Ride to Needles, Ca
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Ride to Needles, Ca
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Today's journey took us down historic Route 66 through the Mojave Desert. Temperatures peaked out at 100 degrees and that's hot no matter what you're doing. We enjoyed the scenery of the occasional tumble weed along with the total of two cars that passed by. The desert does funny things to your brain tho, as Joe and Chris threatened to go skinny dippin' into the many pools of water that we thought we saw. As it turned out, it was only Bill firing at them with his new squirt gun.
To an outsider, this may "appear" to be a nice picture of the "three amigos" doing a thumbs up pose, when in fact what we were actually doing was flicking our bic lighters while Joe serenaded us with the Sapere version of "I Can See For Miles and Miles"! Joe obviously didn't get the phone call this morning announcing that the shirt color for the day is BLUE!
As the hot sun continued to beat down upon us, it left each rider with the dreaded "biker" tan! It's not a real bad thing until you decide to take a dip in the pool back at the hotel at the end of the day. It got so hot at one point the chap stick on Bill's lips melted down onto his shirt. I guess you could say he nearly had a total melt down! Here we are in our perfect formation for traveling. Not the "V" formation as one would believe, but the Ampu-"V" formation!
"Too hot to fish.... keep pedaling, guys!" Chris shouts! All we could think about at this point was taking that NESTEA PLUNGE! What do you MEAN that's not water just ahead?? Once again Joe tries to crowd Bill off the road and into a cactus while Chris cuts through the middle in order to keep order! Believe it or not, we did see several alligators along the way. Not the real kind, just pieces of tires laying on the side of the road left there from other bikers who never made it this far! YIKES!
"Ya'll go ahead and get a head start, I'll catch up to you when we get to Needles"! Joe sets his sights on overtaking Chris, Bill and Mandi as he flips the secret ignition switch which strangely doubles as a left rear view mirror. This will ignite the after burners that will propel Joe up to speeds of over 100 mph! Except that it doesn't work in the desert heat...... but one can dream.... In fact, that's what we were all doing.... "California Dreaming"! Bill thinks he spots a Starbucks coffee shop just ahead on the right!
The heat is beginning to take it's toll. Joe is seen here ordering a double rootbeer float. Chris orders a chocolate milkshake and Bill is just beside himself as he finally realizes that we are NOT at a Starbucks. How was he to know that it was an ice cream shop instead? Trisha graciously takes our orders and none the wiser, we get back on our hogs believing that the ice cream shop was real and feeling refreshed from the imaginary ice cream we thought we ate, we kick it up a notch. Ahhhh.....
As we pack it in for the day, Joe once again entrusts his rig to the gear grinding, double clutch pumpin', motor stallin', brake riding Kentucky Kid. Bill is proud as he just got his license back a few days ago and is eager to earn his keep. He brags that even though he's been stopped twice in the past month or so, he's been able to weasel out of any citations. Now he's got his sights on "the Support Driver of the Week" award. He's even talking of getting a tattoo of a one legged cyclist on his left arm for all the world to see as he drives down the road. The top of the tattoo will read "Bicyclist's Rock" and the bottom of it will read "Mom".
With the heat index nearing the temperature of the shady part of the sun, our heroes load up and prepare to head off to find their hotel. Do you know that when you sit on leather seats in this kind of heat with short pants on, two things will happen. 1.) You will see and smell flesh burning. 2.) As your head hits the roof of the cab, the little button on the top of your cap will puncture your head!
With crowded conditions in the truck allowing for only 5 riders, we drew straws and Mandi (with one i) and Chris came up on the short end and had to ride in the back. With the rest of us piled into the cramped, but OH SO AIR CONDITIONED cab, we left for lunch. However, we soon found out that apparently bungee straps are not acceptable seat belts for riders in the back end of a pickup truck according to the California State Police. Bill is pulled over for a THIRD time now and Mandi and Chris watch in amazement as Joe works his magic. Literally HOPPING out of the truck and playing on the sympathy of the long arm of the law, Joe convinces the officer that we were not familiar with the laws of California since we were from out of state. We bought him a dozen donuts and we were on our way! |
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