It's a Dry Heat. I was Always Worried About Day 5 But a Lunch of Biscuits and Gravy and Dinner of Chicken Fried Steak Isn't a Bad Day

 If you look at the route plan you can see Day 5 was going to be 130 miles and over 7,000 feet of climbing. Last night we decided that would be crazy especially since it was going to be over 90 degrees. Our plan was to ride from Barstow to Amboy and have Claudia pick us up and then tomorrow have Claudia drive us to Amboy and we would finish in Needles. 

Today started out great. There were no dead ends, no dirt roads and no climbing through barbed wire fences. Thom and I were on Route 66. Our only complaint was that the road was a little rough to ride. As we approached a sign that said "Rough Road Next 9 Miles" we both wondered what we were in store for. It turns out that was where the good pavement began. We had a tailwind and were flying. Of course it was all in our legs. 

We were scheduled to make a turn in about 8 miles, so I suggested we eat there. When we got to the turn, there was nothing there. Thom tried Google Maps and it said that the nearest restaurant was over 40 miles away. Fortunately my Google search identified the Ludlow Cafe. It was at mile 50 of the ride.  The last 5 miles before lunch we averaged nearly 20 MPH. It was all in our legs.

The Ludlow Cafe was busy at 11:00 AM. Thom had pancakes and I went with the more nutritious Biscuits and Gravy. We left with full water bottles and hit the road. The weather had totally changed. What had been a nice tailwind turned into a headwind. It was brutal. We were hoping that the 30 miles to Amboy would not seem that far. We were wrong. We took some pictures but neither one of us felt like stopping to snap a picture of a sign that read "The Center of the Mojave Desert."

After Claudia picked us up at Roy's Cafe which is all there is in Amboy, we had the opportunity to observe what was supposed to be tomorrow's ride. It was going to be 80 miles mostly along Interstate 40 until Needles. We started checking the weather in order to avoid 90 degrees or higher temperatures, the three of us would have to leave Needles at 6:00 AM. The forecast for Monday is 20 to 30 degrees cooler. Going to dinner it took us about 30 seconds to decide that tomorrow would be our first rest day. 

BTW the Yankees have won 3 straight.

Here are some pictures from the day and the ride on Strava. 

Hopefully Thom will post some of his pictures. Tomorrow I plan on working on a summary of our progress and what we have left.

RK