Day 54: Alpine, CA to San Diego, CA

Daily Miles: 40.7 Total Miles: 2904.3
**This post is from yesterday 4/26. We didn't have Internet last night**

Dipping my tire in the Pacific!

We did it! After more than 2900 miles, 243 hours in the saddle, and 71,000' of climbing, I finally reached the Pacific Ocean!! It was a great day. I rode in to the city from Alpine with John and Floyd and it was great sharing the ride with them, having some company, and not having to worry about navigating myself though the San Diego traffic. The day started with some pretty significant rain which made our 2000' descent a little more treacherous than I would have wanted. After about 15 miles we stopped and met up with Mary for some drinks and amazing sliders at a local restaurant, Eastbound, in Lakeside.

At the beach with John, Mary and Floyd

We rode on through several of San Diego's great parks and only had to spend a few miles winding through busy traffic before reaching the Ocean Beach Bike Trail. The sun finally broke though and as we rode up and on to Ocean Beach, the sun was shining and the day was perfect. It felt so good to see the ocean and to know that I made it all this way on my bike. It was surreal! And also sad to know that the trip had to come to an end. After meeting up with Mary and dipping my tire into the Pacific, the 4 of us headed to a great pizza place near by, and of course John and Floyd were telling everyone that I had just ridden in from Florida. The manager at the bar bought me a beer, and then, as we were leaving, she announced over the PA system that I had just finished a cross country ride. Everyone in the place, EVERYONE, started cheering and applauding. It was so cool!!

Amazing seats at the Padres-Nationals game

After pizza, John very generously gave Mary and me 3rd row tickets to the Padres vs. Nationals game. Mary and I were thrilled to accept and made our way out to the park. We were literally right behind the Nats dugout. It was very cool, even though the game was a little light on action (the Padres won 2-1). All in all, it was an amazing day and a great way to finish my ride. I hope to update this blog one more time with some final thoughts on the trip, and some statistics. Tomorrow Mary and I will start our return trip. We're planning on visiting Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Chicago, and finally stopping in Orrville, OH to visit CAMO, the organization I have been raising money for with my ride. I may occasionally post some brief updates from our trip home and/or pictures, but I won't be keeping a daily blog going forward. Thank you so much for following our journey, and if you haven't already, please consider making a donation: http://camo.donorpages.com/CyclingforCAMO2012/CarriePerdue/.

Why hello, Mr. Panda. Sorry to interrupt your lunch

**Update from 4/27: Today Mary and I went to the San Diego Zoo and then met up with John and my good pal Emily from undergrad. We had another great day and tomorrow we head on to Vegas!!

Day 53: Jacumba, CA to Alpine, CA

Daily Miles: 44.6 Total Miles: 2863.6

Riding through the mountains

The weather forecast was calling for rain today, so the plan was to finish up early. I had a shorter ride today, so I didn't get on the road until 10am. I started out of Jacumba immediately climbing, and enjoyed nice roads and no wind. The day was full of big climbs and even bigger descents. I stopped briefly to chat with Mary after my first climb and then pushed on over another series of climbs to Pine Valley, 30 miles into the day. I hit my all-time high speed of 39.2 MPH as I was descending down into the town.

For the first time in 1500 miles we see GREEN!

We stopped for lunch before I headed out to finish the last ~15 miles of the day. I had one more big climb before I started a big descent into Alpine. I had to ride on the Interstate again, but today it was all downhill, and there was minimal traffic. I exited and then rode a series of rolling hills into town. I really enjoyed today's ride, and I even made it in to Alpine before the rains hit. Once in Alpine, Mary and I met up with Ann, my friend's mom, and she drove us out to their beautiful home.

Harnessing the power of the wind!

We had an awesome time sharing dinner and stories with Ann and John and their family friends Floyd, Vicki and Ryan. Tomorrow I am hoping the rains pass so that John and Floyd can join my for my final ride to the beach!

Day 52: Brawley, CA to Jacumba, CA

 Daily Miles: 58.2 Total Miles: 2819.0

Riding through farmland this morning

Today was a great day with a big climb and finally some reasonable weather! We were a little slow getting started this morning, but since I had biked to the hotel yesterday we didn't have to waste any time driving back to a starting point. I was on the road around 9am and the ride started out very smoothly with no wind and flat roads through pretty farmland. After about 20 miles I had made it to Seeley and stopped to meet up with Mary for a snack. I had read several blogs to help prepare for this trip, and all mention that the 20 miles from Seeley to Ocotillo feature the absolute worst roads of the entire route. Needless to say I was not looking forward to it.

