Sunday, 21 August

Departed 6 AM.  An overcast made it excellent weather for going east in the early morning.  First stop was my now traditional apple pie at Mom’s in Julian.  Driving there on the some route as Grand Adventure Part 1 really illustrated how much better a driver I am.  Very cool.  I had decided to attempt, at age 62, to start drinking coffee, but my commitment only lasted for half a sip.  Yoriko suggests that maybe it wasn’t the right place to start.  Perhaps I’ll try again.

After Julian I continued on the same road I’d gone on last March.  But I eventually came to the fateful intersection where, rather than turn right towards Florida, I went left to reach Maine.  It was funny that there were two sections of the taken road that I’d never driven on before, but had ridden on my bicycle.

It was really a bit of a boring day.  I visited Desert Shores on the Salton Sea.  What a depressing community.  It literally stinks.  A common thread throughout most of the ride was that there were masses of ghost towns and derelict structures.  So many people have tried and failed to succeed in the desert.

I was going to visit Lake Havasu City, which rests on the shores of Havasu Lake.  But Yoriko told me that we’d been there, meaning I’d forgotten all about it.  If it was so forgettable, a second visit didn’t seem worthwhile.  So I skipped it.

It sprinkled for most of the day, which kept the temperature mostly south of 90.  But in Kingman, AZ, there were scattered thunderstorms forecast further east.  Hotels ahead, closer to the Grand Canyon, were priced out of my budget.  The campsite at the Canyon was 200 miles away, outside my comfort zone.  So I made it a shortish ride (360 miles).  I knew that the day would largely be just an attempt to get out of familiar territory.  Sometime tomorrow, after an obligatory look at the Grand Canyon, I’ll move on to a completely new road.

Since returning from Part 1, I put only 19 miles on the bike!

Carefully manicured orange trees

Parking available for those really big RVs.

Just one of hundreds of failed businesses near the Salton Sea.

This picture of the Salton Sea looks somewhat normal. But wait . . .

Yes, the water is red. Very red. The few house along these manufactured canals look like something from a Stephen King novel.

I don’t know what these plants are, but the fruit is tied up in bags. Grapefruit?

I originally took this picture because it just says “Marty”, not an organization. But now I also notice the trash on the ground and the typo.

I went to a little Route 66 museum, which has a collection of electric vehicles. This is an electric motorcycle.