Barstow

What a difference a day makes...

After a wonderful sendoff breakfast at Munchkin's in Santa Clarita we immediately hit some pretty massive hills (all of them up, of course) for about 18 miles. It was enough of a struggle, but Darryl's new bike bent a front sprocket, so it kept slipping gears all the way up the hills. He replaced it with a backup mountain bike, but it is much less efficient. Because of the problems and being nearly out of gas we cut the day short and headed to Victorville.

Today, on the other hand, we had a very pleasant ride from Victorville to Barstow and finished the day at the BMX track that was the birthplace of the GPM. The only problem was that we spent most of our time pedaling in the middle of the day with the high desert sun and a slight headwind. We met one guy, Paul Clayton, who is biking historical route 66 for charities associated with the St. Louis Cardinals. Now HE had a nice bike! He's already put a photo of us on his web site. We also rode by a bottle farm created by Elmer Long. Check out his blog with lots of pictures like this one...


In the morning we'll start at the BMX track and head on down 66 to Klondike and the Mohave desert. Hopefully an early start and no headwinds.

It should be noted that we would be lost without Louise. I am convinced that left to our own devices we would still be wandering aimlessly up and down the Santa Monica boardwalk trying to figure out how to feed ourselves. She makes sure that we have on enough sunscreen, packs our fruits and snacks for the day, loads up the water bottles and meets us for lunch with something delish. If only she would do the cycling for us the trip would be a snap!

-K