| Day's Route Overview: West through Arizona and back into California. The idea was to split the distance remaining, about 725 miles, into two parts approximately equal. |
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| The desert yesterday certainly was warm.
When I was packing to get ready to hit the road, I noticed the salty reminder on yesterday's shirt. Starting out: Trip / Odometer / Time: 105.6 / 35,033 / 9:03 |
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| I stopped at a rest stop about 58 miles out.
10:15 and it is already very hot and dry. It looks like people with pets need to undertake a bit of diligence in letting them do their business. I bought a
bottle of water in the vending machine because it is cold. The label on the bottle says Le Nature's Water. Must be
good and |
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| I stopped in
Blythe, California because there are
Riverside County buildings here and I still need an "R" county. Searching around, I found my photo opportunity. It is about 105 degrees here. Whew! |
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| There is a town named
Desert Center.
When the road signs said it was 43 miles ahead, not being a dummy, I knew that I was in for a long distance of hot. When I got to Desert Center, there is not much there. Nothing to pique my interest. There was a long-ago closed gas station that I paused at for the shade afforded by the canopy. While I was there, a couple drove up to the side of the building to a coke machine, got out and started putting coins into it. Now, with an obviously closed gas station, and a coke machine with no lights on, who would expect to get a cold drink. I heard them complain as they got back into their car and drove off about losing $1.25 in the darn machine. |
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| I stopped for gas in a town named Chiriaco Peak.
An interesting site there is a George Patton museum. I didn't go inside, but in front there are a number of WW-II tanks both Allies and Axis. Unfortunately, I got no photos, it being hard to take them on the fly. More desert. I thought yesterday's deserts were hot,
but today, |
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| Getting gas in
Montclair, I serendipitously came
across Pomona Valley Harley-Davidson |
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| I hit
Los Angeles at about 4:00 which
is high traffic time. I-10 is notorious for heavy traffic and I found out why. The traffic would slow to a crawl and then a mile later be moving at 70 MPH only to be at a crawl another mile down the road. There is almost never any reason that can be found for this phenomenon, it just happens. Remember what I said just above about somewhere that I'd rather not be riding? I was wrong then, this is definitely the pits! Finally, I veered North on
Ca-57 to hit I-210 West and North to I-5. I was planning It became evident heading North on I-5 that I had no idea where
the next opportunity was |
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| I was about 140 miles on the current tank when I
finally came to a Mobil station. Normally, if I don't know how far to the next gas station, I like to fill up closer to 125 miles. There was a really pretty sunset going on as I was gassing up. |
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| Now back on I-5 heading North, I was wondering
whether I could now find a place for the night. Just under 10 miles up the road is a Best Western. Of course, the price is exorbitant, but I'm thinking that my choices are few. |
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Done for the day: |
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ABC Letters: Counties: R Total: 493 miles, 11 hours 22 minutes |
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Updated: Monday, May 12, 2014 10:05:43 PM