Days 5 and 6 - crossing the Colorado River into Arizona

A bit about about our stay in Brawley. Our accommodations were arranged for us by Jack, who turned out to be real "road angel". To start with he arranged for dinner which were delicious tamales. He transported one of our riders and our cooking gear to our next stop, as well as dropping off water for us at a border patrol station, which was really helpful. When we got a flat tire, he arrived with ice cold water, which was wonderful. He has been one of the many friendly and hospitable people we are meeting along the way so far.

The ride from Brawley was quite a challenge due to several factors. For one the heat, which is relentless. The first 30 miles of the ride, into Glamis was not too bad, especially seeing we left early. However after that the temperature rose steadily.

Glamis at this time was basically a store and RV storage area. Over thanksgiving it grows to 40,000 people who come to enjoy the sand dunes and play in the desert.

The ride from Glamis to Palo Verde had a series of dips that were quite tiring and nerve wracking because when you are at the bottom of the dip your are basically invisible to cars at the top of the dip.

About 4 mile before Palo Verde, and after 2 flat tires, we heard Joe call to us from the first area of shade trees we had seen all day. He was in what looked like a camp ground and boat launch into the Colorado River. We stopped and it was so hot that we decided to dip in the water in our riding gear. It felt wonderful and made the last 4 miles much more pleasant. When we told the woman in the store where we went to buy cold fruit nectar (which tasted fantastic) she said that was actually run off from the irrigation ditches! Needless to say we took a good shower and washed our clothes well after that.

The cabin we spent the night in overlooked a river and was a beautiful site the next morning at dawn, as we prepared to leave for our ride to Quartzite AZ.

The ride today was shorter-44 miles but still not a cinch. We left at dawn and the first 2 hours were beautiful in the relative cool of early morning. We were stopped at an intersection by 2 high school football coaches who were so impressed with our group that they got out of their car to shake our hands.

We stopped in for a drink at a store that had the most amazing collection of ceremonial knives I have ever seen.

At the half way point in Blythe we stopped at the first Starbucks we have seen since San Diego.

After another 2 flat tires, one of which we had to change on the freeway with trucks whizzing by at 80 miles an hour, we arrived in Quartzite.

We went for lunch to the local McDonald's. There Errol got talking to one of the locals who has lived here for over 50 years. He said that during the off season there are 3000 people living in Quartzite. In the winter one and a half million people camp out here with their RVs. We saw an aerial shot of this and it is quite a site.

It was again so hot that I had to try to fry an egg on the side walk. It did not work!

So far we have had so many flat tires I have lost count (about 6). The last one was tonight and Errol pulled out the offending piece of wire - which we had to photograph (with the cap from the tire valve next to it for perspective).