March 17 - Happy St Patrick's Day!!

Shoe fence

Nail & glass graffiti (Inside shoe fence)

 

 

Homeless in Quartzsite

Amboy Crater at sunset    

Amboy Crater

I just realized I have not visited my Blog since March 9th!  It was 29 degrees in Kingman, Az and snowing hard that day!!  Since then we have moved on to much much warmer weather.  We wandered down to California and took old Route 66 west to Amboy, Ca.  There is so much to see alone the old highway.  There are only a few buildings left along a 50 mile route and of those most are crumbling and covered in highway graffiti. We came across out first shoe tree on Route 66 and all along the railroad track on the north side of the road are names, pictures all done with stones, rocks.  One really needs to be traveling east on 66 to be able to read them.  We believe that some of the stone graffiti along the tracks might be 50 -60 years old.  Some are done with broken glass, some with painted rocks and some with pieces of wood.  It goes on for miles and miles. 

We camped in the desert that night (the 11th) along Route 66 in Amboy, Ca.  The weather was a bit warmer than in Kingman, Az.  I think Earl was still a bit chilly out in his tent that night.  The wind was extremely brisk all night but he was still with us in the morning!   The guys then rode from Amboy to just outside Twenty Nine Palms, Ca., a little  over 30 miles.  It was almost all uphill with them gaining 2500 feet in 9 miles.  We camped in Twenty Nine Palms Rv Park that night and then Earl and I rode back to Amboy over that same mountain the next day.  This time we had a 2500 foot gain in altitude in 5.50 miles!  It was steep but the next 11 miles was almost all downhill.  Not a gentle downhill but a "I need to put my brakes on" kind of downhill.  Earl feels comfortable coasting 35 miles an hour.  I most certainly do not!  I was able to handle 24 MPH and then the brakes would come on again, however, gently.  I had an image of burning out my brakes and blazing down the mountain.  As I may have mentioned before, I try to follow my little quote that states "Do one thing everyday that scares you"  I did it that day!!!  The rest of the ride was through desert, mountains with hardly any traffic.  Earl was behind me a few miles so I had all the desert to myself........and critters like rattle snakes and scorpions that thankfully stayed out of my way during the day.  It was another one of those days when I had no words to describe the beauty, the peace, &  the feeling of oneness with the land.  That is one of the benefits of riding a bike across the country.  You just experience everything in a much more intense way.  I am so grateful to be able to be doing this. 
We took a couple of days off from riding and headed back into Arizona - to Quartzsite.  We were hoping to catch the huge flea markets they have in the area.  We learned that the majority of the vendors leave at the end of February.  There were still a few and the variety of goods go from literally "rocks" to solar panels for RV's.  There are numerous RV parks in Quartzsite and most of them do not allow tents.  We found one that does for Earl's little tent.  We also discovered why they do not allow tents in the RV Parks.  The one we stayed in had quite a few homeless people who  are living out of "tents".  Some are tarps draped over tents.  The park we were staying in closes for the summer on April 1st so that means all those people have to go somewhere.   It is too hot for them to stay in the area where they are now so I assume they will travel slowly north to cooler weather for the summer.  It is such a contrast to see huge RV's and a few feet away, a make shift shelter with two or three people who are dried and dark from the sun just sitting around all day.
Today, Earl and Richard began their ride just outside of Quartzsite on Route 60 going east and north.  Their plan was to ride to Wenden Az., which would be a moderate to hard 30 mile ride with a steadily climbing grade.  Today the wind was also pretty gusty and coming at them from their left.  Two hours or so and 20 miles later Richard called and said that Earl was a little tired.  It was then 96 degrees in the shade.  I left my parking area where I was writing this blog and drove on to pick them up.  Earl is OK but probably needs to drink more fluids while riding.  They had stopped at a little hiccup of a town called "Hope".  Fortunately there was an RV park right across the street from the restaurant and they had openings.  We are now comfortably enjoying the air conditioning of the camper.  This is the first time we have turned it on!  Hopefully Earl will feel like riding tomorrow and if so, I will ride with him.  If it is as hot as today, it will most likely be an abbreviated ride.  It is hard to believe it is the middle of March with the heat!  It does feel great though.