My alarm clock in my motel room was off by an hour, so I slept in and didn’t get on the road until 9:30. I didn’t have a good idea about my destination for the evening but I wanted to make good mileage.
The miles went by while listening to my audio book when all of a sudden I hear a voice. It was a British couple and they were the first tourists I had met going the same way as me. We chatted for a bit before they told me where they were eating lunch and passed me.
A little while later I pulled into the lunch place and talked to Jon and Liz. They were awesome, doing wheelies up the hills but their tires were shit. But that’s just how they described themselves. They were from Guernsey and had started in DC, taking a surprisingly similar route to mine that included cutting the same corners off the ACA route. They are blogging on fittraveller.com and like me were heading to San Diego. After our meal they headed off towards California and I followed a few minutes later.
Before hopping on I-10 I pulled over to drink some water only for them to show up again from behind. Apparently I had passed them at a store and they had just caught up. We discussed where we were each stopping for the night before they went ahead. I didn’t learn this until the next day but apparently later this evening they had almost caught up to me after another break and were literally (please read that in a british accent for maximum enjoyment) about 4 feet away from catching up when Liz got a flat and they had to stop.
As the sun was setting I reached the Colorado river and crossed into California, the last state of my trip. I rode to the town of Blythe and started looking for a motel when another cyclist hailed me from behind. At first I thought he was a local cyclist but as it turns out, he had come from Atlanta and was headed to San Diego as well. Amazing that I went 65 days of static and finally met other tourists almost at the end of my trip.
I suggested we go grab dinner and he agreed. His name was Andrew and he was 19 and was traveling ultra light – hardly any gear. We agreed to stick together until San Diego and he wound up crashing in my motel room.
Today’s mileage: 117 miles.
Total mileage: 3566 miles.
Three other east to west tourists in one day, near the end of the trip, what are the odds.
I have to say I was shocked how fast you covered wickenburg to el-centro. Is it because of the flat riding? or are you just attuned to going long distances.
The ghost bike in the last post is very sobering. Definitely a reminder of the dangers posed by careless drivers. We get many of them up here (me included) and it always nice to drivers give some slack on the road for cyclists. Stay safe, you are almost there!
http://www.65daysofstatic.com/