Day 195: Desert Stories

Michael, of Erin Brockavich fame

Everyone has a story. As we traveled, I always enjoyed chatting with folks to get their stories. Desert people tend to have really good stories, for some reason. Today, we met Michael when we stopped in at the Bagdad Café. He has been out in the desert for many years, but has only worked at the Cafe for 23 weeks.

The Bagdad Café is the name of a movie staring Jack Palance. Michael said it was the winner of the Cesar for best foreign movie. (Note: no fact checking for this story). We asked if he'd seen it (neither of us have), and he said it had put him to sleep. Moved kind of slow, I guess. Anyway, it was set at this café, which is right on Route 66 and has become a must-see for tourists, particularly from Europe. A couple of French girls were there, taking selfies and posting their photo on the wall. Another couple from France had just left. The place was plastered with stickers, business cards, signed bills, and photos posted by fans.

Momentos everywhere

But Michael's story is not about the Café.  His story is about Erin Brockavich. The movie, not the person. Seems he was an extra in the film. Two scenes, I think he said. You can catch him in the scene "9 months later" when he walks over to the barbecue to get a piece of chicken. He is a tall, pretty distinctive- looking guy, so I figure some late night when I am channel surfing, I will catch the end of Erin B and there he'll be, getting his fourth piece of chicken! (There were four takes, he said.)

And so it goes, in the desert. You never know who fate, or Julia Roberts, will smile upon! The other guy we met at the café, Zak, sells souvenirs and tchotkes to the shops along Route 66, who sell them to the tourists. Thus helping to keep the little places alive. His real claim to fame, though, is his sprinter van. He said it had 471,000 miles on it!

Zak and his 471,000 mile van

Next to that, the Silver Queen is just a piker. But she's holding up well, our Ship of the Desert. Better than we are. Roger and I are both whipped. We can't help but feel that this leg of the trip would have been easier for us when we were in arguably the best shape of our lives, having completed 6 months of daily riding. 

Kathy and the Silver Queen

We actually met some other tourists today. I did not expect to see anyone, but John and Robbie were headed east as we went west. They stayed a night with Anita, the Warmshowers host we'll stay with tomorrow. We were happy we were not headed their way!

John and Robbie

Ludlow to Barstow, 53 miles. Most of it into the wind. 

Day 194: When bridges are Outlawed, only Outlaws will cross Bridges

Scoflaws that we are, we went right on

Well, live and learn. We thought it would be more comfortable camping at Fenner than Amboy, and maybe it was. We can't know, since we didn't stay both places. But what we do know is that the Fenner Oasis is right by the BNSF rail line, and those trains are going through just about every 5 or 10 minutes. The government may be shut down, but by golly -- the trains are running! Plus, the trucks come and go all night.  And the gas pavilion is lit up like day. Thank goodness I had a knit cap to pull down over my eyes. And as it turned out, I was cold enough that I never got up to use the bathroom, so that advantage evaporated also. I DID really enjoy my burger last night though, and the breakfast sandwich this morning was great. So who knows? If we come again, we'll try Roy's in Amboy next time.

Speaking of which, they were great. Manny, the manager, was headed off site but saw us ride in and turned around to say hi and welcome us. Farrell, who runs the register, was just as nice as he could be. We had a bag of chips and a soda, filled our bottles, and enjoyed a chance to chill out for a few minutes at this iconic stop. Sure would love to see them bring it back. 

Farrell has 40 acres in the desert he'll sell you

We had no trouble riding through the closed section of the road. I counted 37 bridges in the dead zone.  About 7 of them are outright done. But there are gravel passages to walk around, and we got through with no problem. They're not kidding about the bridges, though. These guys are in serious trouble. Best we could tell, two have been redone. No sign that anyone is working on the others. (Maybe the shutdown?) Locals say that no one will bother the cyclists, but if you drive in and get caught, you'll be ticketed. I guess that's the advantage of bike transit.

This one's toast

Speaking of the shutdown, we met Paul at the Oasis. He is a government employee, and had planned a vacation prior to the shutdown. He's now just furloughed until it ends, so trying to decide how close to home he should be - just in case he gets an order to return to work immediately. It was interesting to hear some of his thoughts on how this mess might get concluded.

