Nearing the Finish Line

I screwed up in the last couple of posts, I numbered the days wrong but this post is back on track.

Day 10
Boron to Calico
55 miles

Day 10 featured a new trike on the road and he (Sam) did great.

Most of the day was flat and easy until we got on highway 40 heading east. We started flying because we had a nice wide smooth shoulder. Then all of a sudden I lost all power on my trike, my cranks started spinning freely and I realized that the master link had come loose and my chain had fallen apart.

So I slowed down and apparently I stopped too fast which led to a pile up behind me. Collin hit Dad, Jina hit Collin and fell partially into the road. She was still hooked in to her pedals so I grabbed the wheel of her bike and helped pull her out of the road. She survived with nothing but a few scrapes and bruises and I plan to slow down more gradually next time.

Back to the masterlink: This has happened before and it is no problem as long as we can find the masterlink (I think I just like using the term "masterlink"). One piece of the link was still in connected to the chain but the other piece had fallen off. So we had to scour the shoulder of the freeway to find a tiny piece of metal amongst all the other tiny pieces of metal and bits of tire and dirt and broken glass and cigarette butts that reside on the shoulder of the freeway. Miraculously sean spotted the tiny piece after two people had already passed it by. So after a bunch of grunting, sighing and heavy breathing, we wiped our greasy hands on our shirts and continued pedaling. The freeway was great, I hit a top speed of 31mph and we cruised for about 10 miles. Then we took the offramp and headed toward Calico Ghost town. A tough 3 mile climb to end the hot day...


This town was a silver mining town from 1880 to 1895 and now is a museum.

Tess on the Jack Hammer

We had a team meal at the on site RV park

Feeding frenzy (a hotdog never tasted so good, actually three hot dogs never tasted so good)

And we stayed in the bunk house

Collin and Buford waking up in the morning, 830 am start every day

The view from the porch of the bunk house


Day 11
Calico to Baker
55 miles

Today we took off from the bunkhouse and immediately headed downhill hitting top speeds for the trip, for me it was 32mph. We turned left onto a frontage road and the tailwind was spectacular, we cruised at 18mph for about 5 miles. Then the road started to get rough, so rough that I was afraid my trike was going to fall apart. By mile 14, we found out that there was a bridge out ahead so we hapily opted for the freeway against the advice of the signs that said no cyclists. As we were cruising at 20+ mph a CHP car passed us so we figured we must be ok to travel on the freeway. We cruised so fast that we beat the lunch wagon to the halfway point. A quick tuna sandwich and we were back on the road. The wind switched on us in the afternoon but it kept us cool in the desert heat. We had a few short climbs but it was mostly downhill. We reached the motel at about 2pm and everyone jumped in the icy water at the pool, our personal Oasis...


Tonight we are staying in the town of Baker, home of the tallest thermometer in the world, it read 83 when we rolled in.


We ate at the legendary Mad Greek Restqaurant, good stuff


Tomorrow:
We will climb 4000 feet in approximately 35 miles and then cruise downhill into the town of Primm after crossing into Nevada, the silver state. We are all feeling pretty good for the most part. Sean's ankles are really tight and swolen and he has been bearing the pain for the past couple of days. He is confident that he can make the climb tomorrow.

The heat is becoming more of a factor as we go farther into the heart of the Mojave desert so I think we will start earlier tomorrow so we are not climbing at the peak of the heat.

We arrive in Vegas at the North lobby of the Flamingo at noon after traveling 39 miles from Primm that morning...Stay tuned.