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Published: July 27th 2014
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Heat of the Night!!!!! Time to get caught up again. The word of the day is HOT HOT HOT!
To start with we are now in Palm Springs where I will be for the next 8 or nine days. Helli is flying home for 5 days to take care of work issues (sorry Hellli, rather you were staying).
Before we left on this trip we knew it was going to be extremely hot in the south and it is. There is a heat wave here and even the locals are complaining. Since we are not locals we are dying.
We left Vegas yesterday morning early. Up at 4:15, had toast and coffee. Packed the bikes and on the road by 5:30. At 5:30 it 36 degrees. The good thing is it stayed like that for almost 4 hours. As I had stated in an earlier blog we are focusing on taking roads we have not travelled before even if they take a little longer. Today however we took a very familiar road out of Vegas. It is the original Las Vegas Boulevard that runs parallel to interstate 15. This is the route that the Las Vegas Marathon
and Half Marathon used to take. So this was a very familiar road for both of us. Brought back a lot of painful memories (literally PAINFUL). After that it was trying to find a new route to Palm Springs with as little freeway as possible. So we took a little used route through the Mohave area, highway 164 towards Searchlight. There were only a couple of trucks on this road and no cars. Passed a couple of deserted settlements whose only claim to fame was they were on the Nevada and California border. At Searchlight we turned south heading towards historic “route 66”. Being on the bikes and riding through almost 100 miles of desert, I had suggested that this would be a safer route as it would have more traffic than some of the lesser known roads. If by more traffic we were talking about 5 cars an hour then I was 100% correct (as always haha). There was so little traffic that when we took water breaks or to take pictures we just stopped on the road without pulling over. This was such a rewarding ride for me, as I was able to think back to the way
things must have been when this highway was the main route travelling east and west. There were so many old abandoned gas stations, motels and restaurants. The simple conveniences that we take for granted just were not available then. Things like the internet, cell phones and even bottled water. To think about a family travelling to California for a summer vacation in that heat in a car probably without a/c and not being sure just where the next hotel or gas station may be. It must have been much more of an adventure than what we are used to now.
By the time we reached Amboy the temp was starting to climb into the 40’s. We were looking forward to breakfast at Roy’s diner in Amboy. Roy’s is famous as an old diner on route 66 that is still open. Well sort of open, you can buy water, instant coffee and souvenirs and that’s all. Fifty more miles until we can have breakfast.
We left route 66 riding through Joshua Tree National Park making our way to 29 Palms. About the only thing this area would be known for is people that write songs about them. Also this
is where Ernie’s brother lives. (Ernie is the random tree I named last year while riding through Oklahoma. The entire area is littered with small boarded up homes and trailers, some empty but some definitely inhabited. I can’t imagine the lifestyle of living in the middle of nowhere in this heat. I guess this would be called living “off the grid”.
With the temperature hitting around 43 degrees we arrive in P.S. We have rented a condo for the time we will stay here. The condo is more than we expected when I booked it a couple of months ago. Very tastefully decorated clean and overlooking the pool. Then the A/C shut down. That’s where the heat of the night comes in. Our owner tried to get someone out last night but to no avail. Temperature inside last night was approaching 90 so you can imagine we did not get a lot of sleep. Looking forward to seeing the area today and experiencing some of the desert’s feel.
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