Day 4: 29 Palms, CA to Parker, AZ

Sunrise in 29 Palms


110 miles, 3700 feet of climbing. Today was the longest stretch of road on the trip with no civilization in sight--91 miles of nothing but desert. It was a great day to ride, though. There were high clouds keeping the temperature down, and we had light tailwinds most of the day, giving us an average speed of 18 mph.

Not much to write about today. I (Ed) pedaled, Nancy stayed on my wheel. Just to show you what a difference drafting (and being smaller & lighter) makes, Nancy's power meter says she burned 2000 calories today, while I burned 3000. Extra pie for me!

What's all this? I thought it was four days of dessert, not desert!

The shoe fence. There's a short stretch of fence on which people have hung hundreds of discarded shoes. A Trek Travel bag mysteriously appeared on the fence as well.

Long desert roads

Welcome to Arizona! Our first state border sign! There will be, hmmm, let's see, 9 more: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentuky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.


We're taking a rest day now. We're staying at the Bluewater Resort & Casino in Parker. It's a few miles outside of town, the food options are quite limited, and there's no Internet access. Vegas has spoiled me. Our guides were kind enough to give us a ride into town--one van went to the laundromat, the other to the library for Internet access. Which van will you board? Where are your priorities? Nancy, being the best wife ever, volunteered to take the laundry bus while I came here to the library to update the blog.

Day 3: Victorville CA to 29 Palms CA

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la, la ...

90 miles, pancake flat in the morning with sweet tailwinds. Nasty headwinds for 20 miles in the afternoon, then flats and descents

Desert, desert, desert. That was, in a nutshell and in great detail, our day. We started in an artificial desert suburb (sans accompanying urban center) and went through the desert on our carbon fiber horses. There was a nice 38-mile stretch without bathrooms of any kind, or a shrub big enough to squat behind-- sometimes being a girl sucks. Lots of sand, sandy hills, small sad shrubs, the occasional Joshua tree, and lots of big, mostly courteous trucks giving us lots of room on the shoulderless road.

The morning was nice and cool, and the road was wonderful (especially tucked in behind Ed, enjoying the benefit of his slipstream). The scenery was pretty for oh, about 15 minutes, and then it got boring, so we put in the earbuds and listened to our audiobooks for entertainment. After a nice lunch on the side of the road, the second half began with awful headwinds, but the last 20 or so miles were great so we're happy. 29 Palms is a Marine Corps base, and Ed's dad Jerry was stationed here for a bit when he was in the Marines. It's pretty small, and we're staying in a little adobe-style hut tonight. Ed's enjoying a massage as I write this, and I'm enjoying a cold Anchor Steam. Life is good.

So what are our days like? We get up around 6 or 6:30 in the morning, change into our clean bike clothes, download the day's New York Times podcast if we have internet access, pack up and have breakfast. We try to roll out by 7:30 or 8:00 to avoid some of the afternoon heat. All the guests are free to leave whenever we want, so there's no mass start. Everyone does their own thing: the fast people go fast, the slow people go slow, we run into and get to talk to different guests at different points in the day, and everyone's in a great mood. (Granted, it's only Day 3.) Ed and I bike at our own pace all day. I'm amazed he's stuck to the program! We've found that even though sometimes we're thinking "ugh... we're going soooooo slooooooow," we end up being happy we're on the slow plan when we roll into the hotel in the afternoon and feel good, not miserable. Along the way, we stop for lunch where one of the 2 support vans is pulled over with lots of goodies for us (including a nice tortellini salad today-- don't ask how our guide Big Wave Dave managed to get that cooked without a stove!), and we can hail them over at any point during the day when they pass us to fill up on water, Clif Bars, sunscreen, or to ditch our wind vests like I did this morning when it warmed up. The afternoons have been much windier and hotter so far, and thus we're less happy, but we're always happy when we see the van parked in front of the hotel because that means we can shower, put on not-so-tight clothes, nap, maybe get a massage or post on the blog, and chow down. For dinner, we have a designated restaurant, usually at the hotel, and we can go down at any time and order off the menu. Sometimes we sit with other guests if they're there, otherwise we're tired, antisocial honeymooners. We often eat with the guides as it turns out, and they've filled me in on Trek Travel gossip over the past year. We're brain dead by 8:30 and try to get to bed by 9:00-10:00, and start all over the next day!

Tomorrow is supposed to be the most desolate day of the trip-- something like 90 miles of it will be without houses or a gas station or anything at all. Let's hope the water holds out! And then already our first rest day. They're easing us into the trip by treating us to a rest day so early. Off to dionner now.

Day 2: Valencia CA to Victorville, CA

95 miles, about 4000 feet of climbing. Entering the desert! Bad roads, nasty headwinds.

Today we climbed out of whatever valley it was we were in, and came out in Palmdale. Welcome to the Mojave desert! It's a bizzare scene--one minute you're in a desert no-man's-land, the next you're in heavily developed planned communities. It's like someone planted a suburbia seed in the sand and irrigated like crazy.

In Palmdale, we made a slight detour to see the Blackbird Airpark Museum. They've got two SR-71 Blackbirds on display, along with a U2 and a D-21 Mach-6 drone that they tried to launch off the back of an SR-71, although it never quite worked.

As soon as we left Palmdale, it was Joshua trees everywhere. They're not just an album by U2. Different kind of U2, BTW. turns out they were given that name by Mormon settlers who thought the trees' branches looked like a biblical story of Joshua raising his arms and looking Up. And that's about all that's interesting about them.