The desert was beautiful today. We had our first full-on sunny day, and by mid-afternoon we had to stop to remove our final inner layers of clothing. More than once, we commented on how we would not want to be doing this ride in 100 degree heat. (Or 106, as was forecast for the week we initially planned to come.) I don't think I could have done it.  I would have had to stop every ten minutes. Even today, when my Garmin said it was 79, I felt a little wonky a couple times. So here's a big Thank You! to our friend Vicky, who said that I should not expose myself to that heat, particularly in such a remote location. 

So quiet and beautiful

We're headed to Barstow tomorrow, then Victorville and then home. Today, peeking over the closer range, we could just see snow-capped mountains. Probably the San Bernardinos, or maybe Baldy. But here's the thing: We are going to be riding toward that range for three days! That's what sets bike touring apart. You have a chance to truly appreciate a destination - since you can see it on the horizon for days!

There's not a lot in Ludlow, but the cafe is excellent 

68 miles yoday. Fenner to Ludlow.

Day 193: A slight change of plans

There's a whole lot of open road out here

One of the coolest characteristics of bike touring is that it's all about flexibility. You do what you expect to do as long as you still want to do it - or you are able. If the circumstances change, or perhaps you wear out sooner than you thought you would on a given day, or maybe you feel great and decide to keep riding further than you expected to - it's all good. You're in charge, so you decide.

The Fenner Oasis

And thus it is that we decided to pitch our tent with the good folks at the Fenner Oasis, rather than continuing down the road to Amboy. A couple of factors played into this decision. First, this was a day that felt long enough by the time we stopped for lunch. We didn't go all that far, but we began by climbing a very long gradual grade and we were tired. The first 25 miles or so was uphill, with a snappy little head wind to boot. It was beautiful, remote country - we pretty much had it all to ourselves - but after riding toward this little rise on the north end of the Piute Mountains for two long hours, I was pretty done. I was really looking forward to reaching Goffs, where the road tipping south and tipping down were both deeply anticipated. That gave us a bit of a tail wind, (whoohoo - we hit 20 mph!) and allowed us to reach Fenner just before lunchtime.

Second, they have a grill here, which means that we can have a hamburger for dinner instead of carrying one of the cold sandwiches to Amboy to eat later. For some reason that seemed like a really good idea!

You are here!

Third, the Oasis is open all night, which gives us access to a real restroom. That's not a bad thing. While the idea of camping at Amboy has been part of my mythic anticipation of this part of the trip for several years, I really am NOT sorry at all to substitute my cozy little tent here for a cozy little tent there.

Home sweet home

And last, in the morning, we are assured of coffee here. Plus something to eat before we head out, maybe even something warm!

We will still go through Amboy; in fact I have corresponded with the manager there to let him know we'll stop in for a snack tomorrow. We just aren't going to stay there overnight. So I will get to post a photo of that iconic sign out in the middle of nowhere, never fear.

Creosote bush

The only downside to ending our day so early is that we don't really have very much to do. Roger and I took a walk over towards the highway to check out the road for tomorrow, and we sat in the convenience store watching an episode of Chip and Joanna's show. But it's just now getting to be four o'clock. It's too early to eat dinner, and until the sun goes down we can't hope to fall asleep! So that's the trade off: you keep pedaling because it's what you're here for, or you stop because your bottom side can't take anymore! And then you just end up sitting around anyway.

39.5 miles today, at 10 mph. Climbing 2267 feet.

Piet Mondrian in the desert

Day 192, Take 2: Two years, two months, and one week late

We're pretty tired. I'm busted, in fact. But we've done it - got over Sitgreaves Pass and made it back over the Colorado River to enter California - just a couple of years behind schedule!  It was a gray day, and pretty cold. But I will confess that it's possible it was not just the cold that made my eyes water as we got underway. Bob and Norma followed us just down the road a bit, and snapped our picture in the spot where we'd ended our tour two years ago. I was happy to ride away from that spot this time.

The starting descent I was concerned about was not that big a deal, but it's the case we were never "too warm" today. We started out with all our layers, and though we shed some for the climb, we put them back on after lunch in Oatman and even then, Roger was freezing for the descent.

Fabulous scenery on the climb up

This is a spectacular pass. It was fun to imagine the early motorists chugging along the road. What must they have thought as they crested each turn and viewed the savage landscape opening before them?  A local said they call it "the sidewinder" - with 192 switchbacks over the top to Oatman. We're not sure about that, but if you are counting the changes of direction, maybe so. It does twist and turn through the rising buttes. Even in the gray morning, it was beautiful.