Cool palm trees

Luckily, as I headed out from Seeley I saw that the road was freshly paved for 10 miles to Plaster City. Mary and I had seen Plaster City on the map, and I at least was thinking that we would find either a. a weird Lego-Land-esque city made entirely out of plaster, or b. a normal, decaying East California Valley town with nothing more than a few trailers and 5-20 Mexican restaurants. We found neither of those things. Plaster City consisted of one enormous factory and nothing else. Nothing. Not one single house, store... Not even a Post Office! Just a huge factory in the middle of a desert. I later researched it, and it turns out that the entire city is owned by a gypsum mining company and that site is a gypsum quarry and processing plant. And, as you may have guessed, gypsum is a key ingredient in... drumroll please... plaster.

The gypsum plant at Plaster City

How boring. They should at least build a real city out of plaster to get some tourists out there. Once I rolled through Plaster City the nice pavement ended and I truly rode the WORST road I have ever been on in my life... including Honduras. It was awful. I don't even know why anyone would want to drive their car on that road. My speed went from over 13MPH to under 10MPH, just because of the terrible roads. There was a ton of bouncing and I had a killer headache when I finally rolled up to Ocotillo 40 miles into my ride. Mary and I had lunch at a biker (motorcyclist) bar, and the food was actually quite good. I spent the meal trying to prepare myself for the huge climb ahead. I had already climbed ~500' on the day, and over the next 12 miles I would climb another ~3000' on Interstate 8.

Climbing through the Jacumba Mountains

To make matters worse, this area is notorious for its very strong (50+MPH) winds. It hadn't been windy all day, but I was still nervous for what I would encounter on the mountain. I finally got up my nerve and set out. The climb was not too bad, and there was no wind at all, but the sun was brutal. I got really really hot, and stopped several times to drink more water. At one point, I ran into a road worker and he gave me a cold bottle of water which was greatly appreciated. About 3 miles from the top, I briefly stopped to chat with Mary and drink another cold water. I finally struggled to the top, just as a headwind started whipping up. I drank one more water and then enjoyed the 400' descent into Jacumba.

The border fence... I can see Mexico from my bike!

Jacumba is right on the border of Mexico, literally a stone's throw away, so I spent several miles riding right along the border fence. The one hotel in town was closed, so we had planned on driving 9 miles on to Boulevard to stay at the Lux Inn. Mary called the guy there earlier today and she said he sounded a little creepy, but you take what you can get. Once we got to Boulevard we saw no sign of this hotel and before we know it had driven the 2 miles on to Live Oak Springs, where we happened upon a very nice resort with private cabins. We decided to choose this place over the potential Norman Bates guy's hotel in Boulevard. The restaurant here was jam packed tonight, probably because it was Taco Tuesday. We got the taco deal, and it was quite good. Tomorrow I'm heading on to Alpine, my last ride before descending to the Pacific. We're going to stay with the parents of one of my fellow Peace Corps Honduras Volunteers, Jenna, and we're looking forward to meeting them and sharing stories from our trip!

Day 51: Winterhaven, CA to Brawley, CA

Daily Miles: 57.1 Total Miles: 2760.8

Riding through the desert this morning

Today we got a (little) break from the heat, but we had to deal with the return of our good old friend the wind. We were up and packed early, and stopped at the Subway in Blythe to buy lunch before driving back out to Winterhaven to start the ride. Today's route would feature zero restaurants, and only one place to even buy snacks, at Glamis, 30 miles in to the ride. I was on the road by 9am, and immediately started climbing and battling a headwind. I climbed about 800' over the first 17 miles of the day, and the wind was unrelenting. I was crawling along at a snail's pace at one point and checked my phone to see the wind was at 22MPH. Arg.

Carrie vs. Wind. I am losing.

The only good news was that after about 25 miles I turned from a mainly due south route to due west and so the headwind shifted to a side wind. Well, at least I thought this was going to be good news as I rolled up to Glamis to break for lunch with Mary. As we ate, I realized that the whitish mountains that I had been riding towards weren't actually mountains, they were sand dunes! At first I thought this was going to be super cool (and it would have been without the wind), but things got real rough real quick. I headed back out and was literally being sandblasted. SANDBLASTED from head to toe and sometimes right in my face.

