Saturday and Sunday were challenging days because of the high headwinds. We rode over 60 miles on Saturday to Gila Bend. Blowing sand constantly. We stocked up on water and food to carry through the longest part of the desert on Sunday. We knew others have reported that it is impossible to ride the whole thing. We started out at 5:30 in the morning hoping to beat the heat and sand storms. We've come to acquaint ourselves with a few border patrolmen along the way. One of them told us about Dateland which was a little out of the way but a source of more water. Dateland was a little town that grows dates, all kinds of different variety of dates. We stopped there and Dean even tried one of their "worl famous" (so they say) date shakes. It was so rich he couldn't finish it. They had free dates to sample and I bought a pound of honey dates to nourish us on the road. Later I looked up the nutritional value of dates and was quite amazed about all the power that those little things deliver. I will continue to include those mighty fruits in my diet long after this ride ends.
Dateland was 53 miles into the desert. We left the decision up to Ron if he wanted to continue or set up camp in Dateland. He really wanted the challenge of surviving the night deep in the desert so we moved on. After 12 miles the climbs, heavier winds and extreme heat got the best of us. We looked for a safe place to spend the night. Signs everywhere warned of poisonous snakes. Other truckers warned about the wild boars said they were pinned inside their truck for over an hour. The heat was unbelievable. The water we had was near boiling point, not a bit satisfying for thirst. As we sat on the ground I couldn't help but think about Black Widow spiders, boar, snakes, Gila Monsters and scorpions. It was also boring just sitting there just waiting 6 hours or so for night to come. Then Bob threw in that if we opened cans of food it might draw animals in closer. We had had a wolf run right in front of us on the road that morning. He looked at me and said that we could try and make it by ourselves. Dean didn't want to just sit there either. So Ron took a couple more Aleve for his aching knee and we set out for 26 more miles of desert! Bob and I pushed on faster than the other two. We battled head winds that continued to soar. The sun was like an oven and we began to feel like we were human BBQ. We decided to put our jackets back on just to protect our skin which was already frying. It was then that the wind caught our jackets like a sail and started to push us into the road. Bob tipped the bike and we rolled! Neither of us was hurt at all, not even skinned up. We made it to Actna feeling like a truck had run over us. We rode right into the only gas station and began drinking like crazy. I couldn't stop shaking, definitely dehydrated. Actna is a town of a couple hundred people who live in trailers and sand. All we could say was, "why would they stay here.".
Today the winds continued to challenge but the temps only went into the 80s. We climbed some of the most beautiful and steepest mountains. It was difficult but fun! We only had to ride about 50 miles. We are about ONE MILE from California!
No comments:
Post a Comment