Once over the top, you descend into Oatman, an old mining town. The donkeys in Oatman are reknown. Turns out they not only wander the town, vamping for handouts, but also patrol the hillsides and roads in small posses. I would hate to witness the carnage had a motorist come quickly around the corner where we found these handsome fellows!

A PS to yesterday's post: We had a couple little "this is touring" events yesterday when we were driving in that helped set the stage for our friends. First, Roger and Bob were having a great conversation in the front row and completely missed our exit to Barstow . Then after turning around to go back, I glanced up just in time to see Roger miss it again! This gave us a chance to share some stories about missed turns - which are much harder to correct on a bike than in a car! Second, at a stop, I noticed that the front rack was wobbling on the bike, which resulted in Roger recognizing that one of the bolts had shaken loose on the rough roads. We had to find a hardware store, pronto. The one in Needles had closed by the time we arrived, so we detoured north to find an Ace Hardware. Problem solved. But we went 20 miles out of our way. Again, much easier to do in a car than on a bike!

And, what's a tour without a flat? We have not had a flat since we got the bike rebuilt. Something must have happened when Roger changed the tires, as we had one 9 miles in to the ride this morning. We decided the tape at the valve hole was cutting the tube after a second one failed. Chewing gum in the hole seems to be holding. We'll see.

Tomorrow, we head for Amboy. No idea if we will have any service, so if you don't see a post check for it the next day.

65 miles today.

Go!

It's go time! We headed out today to Kingman, AZ, ready to do this thing. We are riding out with Bob and Norma Clark, our friends from Redlands and the first who offered to bring us out here, over two years ago. We've had a great ride over, taking stretches of the Mother Road to see how they were (and frankly, because Bob and Norma were game and it's more fun than the Interstate!)

Bob and Norma offered to bring us out here two years ago, and the offer held.

It's pretty cold out here, and we're thinking that we'll be freezing come morning, but once we begin the climb over Sitgreaves Pass we should warm up. Funny how we did not notice that this first day was going to begin with a 14 mile descent! Brrr!

View from the pass

We are staying just a mile down the road from where we were hit. We drove past the spot on the way to dinner tonight. It feels weird, but like it's finally time to put that behind us. I asked Norma to follow us down the road when we head out, and get a photo when we begin tomorrow. I guess that might be a bit macabre, but I think it goes to my sense that we really do have to pick this up where we left off, and that means closing the circle here in Kingman. You gotta face it to overcome it.

Tomorrow, we should be back in California and maybe I will get that shot of the state flag that we missed when Jeff drove us home two years ago. Since we've only been away a day, it won't have quite the emotional resonance - but it will still represent our return home. And so the journey continues.

This Roy's in Barstow IS open, and a great stop for lunch

Get Set

Having made the decision that we're going to finish our ride, we are now in the throes of packing, working out our route details, and planning for that last long stretch across the Mojave. This has always been what we considered the "queen stage" of our planned route (i.e., the longest and most difficult). It's over 100 miles from Needles to Ludlow, and had we the luxury of 15 daylight hours, we might actually attempt to do it in one run. That was part of our initial idea when we were expecting to finish it over two years ago. We don't have that much daylight now. So we've got to plan to stop and stay somewhere in the middle.

Note the paucity of services listed there under the orange banner - basically, from the convenience store in Fenner to Amboy, we are on our own. 

And, we are expecting it to be pretty cold! Why are we going now? We're asking ourselves that question as we get ready for what could be bitter cold. The short answer is, we're ready. And it's overdue, well overdue. We picked this week based on weather forecasts that appeared to show clear weather. My plan several months ago was to be teaching again in the spring term, which meant we wouldn't be able to go until May if we didn't go now. We know what happened last year - it got too hot too fast and we couldn't go. We didn't want to go Christmas week, obviously! And we'd agreed to host our bridge club for New Year's so that was out. That left this week. And once you get your heart set on something, well, even at the age of 60, you don't want to postpone things forever and keep putting them off once you've gotten yourself worked up about something.

