California (10/5/23 Thu)

Slept well in my field, packed up and rode over to the bathrooms to find showers! After so many days, a shower feels wonderful. I do have a very wet rain fly to air out at some stop today.

After showering I headed south through the eastern Sierra range. Perfect riding temps in the mid 60F range. Blue skies, but a little hazy. My jog into Death Valley was bypassed becuase the Rt190 return road was flooded. So I'm just staying on the main road and giving Los Angeles a far miss.

From what I can see Friendshop Park in Imperial Beach, CA is the most SW thing. But it is open only on weekends. Not so friendly on weekdays. I should easily reach my far point today, and probably bounce off and start my return trip back east.

No solid ideas yet for stops on my way to Texas. I hope to hit a few parks on route and have some camping ideas from those I've met so far.

I dried off the rain fly at my lunch stop. After lunch the weather got hot. I saw 104F on the bikes display and was stuck in 10mph traffic in nearly that. There was a lot of slow traffic, and in temps remained above 95F.

Now I know how Tucker feels when the GPS mater of factly states "turn right onto unpaved road". Because I heard my GPS utter the following horrible phrases many times today:

"be in any of the six right lanes."

"adding ten minutes to your arrival time "

I really miss "turn left onto unpaved road". Those "six lanes" had two pay lanes to the left. Most bikes white line here. So as I struggled in traffic bikes passed by and waved. I did wonder what the car drivers thought of the idiot from NH.

Eventually I reached the southern most coastal town of Imperial Beach, CA. I really needed to refuel and release all that I had been hydrating by transfering between the bladder on my back and the one in my body. After pumping fuel I quickly parked and ran into the station to find their restroom out of order. "Try the dollar store or IHOP" he says.

The $0.99 store, both bathrooms out of order. IHOP was accross a busy intersecion. so I hoped pack on the bike and rode up the street looking. Eventually stopped at a Cookie shop. No person or restroom visible when I walked in through the open door. Tried market/liquer store across the street, he said no restroom. Customers said Jack in The Box at end of the block. So I walked fully outfitted in my snow suit and boots. Only to find 2 bathrooms with codes, the left was occupied. Asked for the code at the register and she gave me a code for the left. Occupied now, can I have the code for the right? No, only the left is in service. Luckily the hand drier started up in the left side and I was at the door when it opened.

So then I ate Jack in the Box for dinner.

Once finally back at my bike I went into Deb's Cookies for a Cookie. The owner was very nice, and gave me a 2nd, then 3rd as well as a sticker for the price of 1 cookie.

Pictues and Pacific Ocean touch done in Imperial Beach, just because that could be as close as I got.

Then I attempted to reach Friendship Park without getting back on the highway. Where that got me was an odd corner of the city with horses and living compounds and guard dogs. Very odd, but I stopped and took a couple of photos (toward the park side, not the compounds) and you can see the hill of Friendship Park in the background. These compounds are the opposite of Kenedy estates, think hidden behind fences junkyard.

Yesterday I had sticker shock at the Nevada pumps in freakishly remote places. But all day today I payed $6.40/gal or more. Sure I started paying that in very eastern Califonia behind a long chain of mountains. Maybe that could be a supply and demand thing. But it was that price everyplace I went. As soon as I crossed the boarder into Yuma AZ the price went back to $4.58/gal.

Yuma AZ, how did you get there? Like everything it's a long story. First I wanted to escape the high population density shore of CA. So I exited east on the first option out of town. It eventually hugged the Mexican boarder. In fact I passed through and imigration checkpoint on the highway, but was racially profiled quickly through. Now I know what the boarder gaurd was saying when I crossed back from Canada at Niagra Falls.

So I'm riding once again at sunset, but now heading East. Much nicer with the sun at my back. Campgrounds on this route are scarce. I picked one about 90 minutes away, then found one about 25 minutes closer. Both choices free campsites. The first turned out to be in a very hot area (-1), same exit as a prison (-1), on a dirt road 30 feet off the edge of the highway, near some fenced off facility with card access, and mostly gravel. It was already late, so attempting ot make it work I left the road and pulled onto a smoothed gravel pull out and considered pitching my tent and bike behind a bush. Then I saw a medium sized rodent run into the bush. I had lost count of the strikes against this spot but it was enough.

Next option was at a hot spring, reported to have a nice campground host. Upon arrival it looks like a big gravel parking lot and the only thing there is the host trailer. He doesn't come out until I go up and knock on his door. No tents, but I can go back under the highway and tent in the BLM land. At least that's what I heard. So I tried two directions that never went back under Rt8. Enouugh time wasted here, I decided another 25 minutes east to the 3rd campsite that from the starting point was too far.

Fallback choice 3 one was a rest area and BLM campground for a small fee at a large sand dune. As I read more I saw the no tents comment.

By then I was starting to get tired and figured any lodging would do. Yuma AZ was another 25 minute east on Rt8 so I picked a MicroTel there and pushed on. Getting off the exit with about another 20 miles of fuel range left, I stopped for cheapest gas of the day. At the gas station I check the hotel prices on Expedia and the MicroTel never got on the list. One last filtered search a few pages in I located the MicroTel and it was a great deal. After I purchased it Expedia popped up my new itinerary for Wellton AZ. Wellton? WTF. Turns out that's another 24 minutes east. It's late and I lost couunt of how many, just 24 miles, that makes.

I can however count the number of showers today: Two.