Riding through the sand dunes

It was awful. Then, to make matters worse, I started another small, but fairly steep climb, and was rolling along slowly when I was blasted with a massive gust of wind that proceeded to push me right off of the road. My tires went in to the sandy shoulder and I flew off my bike. Well, I would have flown off my bike if my feet weren't attached, so really my body flew of my bike and my feet and legs sunk into the sand with my bike. I scraped up my elbow and smashed the fingers on my left hand as I tried to catch myself on the way down. Not good, but I really wasn't hurt. It would have been much worse if I had been riding at a faster speed. It was just so annoying and stressful, but I forced myself to continue on. I made it up that small hill and soon started climbing again when another, several-minutes-long gust blasted me again. This time I stopped and got off my bike, but it seemed like it was never going to end. I called Mary and told her to come rescue me. Before she got there the wind let up and I was able to make it over the crest of the hill. I told Mary that I was going to try to go on, and that she should ride up to the Dunes Observation Point, get some pictures, and then she could drive by to check on me in 30 minutes or so. I rode on and eventually made it out of the dunes, and all was well. I continued riding on and on, but still no Mary.

Thank goodness this guy came along!

Finally over an hour later she rolled up and told me that she had a little emergency of her own. While I was riding, Mary drove up to the observation point and the wind had covered the parking lot with sand. She made it out to the far corner to take pictures, but as she drove back, she sunk into a sand pile and could not get out... in the parking lot! She tried and tried and the car wouldn't move. There weren't many other tourists, but a few motorcyclists passed her by without helping. Just as she was starting to get really nervous and was digging the sand out from under the tires with her hands, a couple rode up and offered to help her out. They ended up dis-assembling our bike rack and using the straps to create a tow rope which they used to connect the two cars. Then the husband pushed our car while his wife and Mary put the two cars in to gear and the Accord was finally freed from it's sandy resting place.

Salton Sea from the shores of Bombay Beach

One of the bike rack straps broke in the process, so we're going to need to buy a new one in San Diego for our return trip. But what an ordeal! Today was a rough one for both of us. I finished out the last 12 miles of the day, below sea level, by the way, and then we checked in to the hotel to shower the mountains of sand off of our bodies. After getting cleaned up we drove north a bit to check out Bombay Beach, the subject of a 2011 documentary of the same name, and a shell of a former 1950s tourism community on the banks of the Salton Sea, California's largest lake. It was interesting to say the least, pretty in a strange way, and actually a nice way to end our day. Now we're in the hotel resting and gearing up for our final 3 days on the road.

Day 50: Blythe, CA to Winterhaven, CA

Daily Miles: 29.5 Total Miles: 2703.7

This pretty much sums up our day

Thank goodness we had planned on a low mileage day, because today was unbelievably HOT. We slept in a little, took our time getting ready and then I headed out for a ~ 2.5 hour ride around 10am. The route was really flat this morning as I rode through mile after mile of farmland. The road was in really good shape and I was rolling along at a great pace. After ~20 miles I was in Palo Verde, met up with Mary for some more water, and then we decided that I would ride on 10 more miles before calling it a day. I set out again, and was riding into a slight headwind and starting to climb. The heat was so intense that I didn't think I was going to make it.

Irrigated farm land in Blythe

Finally, I met up with Mary again and was more than happy to call it a day at 29.5 miles. We rode back to Blythe, where we saw that the local clock/thermometer was registering a temperature of 110°F. ONE HUNDRED AND TEN DEGREES! Ugggg! The heat was really just overwhelming, even off the bike. We ate lunch at a local diner, ran a few errands, and then sought refuge in our air conditioned hotel room to catch up on e-mails. We're feeling a little more rested now and are about to head out to dinner. Tomorrow promises to be another hot one, but hopefully it won't break into triple digits again.

Day 49: Salome, AZ to Blythe, CA

Daily Miles: 62.9 Total Miles: 2674.2

Riding through the desert

We made it to California!! We could not get away from Sheffler's fast enough this morning, so we packed up and I biked on down to Buckaroo's for breakfast. The food there really was good, and by 9:30am I was back on the road. And it was already HOT. Fortunately I quickly started a long descent and was riding at a great pace. Before long I had finished up the first ~25 miles to Brenda and was preparing to once again ride on the Interstate. I briefly chatted with Mary before deciding to push on another 15 miles to Quartzsite for lunch. I had a little climbing to do once I got onto I-10, but today's ride was much less stressful than my other Interstate experiences. After the climb I had another descent all the way to Quartzsite and I met up there with Mary for Subway and DQ Blizzards.

Dome Rock

All of the towns we passed today consisted of nothing but RV parks full of snowbirds. I do not know what the attraction is, but the entire area was packed full of RVs. Most of the parks even had signs advertising that they were reserved for people 55+. My question is, who under the age of 55 has an RV? And even if they have one, why would they want to stay in an RV park in the middle of a blazing hot desert with 0 attractions until the Pacific Ocean? It was odd to say the least. After eating and a long rest it was about 1pm, and the temperature was already over 100 degrees. I finally forced myself to go on and ride the last 25 miles of the day in to Blythe.