Today the riding wasn't too bad, until the last 30 miles, when we kept alternating between headwinds and tailwinds, and nice roads and really crappy roads.

GRIPE: we got these really nifty combination GPS/radio things, Garmin Rino's, just for this trip, so we could know where we were, where the other person is, and talk to each other, in case we got split up. Halfway through the first day the bracket on mine broke, and halfway through the second day the bracket on Nancy's broke. How lame! We're really quite peeved, because they're kind of expensive, and now they're pretty much useless to us. Grrr...

Day 1: Santa Barbara CA to Valencia CA

80 miles, mostly flatish. 4000 feet of climbing.

Nancy in the house. We started the day off with a “before” photo in our bathing suits— in hopes that our "after" photos will be more flattering =) Ed and I agreed to take it easy today, to go no more than 130 watts for me, about 150 for him, the theory being that the easier we go, the more pleasant the next month will be. And it was a great day!

We took off with our group of about 30 fellow guests and guides around 9:00 a.m. from the Harbor View Inn right near the pier in Santa Barbara. We took lots of group photos, and then we were off. We rode along the ocean for a good bit, and at one point there were dozens of dolphins swimming in the opposite direction as us. The most shocking part of the day is when we biked on Freeway 101—yes, the 101! Eventually, a bike lane is added, but not for a while. It was sort of scary with the traffic going so fast. Eventually we turned away from the ocean, and inland towards the orange and lemon groves.

Surprisingly, most of the group stayed together until lunch at about 50 miles. It wasn’t the traditional over-the-top Trek Travel picnic, but still much better than I expected for a “feed zone”—sandwich stuff, bean salad, green salad, good cheeses, and of course the ubiquitous peanut M&Ms. After lunch we biked through more orchards and then a 10-mile stretch of highway (not freeway, but still very fast and very trafficked, with lots of heavy trucks). We got to know some of our fellow guests on this leg-- many of whom are 50+ years old and in amazing shape. One is turning 65 this year and dropped me because he was going faster than my 130-watt limit would allow.

After we pulled into our hotel, we got to enjoy one of the perks of this trip-- a 30-minute massages with Dana, one of the two trip soigneurs. We get one every 2 days. She was great! Dana says the guides call us collectively “the honeymooners,” and that she’s put money down on Ed to be one of the people who doesn’t get in the van at all on this trip. Hopefully neither of us will!

All in all, Day 1 was good, not too tiring, and we’re ready for more!

And so it begins...

Hello friends and family, this is Ed speaking.

We're in Santa Barbara now, about to get a good night's sleep before we dip our wheels in the Pacific Ocean tomorrow morning. Before most trips, I put off packing until 2am the night before we leave, stressing myself out, and keeping Nancy up. This time she forced me to pack ahead of time. Novel concept! This morning I was running all over the house for a couple hours taking care of last minute items, and then I realized I had two hours before we were planning on leaving, and everything was done. Wow.

My dad flew with us to Santa Barbara in my plane. We really wanted to have my plane in Charleston when we got there, but it's expensive to hire a professional pilot to take your plane across the country for you. I thought to myself, "Who do I know that works cheap, has no schedule, and can fly my plane?" Then it hit me--my dad! He's a pilot too, and though he has his own plane, he likes mine because it's got lots of nifty gizmos for you to play with as you cruise along on autopilot. So he flew out here (on a commercial plane), rode with us to Santa Barbara, and tomorrow he'll take my plane home to Wisconsin. Sounds like he'll be taking the scenic route, so it may be quite a while before he's home. At the end of our trip, he's bringing the plane out to Charleston for us. How convenient!

Once we got checked into the hotel, we met up with our Trek Travel group. There are about 25 people on the trip. Nancy and I appear to be the only honeymooners. We're hoping to make everyone sick with our lovey-dovey you're-the-best-no-you're-the-best honeymooner stuff. Nancy and I both know most of our guides from previous trips--her as a guide, me as a guest. Although we plan to spend much of the trip listening to Harry Potter or the New York Times on our iPod's, Nancy and I are looking forward to getting to know the other crazies on the trip.

Alright, I've got to go, I'm keeping Nancy up. We'll let you know how the first day goes tomorrow.

Ed

Training

A month before the trip began, we went on a 10-day, 675-mile bike trip on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina with Black Bear Adventures. We figured the shorter daily miles would ease us into Cross-Country form-- and boy did we underestimate that trip! (We overlooked the 55,000 feet of climbing described in the literature.) But we made it, in good spirits and better shape than when we started off. (Okay, Ed was in both better spirits and shape all along. His perpetual good humour and capacity for self-punishment amaze me.) That's us on the right.


It was a great trip, with beautiful scenery, safe roads, and good company. Blackbear Adventures owner and guide Paul Wood runs a pro trip with everything we needed, including some good ol' Southern soul food like fried chicken, biscuits and gravy. Definitely recommended if you're looking for an unforgetable cycling trip in the Blue Ridge Mountains: www.blackbearadventures.com

The Ride

(Photo by Trek Travel -- check out the trip at www.trektravel.com)

This is it. 3,178 miles beginning in Santa Barbara, CA and ending in Charleston, SC. 31 days in the saddle, with 3 rest days spread throughout the trip in Parker, AZ; Taos, NM; and Nashville, TN. Average mileage is about 100 miles per day. Do you know what this means? Yeah yeah-- beautiful countryside, challenging terrain, the ride of a lifetime, yada yada yada. But we've got our priorities straight: for one whole month, we can eat whatever we want-- shovel in the ice cream and pasta and bacon by the plateful-- and still not have enough. This is honeymooning at its best.