Diapers, Deserts, and Dehydration

So in the time that has expired since my last blog we have crossed the desert of California and Arizona, or at least part of it. We originally thought it would be a good idea to get up early and bike then find a place to rest for the hot part of the day and then bike as long as we could stand into the night, find a place to sleep and then do it again. Our first night we tried it we faced probably the biggest climb of the ride. A ten mile ride up a ten percent grade took us three and we pulled into a rest stop around midnight totally exhausted. It looked like a downhill was coming up so we considered continuing the ride bit decided to stop and get very little sleep next to the rest stop and freeway. It wasn't quite as bad as the night we accidentally slept right next to the train tracks but it was close. Although the sleep was bad it was good that we did be cause two miles down the road we ran into road construction so we jumped off the freeway, it is the only paved road that goes through this part of the country, jumped a barbwire fence and then found a dirt road and pushed, rode and carried our bikes for two miles where the road construction had stopped pushed our bikes back over the desert jumped the fence and started riding again which brouht us along to the highlight of the trip for me thus far, The General George S. Patton Memorial Museum! Oh it was so cool. So you are probably wondering as I was why is there a Patton museum literally in the middle of nowhere California. Well the answer is that shortly after WWII started or at least after the U.S. got involved Patton set up a training camp of 18,000 square miles to get American soldiers ready for the African desert. The soldiers called it "the land God forgot," and I whole heartedly agree. So there were a bunch of cool old tanks and stuff to look at totally worth checking out if you are nerdy like that. So we spent most of the hot part of the day at Chiriaco Summit hanging out at the museum and talking to strangers at the gas station. Dan had some particularly good advice about traveling since he had hitchhiked and walked all over the country, much of which we have already applied to our travel. So this point was the start of our desert travel since after Chiriaco Summit it was 50 miles of desert to the next certain water source. It ended up that we were able to get some water from a run down cafe that charged to use the bathroom so our total distance without water was cut in half and we made it the 50 or so miles to water that was not handed out by a failing restaurant owner. We found a rest stop ate in the yellow glow of a lightpost and crashed. He next day we made it to a real town, Blythe, California, and got our groceries where a lady asked where our biking clothes were. Apparently the huge pad that and is the only thing that even attempts to make my bike seat comfortable is not visible underneath the pants I wear over it. I think that is a good thing? So we put Blythe to our backs and jumped in the Colorado river marking the stateline between California and Arizona and promptly got stuck at a truckstop not wanting to bike in the 107 degree heat. Okay it is late I'll finish this story later.