool with the locals. I lost the grand champioship game as the bar was closing, it was pouring rain and they had all talked me into not going further. I went outside and what happens next I'm saving for the book as it's just too crazy to put here. Yea...you gotta wait for the book.

I got up the next day around 5 a.m. and took off from Palo Verde as fast as I could to get through the bad roads and hills. Man oh man was I glad I waited a night. It was 25 miles of death as trucks blew by me, cars flew past and I had almost no shoulder most of the way, up and down and up and down and up and down rolling hills against great mountains. I was hung over beyond belief and if there's one thing I DO NOT advise it's riding 85 miles the hard way: hung over. Pain, stomach ache, and rain all chipped away at my normally happy riding mood until I was just struggling to get through it all. I passed the Chocolate Mountains at one point which is a naval gunnery range. Soon after that, I was next to a tortoise sanctuary of sorts and was looking for tortoises as I pedaled along when I hit a huge rock out of nowhere in the middle of the super wide, brand new shoulder...BAMMMO!!!!!!!! I'm jarred awake as I hit this rock the size of two softballs so hard that it broke in half and sliced a half inch gash through my front tire as I NAILED it at about 22 mph. What on earth was it doing out there??? Man was I lucky I didn't go down on that one. I changed out the tire and rode on. Eventually, I hit Glamis and the most amazing sand dunes I've ever seen...just out of nowhere I was riding through the movie set for Lawrence of Arabia. Then as soon as they had started, I was right back to desert scrub again. There were warning signs everywhere not to go into the desert because the Navy used the area as a live ammo bombing practice range. So here you have two Navy gunnery ranges with a tortoise sanctuary and a dune buggy recreational area sandwiched in between. I guess it makes sense???

By about 3 p.m. the hangover had worn off and the endorphins had kicked in...finally. I began to rock and roll and I started hammering the pedals in my normal manner to crank some miles out as the first 30 miles had taken nearly 7 hours. Before I knew it, I was flying along and just had energy from somewhere but I don't know where. The next thing I knew, I'm pulling into Brawley after 66 miles for the day. I'm all wound up so I head another 14 down the road to El Centro. Now I'm stuck...I can go out of my way in the wrong direction for five miles to a campground or I can go forward on unkown roads for another 22 miles before there might be a place where I can camp on the side of the road...but...if there are thin shoulders again, I'm going to be at too much risk with all the cars now that I'm near a populated area. I frustratedly stop at Carl's Jr. to get a burger to think. I decide to get another stupid motel rather than find camping because it's just safer. As I'm heading to my bike, I see a small orange and white cat that is stray. I end up feeding him some of my tuna and eventually can pet him but I can't pick him up as he's a dash too wild. I go and buy him a can of food at a corner gas station and then I name him Carl. I may come back for him from San Diego in a rental car...but I'm not sure how AxL the dog would take it to have another stray in the gang as he's sort of ruled all for the last 12 years.

I got up a bit late after sleeping nine hours to make up for yesterday's hangover after three hours of sleep and 85 tough miles of all out pushing...now, I just have to kill a measly 40 miles each of the next three days until I meet my friends on Saturday morning at Ocean Beach. I grab breakfast at a small diner and just I'm finishing up, Clark Sarchet, local hero of El Centro comes up to my table to let me know he covered me for breakfast. Wow. I still can't get over how kind people can be...I'm just floored and internally vow again to somehow be the same way as often as I can. WIth that, my laptop battery is about to die and my legs are simply itching to go and KICK THAT MULE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...I ended up spending the entire day updating my log online for everyone, then my phone was ringing and then I was on Instant Messenger with several friends that by the time I decided to head out, the "saturday night drunks" were squealing tires and dusting me off left and right so I decided to call it a day in Phoenix after only about 8 miles of riding. I had loved sitting and eating at La Grande Orange on the corner of 40th and Campbell so much that I blew my whole day there in 75 degree sun. I met some of the nicest people, including one of the owners and the head chef of the restaurant/grocery store. I also met Scott, the Specialized bike rep for the area and told him how much I loved the "Armadillo" tires they make. A couple of incredibly nice ladies gave me a donation and I met Tessa and two of her friends later on in the night and had a great chat with them. I guess I was ready for a small break, too. I started looking for a motel and found nothing, I took a right instead of a left on one street and eventually found a Red Roof Inn which was doubling one of those places you see on COPS. I stayed anyway because I'd now ridden 8 miles just to find this one and only motel. I thought of calling the friends I knew but was too embarassed to still be in Phoenix after a whole day plus I felt like it was too late at night, (10 p.m.) to be begging for a couch. I woke up early, got packed up and figured out where I was on the map. Then when I discovered I was way off route, I decided to call Brian and Meg/Jeff to see if they wanted to have breakfast somewhere. Brian didn't answer but Meg did so I met her back at La Grande Orange since it was along the way. Jeff was playing golf and couldn't make it so we chatted about their five month ordeal biking through Europe. I feel like such a wuss doing such a short trip and not camping more when I hear about their trip and all the places they went and how they got up early every day, unlike me of course and they camped 90% of the time vs. my camping just about 35% of the time. If there's one thing I wish I did differently on this trip, it's get up earlier, get going earlier, and stop in time to camp but I keep seeming to have to ride until well after dark to get the miles in. Which then of course means I wake up late...which then of course means I have to ride late. Oh well...it is what it is.

