Barstow, California

Yet another best day of my life. This morning the route cheer got a little remix. Instead of the guys sawing "we go to Cali..." we said "We rode to Cali" and "We're all in Cali." The lyric change was a mjor success and instant moral booster. The guys pretty much went nuts and started the dy by immediately depleting adrenaline storage units is always a good idea. Riding early is always promising because you escape the heat and get to see the sunrise. For those not fans of dancing colors on the horizon, morning shadows are always cast long which makes karate chop shadow infinitely better. The goal of this game is to ride up behind or next to people and have you shadow karate chop theirs. When you can coordinate a whole attack team to move in on one person, the result is a humorous bloodbath of shadow death and hiyah noises. If that doesn't get you going in the morning, nothing can. The cue sheet put us on I-15 today for a little bit. Riding on a highway wasn't bad an although illegal, the wide breakdown lane provided for smooth riding and pleasant side by side conversation. And then we came to our exit to get off the highway, only the road we needed didn't exist. A dead end of gravel mayhem lay beyond our exit so we were condemned to stay on the interstate all day. Wind was brutal and the heat was painful. I got stuck in a paceline which I try to avoid because they force you to stare at the tire of the person in front of you instead of the natural beauty all around. I quickly busted out of this and sucked up the wind by myself. Wiser eventually caught up to me and distracted me from the agony of solitude. We got to our lunch spot in the middle of nowhere far before the rest of the group. We pushed on to a gas station 7 miles down the road to fill up our camelbaks with ice and water. I have never appreciated the power of ice so much in my life. I've used it to speed muscle recovery, reduce swelling, but cooling off my body internally on a bike ride through the desert is by far the most useful thing ice has ever done for me. I stop at multiple gas stations everyday to mooch off their splendid frozen water. A late ride error in communication left me sitting in the heat at exit 191 waiting for a group that never came. After 50 min of waiting with no water left I wanted to die. I cycled down the exit ramp and to a gas station to refill. The attendant said he had no water on tap and ice had o be paid for. I pushed the issue and vended ice while he went back to his xbox game. I refused to pay for water as it is the worlds largest natural renewable resource. I instead ventured to bathroom to fill up on water there. I was no less than pissed to find a faucet with no water flow. I came out and was bombarded by a family of 8 from Italy who started asking me questions about my journey. Only the father wrapped in a climate innappropriate scarf spoke english. He translated what I said to his family and it gave me a great big laugh to see everyones jaws drop in disbelief when I told them I had cycled from Boston about 3500 miles away. With no water left and a campsite to find about 5 miles away with no directions, I was starting to get upset. When I go to the labrynth of a campsite and couldn't find our trailer, I almost lost my cool. I picked up my bike, slung it over my shoulder and climbed up a hill for a better view then located the trailer and hikes down to it. We immediately drove up to Calico ghostown. This was an old fashioned mining town that had prospered in the late 1800s when silver prices were soaring, but then became abandoned when prices plummeted. The town was very cool and had old shops, a museum, and different miscellaneous items from the height of the town. After a full day of riding, a treat was in order. I walked up the hill of the ghost town to an ice cream shop and ordered a scoop of pistacio. After sampling the mint choc chip and not being nearly satisfied enough with the quantity of icecream I consumed, I made a drastic decision. I told the lady at the counter I wanted to buy the whole 3 gallon tub of mint choc chip. She looked at me like I was crazy and I consulted with Brandt Michael George and Sara who were all at my table and said they could pull their weight in icecream binging. We told her about bike and build and she gave us the tub for $15 which made us all a little upset because we had just paid $2.25 each for a single scoop so she was making a ridiculous profit on her sales. Anyway, we called the whole group in to help polish off this vat of deliciousness. Everyone was most appreciative of this dairy share and the worker was impressed to see everything disappear within 20 minutes. 7 people in the group had decided to rent hotel rooms for the night to have ac. Being cheap/poor and rugged, I decided I would rough it in the 112 degree heat and it paid off because they all missed out on extreme awesomess. Natalie was talking to the lady in the ghost town who owns the pottery shop. After the typical bile and build talk, she offered up her lake for us to go swimming in. Not to be lured like hansel and gretel, but it's hot to the point that all we do is seek heat relief. Well ok maybe except in our free time when I decided to climb a mountain and strted sweating a lot. Janet, the nice lady also bought us another 3 gallon tub of ice cream and drove us to her house. I had a brief moment of thinking I should be weary of her kindness and not drink any koolaid she gave us. This quickly passed when I saw just how genuinely nice she was. Her home was huge and had an indoor pool. Outside she had 4 pet turtles and 156' of lake frontage. The lake was man made and a pristine blue that was more refreshing than any water I've touched before. We got to take out a floating duck that blew away on us and a canoe we tipped and couldn't paddle into the wind. Chipotle was donated and delivered to us so after a nice cool swim we got to sit on janets patio and watch the sunset while we ate burritos and cookies and cream ice cream. We ended the night returned to a newly donated cabin so we wouldn't have to sleep outside in the heat. Apparently Janet talked to a park ranger and hooked us up. The cabin had ac, so naturally I chose to sleep outside and stargaze. Solid choice.