Day 3: Ride through the Beach

Day 3 was originally published on 2/19/21 when I was running out of battery on the computer.  This is an update to add pictures and proof read.

Day 3 is in the books and it was great.  When I envisioned the trip, I was thinking ride, have lunch with Sandy and then ride some more to our final destination.   Today was that day, after ~2.5 hours of pedaling, Sandy met me in Brawley, CA for lunch.  When you are a few miles from Mexico of course you have Mexican food.  I wish we took a picture, but the place was a small mom & pop place and the burritos were excellent.   Of course, this had nothing to do with me being hungry.   From lunch, Sandy filled the coolers with ice and drove east of Glamis to find a place to camp.

Day 3 is done!!!!

Sandy did her usual great job finding a place to camp.  Tonight, we are on BLM land camping in the desert.  We have no one close to us, there is some road noise but that will slow down in a while.  Today’s ride was mostly flat but into the wind.  The sunset is fantastic, and dinner is on the grill.  Tonight, is sausage with onions.  Sandy also found a roadside vegetable stand and picked up some avocados. 

The highlight of the trip was the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness.  It looked like we were at a beach for the jolly green giant.  Dunes went for as far as you could see, and they were huge.  I road in on Route 78, the road had constant traffic of trucks pulling toys to go play in the sand.  No plastic buckets and shovels, millions of dollars drove by me on the road. 

Toy Town

California Dreaming...  Desert Beach

Are we close to Mexico

The weather today was the best yet.  I left camp this morning in shorts and long sleeves, by lunch the sleeves were off, and all was good.  Highs were about 70F.  Other than a slight head wind nothing to complain about.  The route was generally flat, making for easy riding.  The only hills were near camp by the sand dunes. 

 Today’s ride stats: 

Start Time: 9:05 AM                                    Finish Time:  2:27 PM    

Elapse Time:  5 Hr.  22 Min                          Ride Time:  4 Hr. 29 Min

Distance:   75.9 Miles                                   Average Speed:  16.9 mph

Total Climbing/Descent:  1328/1119 Ft.               

TSS: 154

Average Power:   174 Watts                      Normalized Power:  184 Watts

Calories:  2814                                           Ave/Max HR: 129/151 bpm

The stoppage time of 53 minutes was mostly spending a wonderful time having lunch with Sandy.

During the ride I ate one cliff bar before lunch and had three burritos for lunch.  Today was warm and with Sandy being around I had to many water bottles to count. 

Tomorrow we are off to some place east of Blythe and hopefully in Arizona.  We thought we would be in Arizona today, but the road turned north.  One more day in CA.  Phoenix is about 200 miles away.  We should be there is a few days.  The plan is to spend a night in a hotel near Phoenix and have a decent shower and sleep in a bed.