We woke up sort of slowly. We were both surprised at the distance we covered yesterday. Both of us felt exceptionally burnt out, and imagined we had covered at least ten miles more than we really did. Sights are set towards Blythe, CA where the new part for Ryan’s bike is being sent and where we are planning a luxurious Motel 6 rest day.
The desert sun was as beautiful coming up as it was going down the night before. A deep red crept over the horizon warming us up like lizards. We had to slightly modify our standard breakfast by crushing up granola bars to compensate for dwindling food supplies. The land of milk and honey, Dollar General, was only 15 miles down the road so this didn’t get us down.
The morning ride dragged a bit as Ryan’s bike suffered frequent chain slippages and a popped tire. This is the first flat tire Ryan has had since upgrading to Gatorskin brand tires in Austin, not bad.
We finally made it to Dollar General in the town of Wickenburg, AZ. Wickenburg has a very western aesthetic with a mix of adobe buildings and large wooden porches in front of shops. Horse sculptures dotted the medians. It’s a shame we are having to see the town during this pandemic, as it appears to host a large tourist industry.
Dollar General is heaven. We gorged ourselves with a half gallon of milk, two cans of chili, a large jar of guacamole, a bag of tortilla chips, and a container of cottage cheese. We are now loaded down with foods for the road as well.
The rest of the day’s ride towards Blythe was rural and beautiful. The ecology vacillated between the huge saguaros and large varieties of grasses we have come to expect from the Sonoran Desert and vast expanses of chaparral we haven’t seen for a few hundred miles. The chaparral is somewhat boring, being almost exclusively a single plant species, but the sameness of it is beautiful like the expanses of the ocean.
We are camped behind some very tall and dense shrubs maybe 100 feet from a quite road. Apparently we are disturbing a lot of critters that call these shrubs home. We hear them all around us. Hopefully they are smart enough to leave us alone while visions of Blythe fill our dreams. Good night.
Route info for interested readers:
We continued on 74 then turned right at highway 60 for the rest of the day.
There and Back Again 