El Centro, CA to Blythe, CA - 104 miles

Our daily morning schedule has us feeding between 6 and 6:30 am, then a staggered start up to 7am. The first part of today's ride we rode through the fields surrounding El Centro. The fields are irrigated by some sort of nearby canal. This ditch water made the air humid. There is a sharp contrast between the fields with green vegetation and the brown unused fields. Along the side of the road and in the fields are stacked huge forty foot tall and five hundred foot long bales of yellow crusty hay. We saw a few pens of dairy cattle and they stunk.

After crossing over the canal, we made our first sag stop. It was starting to get hot - time to break out the ice sock. I downed some V-8, beef jerky, a granola bar, banana, and Gatorade to stoke the fire. I filled up the Camelbak for the upcoming inferno.

The group up to stop was Brian, Keith, Nigel, Wes, and Terri. Wes had ridden Quadzilla in July - a ride I had also done. We chatted about the miserable conditions (hills, headwind, etc.) on that ride. We pulled out of the stop minus Wes and Terri, they left before us.

Brian was being frisky and darted ahead. We were entering a park of sand dunes. This is the stuff of deserts - sand blowing across the road, rippled dunes rising at odd angles, weird shadows, no vegetation or rocks. We climbed a small rise for a fantastic view. There were some far-off mountain ranges in the distance at every corner. We will see what range we'll end up ascending or hopefully skirt around (not likely).

After the sand dune park, we noticed there was a long row of chain link fence with barbed wire. A sign indicated this was a protected turtle area. Not sure what the razor wire did for them, though. We stopped again for another water break and ice sock refill. Beef jerky, salt pills, Coke, salted peanuts are eaten. The temperature says 110 on the "Have a Coke and a smile" red bulbed thermometer on the trailer door.

We were now on some nice rolling hills. We scooted down them and then back up. Clifford from Houston joined us briefly. If you pedaled hard enough you were able to get up over the top going a fairly good clip. We also had a brief but brisk tailwind. We leveled off and the wind whipped around in our faces. Lunchtime by a lake. I have some olives, cold cuts, Mountain Dew, Lay's, canned sweetened strawberries, and peaches in heavy syrup. Salt is an important part of the long distance bicyclist's fuel (water and food are the other). Especially in the heat, where everyone has jagged white powdery salt/sweat lines up and down their black shorts and colorful jerseys.

We continue up the road and a black dog runs out. He is lathered up good from chasing other riders before us. He better relax or he'll collapse from the heat. I think he just wants to play. Another stop with a few mangy looking dogs barking at us, but staying their distance. Refill of the ice sock.
We finish around 2:30pm in Blythe, CA. It looks like a farming area combination exit off the interstate. Plenty of time for bike cleaning, shower, relaxing. At dinner Renny, Nigel and I watch Brian eat a whole large pizza at Pizza Hut. Pretty impressive considering he weighs 155!

I feel a bit better today than yesterday, probably because it was an easier day with a lot less climbing, and I'm adjusting somewhat to the heat. Looking forward to tomorrow's ride to Wickenburg, Arizona.