Sunday..we're off to the races. What a lovely day it turned out to be. Goodbye Victorville hello new destination of Joshua Tree..What a blast of a ride.
We set off early pacing ourselves gently for the first hour with having two inexperienced drivers in the RV..soon we were well down route 18 where we had been stuck in the wind the previous day..
The wind was on our tails and our bodies acted as big sails as the breeze blew us through the desert roads...we were starting our trek through the mojave desert...a few hours later the road started to gently climb..then climb steeper and steeper...oh no..this is what everyone warned me off..at one point we needed to stop.we looked back..the road seemed almost vertical behind us and were only half way up...Charlie climbs hills so much faster than me..i think its our body weight and gravity going on..
however..Charlie has not had the months of training and poops out at half way..I go for the last mile uphill..awesome pump..I make it and wait at the top for a well earned break whilst waiting for my buddy to arrive..
We soon catch up to the RV which passed us way back..we had agreed 15 mile intervals which worked great..the sun shone brightly the breeze still at our back and lathered in sun block and road dust. After a gentle 15 mph pace for a few hours we started to climb again..not really steep but very long uphill..we later learned the uphill climb was 8 miles..it was a hard hour for me..we had now turned onto route 62. It was a much wider..much better smooth macadam black top..obviously that meant civilization was around the corner..we just reached the summit of our long climb and viwed the panacea of rocks and mountains..an awesome sight..but after a weary 8 mile clip uphill the sight was eclipsed by the magic road downhill in front of us..Twenty two miles going downhill..the steepest point was at the top just about a mile downhill..it just dropped like a rock..at one point I looked at my speed dial..38.5 mph and I was not even peddling !
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April 21, 2004
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Hey Tony,
I think that you are doing a great job! We all miss you and wish you luck!
Kassi
Posted by: Kassi | April 21, 2004 at 07:06 AM