I am pulling together everything for our trip today. Because of the stretch on Old 66 across the Mojave, we are anticipating spending the night in Amboy. There's a convenience store there, an iconic one at the old cafe and motel called Roy's. The owner of that is the fella who owns El Pollo Loco. He can't operate the restaurant, but he does allow cyclists to camp there, and there's a bathroom, and you can buy bottled water in the convenience store provided you arrive before they close at 8 pm. So, for a trip of only one week, where we anticipate staying in hotels the rest of the time, we're going to have to take camping gear. Roger's concerned about being cold and I get it. This is likely to be one of the tougher nights of our trip! But I think we're going to survive it. With the two of us in sleeping bags in that little tiny tent, we should be fine.

This is our destination, where we are told we can put up our tent.  The inn and cafe are not operational, but there is a small store where we can buy water and snacks.

My primary concerns at this point are for our safety and warmth. (I guess technically warmth comes under the heading of safety anyway.) I've charged up all of our lights and we'll have our supplemental battery so that we can recharge them if we need to. I'll have my reflective vest on, and I'll be blinking from behind with my helmet light. All of this although technically the road is closed! We expect to have to go around some bridge repairs - another cyclist has told us we can get through - on what could be a very lonely stretch of road. 

Not a lot of gear, but a lot to take just for one night camping.

So we have this tiny pile of camping gear: the tent, sleeping pads, the sleeping bags and puff up pillows, and two small towels and some wash up soap. There is a restroom at Roy's. There's no potable water but the owner lets people stay as long as they are self-contained. We'll want to freshen up a bit, and so we're carrying this stuff. We've decided we will not carry cooking gear for the one night. Instead, we will purchase multiple sandwiches from the convenience store in Fenner before we begin the run to Roy's. We should be able to hold them fine while we travel, giving us lunch and dinner en route. In the morning we'll eat our protein bars and pray for coffee at Roy's before we set out for Ludlow! I don't think I've ever heard of anybody who died from a lack of their coffee in the morning, right!?

Here's a kind of fun fact. Our packs were damaged in the accident. You can see how they were torn and the little clasp there in the foreground was cracked when they were wrenched off the bike. Roger was looking into purchasing new packs, which ultimately we are going to need to do since I doubt that these are going to remain waterproof for long with all of the tears on them, but he also investigated just making them do for this week and that is how we learned that we could replace that little clasp for $0.19! So, with a couple dollars of shipping included, we were able to put these babies back on the road and that's what we're planning to do.


We put everything into the packs for our final shake-down cruise today.  We both felt pretty comfortable, and have concluded the Silver Queen v2.0 is ready to ride!

The Silver Queen, v2.0 is ready to roll. 

Get Ready

Roger and friends on our recent ride

We are going to finish our trip.  We are going to leave Sunday to finish our trip. We are going to head across the desert for several days in the teeth of winter to finish our trip. So let's get ready!

I thought I would be teaching this spring, so we only had a short window to get the trip in after the fall semester ended and before spring term began.  That led me to check weather and temps for the desert and select this coming week for our trip. Maybe it's foolish, but we want to get on with it and we know that we cannot make the trip during the heat of summer, so here we go.

Riding with packs on our test drive

Roger got the racks mounted, and we've ridden with the packs on so that we could test everything. We went out the other day to make sure the new back end of the bike, the packs, the disk brake and the racks were all in tune. This happened to be on the 2nd anniversary of the day that we crashed for the second time, so I was conscious of what had happened before and a bit nervous about having something else occur that would hold us up yet again. Kevin Ingram, our friend and neighbor, went out with us to Riverside. It was not a long trip - about 32 miles - but it felt BIG in some sort of important way.  I've had this slightly anxious feeling while on the bike now for the past couple of rides.  I am desperate to avoid an accident, and of course, that's not a good way to ride.  It was comforting to have a friend along for the ride. 

Right after New Years, we went off with some friends on a long ride out towards the coast.  We intended to ride out to the train station in San Clemente, and then come home on the train. Partway there, we remembered that the bike car was unlikely to be on the train mid-week, and we might have trouble getting the tandem on the train.  So we decided to turn around and do an out-and-back instead of continuing to the coast. That's fine - it gave us a slightly longer ride and and a chance to test our legs for the longer distance. We are ready. We were tired, but we made it and felt like we could ride again the next day. That's the ultimate test for touring.

More than we planned, but that's ok.