I took off after breakfast around noon I think and rode back to where Brian had picked me up on Friday night. It's now Sunday at 1 p.m. I'd forgotten a bungee cord in his car so after touching the spot I stopped riding, I rode back along the route and then detoured off at his house to get it. I also took a picture of Sammy, the dog I chased in my socks for 30 minutes. I rode on down the canal bike path and eventually hit some of the most God-awful worst roadway on the trip that was under construction, no shoulder, huge pits and holes, dirt, sand, etc. etc. etc. Luckily, it was Sunday night and everyone seemed to be tuned in to football. It was 10 miles of suckiness but I only had to pull over into the gravel and dirt four times to let cars pass when I saw them in my rearview mirror. I'm so glad I didn't do this part during the day when I'm sure it's filled with cars. I'd never make it..two lanes, no shoulder, etc. I'd just be standing on the side of the road letting cars go by all day. I rode as far as I could that night until I got close to Wickensburg. I stopped just shy of it when the shoulder got incredibly thin and the cars seemed just a dash too fast. It was midnight which means football was over and the beer drinking sportsters were probably driving home so I pulled into a rest area and set up my tent, etc. I made some ramen, ate some snackwells and passed out around two after packing as much as I could back up so I could get an early start.

7 a.m. arrived soon and I was up and rolling in about 20 minutes. I rode on into Wickensburg and found I had stopped at the perfect place the night before. I ate at the Country Kitchen and listened to the normal back of the store discussions about this and that between all the wait staff. I'm always bored yet intrigued how each restaraunt seems to have this enormous life of its own between the waitstaff that is ALL so important to them..."she said this and then he didn't do that so then they went and blah blah blah blah blah" where everyone is totally up in arms over something that someone said and did but it's just sooooo tiny in the big scheme of things. I kind of want to bring them along for just one day of riding and say "LOOK!!! SEE!!! There IS more to life than Lavonna who told Gary to go to hell if she didn't get Thursday off!!!"

Back to the action now...I had a heck of a ride after Wickensburg. Some slow climbing for a bit and then 20 mph tailwinds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!! I was flying at 22-25 mph for hours!!! I cooked off more in two hours than I sometimes do in 8. It was heavenly. I was warm in 75 degree weather, the shoulder was wide and perfectly smooth and there were hardly any cars. I watched "dust devils" twisting and filling the sky with a tan fog for miles as I rode along. I watched as RV's and trucks coming the other way struggled and ground their way against the wind. I just floated and floated along but I did pedal like made for every minute of it because I wanted to use it to get as far as I could before it ran out. I made it about 88 miles for the day which topped the 87 miles from the day before and then I hit dark. I stopped for a piece of pie and some ice cream and a cup of coffee at an RV park where I met Charlie, aka "Sir Charles" an 87 year old master cabinet maker who about broke my hand when he shook it. I sat next to him and talked about the route, etc. We talked about Sun Valley, Idaho, RV'ing and how he helped four separate owners since 1988 build this RV park up from 30 spaces to over 400 spaces. I had to admit, the place was booming compared to some of the other RV parks nearby, let alone across the country. I ended up having another piece of pie, another cup of coffee and then I met Bob, the owner of the place. Both he and Sir Charles insisted that I not go on to I-10 at night plus there would be no place to camp for about 40 miles since there was a gem show going on in Quartzite. Bob gave me one of the little stone huts for $20 that is part of the motel section of the business. I thanked him, watched Fear Factor for a bit as two girls walked on a high beam to compete for $25k and then I fell asleep. So here I sit...just 277 miles to go. I'm trying to figure out how to approach San Diego and the mountains before it best so that I don't end up coming into San Diego at 10 p.m. but rather I land during the day, or more appropriately at sunset. I have 10-20mph tailwinds again today, but I don't know how long they will last. I guess I'll grab something to eat, tackle the several miles of I-10 and all the semi-trucks on it and just see what happens. The finish line is so close I can taste it, yet I'm being careful to a degree because now is not the time to get mowed by a truck or do something stupid like break something else on the bike. As I told my friend Tom on the phone the other day, I feel like I've been lucky far too many times with close calls along this trip that now it would be dumb to push something a little too far and pay the price. He agreed that I was far too lucky. Then again, he also gave me the best "well wishing" along the way...he said "Scott, knowing how you are, I hope you get attacked by a cougar and survive" which was about the best thing I ever could have heard as it completely kept my spirits up. Yea, there is a bunch of stuff that I wished would've happened that didn't...but that just means I've got to keep having adventures. I didn't even see a mountain lion, nor an elk, nor an alligator, a javelina or rattlesnake or scorpion. Bummer...but I have seen a lot and I've still got a few days to go barring any break downs or major winds, I figure I'm rolling into San Diego just three days from now. I'm shooting for 100 miles today, 100 tomorrow (wind agreeing with me) and then 70 on the last day which includes a major climb and several major ups and downs through the final mountain range. With that, I'm off to chow down and of course...then it's time to KICK THAT MULE!!!