Day 4. The Imperial Valley ride

Taking Dave’s advice ( see Dave day 2) we took the Interstate 8 for 10 miles to cutoff about 12 miles. It was a rough bumpy shoulder, similar to Montana frost heaves. A butt killer for sure. A border agent helicopter was flying low along both sides of the interstate for several miles. Back and forth, back and forth. Then we exited and headed on a secondary road to El Centro. Stopped at a really great convenience store/gas/Mexican food market in Seeley CA. The road to Seeley was pretty rough too so this market was a needed break. Jim visited with a guy from Germany who winters 6 mos in the USA. 3 mos in Seeley and then travels 3. Been doing this for 22 yrs! Also the market had 3 Navy guys shopping. 2 in camo uniforms and 1 Blue Angel. Apparently the Blue Angels training station is near there. That explains the circular jet entrails I was seeing. (No photo)

Finally found relief from rough highway conditions on the stretch from El Centro to Brawley. Super sized shoulder, really smooth and slightly downhill. Elevation went down to -100 at one point! 2 days ago it took 3 hrs to go 15 miles and today we did the final 15 mi in 50 minutes with bikes fully loaded weighing 70#😊

Tomorrow is a really big day. At the minimum we ride 68mi and potentially 90. If we stop at 68 mi we have to dry camp in Palo Verde. There’s not much between Brawley and Blythe and no certainty of water of food. So we have stocked up to camp and carrying lots of water. I have known this day was coming for a few weeks. Pretty sure it’s going to be tough. Not much climbing but 80 degrees and we’ve only been riding 4 days.

Going to get a good nights sleep and a 6am start