The Colorado River from the dirt trail below the underpass

I rode an access road along side I-10 right through the heart of the desert for about 6 miles before I once again hopped on the Interstate. I had another big descent and, per the ACA map, exited at Exit 1, and was planning on taking the pedestrian bridge over the Colorado River, entering California, and continuing on an access road into Blythe. Once again, things did not go as planned. I got off at Exit 1, took the access road downhill to where it dead-ended right on the banks of the Colorado. As I rode up, I thought, "hmmm, I don't see a pedestrian bridge." At that point, Mary, drove back up the access road and yelled, "I don't see a pedestrian bridge... Good luck!!" and then promptly drove away leaving me alone under the underpass by the river. Well. The directions said to "go up a path to the north side of the bridge." There was no path, so I ended up pushing my bike on a rocky, dirt path under the underpass to see if there was a way to get on the bridge over there.

I made it (barely)!

Mind you, the bridge is now several hundred feet above my head because I am stumbling along the riverbank. I get to the other side, and do not find a path up to the bridge, but instead I find the back parking lot of a trucker's only adult movie store. And there were like 5 18-wheelers parked back there, all turned on, but with no one sitting in the driver's seats. Gahhhhh!! I immediately turn around, run back under the underpass dragging my bike behind me, get back on the access road, and bike back up the hill to I-10. Once I got up there, I was drenched in sweat and covered in dirt. Like there was sweat running down my shins. Terrible. I ended up just crossing the bridge on I-10 and it was perfectly fine. I did see the pedestrian bridge, along the side of the I-10 shoulder. The only possible way to access it would involve scrambling, while carrying my bike, up a steep mountainside covered in loose gravel. I now just hope I make it to the Pacific Ocean without getting done in by these freaking ACA maps. I crossed the border without further incident, and rolled along another 5 miles or so to our hotel. Tomorrow I'm going to take a half rest day, putting in 35 or so miles and trying to catch up on e-mail and fundraising. It's hard to believe our adventure is almost over. We only have 5 more days of biking left!

Day 48: Wittmann, AZ to Salome, AZ

Daily Miles: 77.8 Total Miles: 2611.3

The desert is a lonely place...

Today we got back on track! We woke up early, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and headed back to Wittmann. I was on the road before 9am and immediately got into a nice groove. I started climbing again right off the bat, but I was feeling strong and the wind was very mild (and at my back). I was making great time and quickly knocked out the first 23 miles (and 600' of climbing) to Wickenburg. As I was entering town and traffic started to pick up, I spotted a Dunkin Donuts, and had to pull in. This was probably the first DD I've seen on my route on this trip so far, and, even at 10am it was so hot that I couldn't pass up an iced coffee. Mary met me there and we both had a snack before I pressed on. The riding through Wickenburg was pretty hectic because there was no shoulder, lots of traffic due to an event in town today, and a very odd roundabout where two highways met.

Climbing out of Wickenburg

I made it through and then climbed another 600' over the next 10 miles before starting an extremely gradual descent for the rest of the day. After Wickenburg today's ride was through an extremely empty, desolate desert with mountains in the distance. My only companions were the cacti and tons of little lizards running along the shoulder. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, the road was generally in excellent condition, and with my newly adjusted derailleur (the thing that moves the chain from gear to gear), I was riding very smoothly. I met up with Mary again ~55 miles into the ride and she had brought me an ice cold Coke and a Subway sandwich.  That may have been the best Coke of my life.

The mountains in the distance

I headed out again to knock out the final 22 miles of the day on to Salome and Mary drove on to check in to our gem of a hotel and the only game in town, Sheffler's. Now, Sheffler's is not the worst hotel we've stayed in on this trip, it does offer access to a green pool and 20 year old trampoline after all, but it's giving the others a run for their money. Highlights so far include: no hot water. At all. I took a cold shower while Mary went outside to tell the "maintenance man" who was actually a 13 year old boy, and he went to "turn the boiler on" but the water stayed cold. Then Mary went to inquire about the Internet, and they made her pay them $3 for the password, which was 200+ characters long, and by the way, the Internet doesn't actually work. So now we are at the local hot spot, Buckaroo's, having dinner and updating the blog. Buckaroo's, by the way, is delicious, and their Internet works great. Mary talked with Jay today and he made it back home alive and well. Tomorrow we'll be crossing in to California and starting our final push to the Pacific!