March 2nd in La Quinta.
In San Diego at a beautiful sunset I realize, that we are going to say good bye to the Pacific for a while, heading east..a bit north/east to visit James’ brother in La Quinta before riding due east out of one desert and into another.
I am not sure if I mentioned, that James and I haven’t been riding our bikes a whole lot in the last 2 year before we left our home ...maybe even 4 years..not like we used to! 60 miles, with 4000 ft of climbing into the mountains from palm tress to the snow, kicked at least my ass in the last days.
Getting into Pine Valley, James is reminiscing on his almost 20 years of riding the “Christmas Tour” which took place in these areas. And so we rode up to the community center in the middle of town, in the dark and the cold and a bit of an attitude, when two cars pulled up. They are arriving for a yoga class..maybe they let us stay in the back with our tents? No, but they invited us to class and I blurted out: I’ll be damned, if I take a yoga class right now...feeling cold and exhausted.
Luckily they laughed out loud about my uncontrolled outbreak. As it turned out, Mom, was the teacher and her family (with two boys- 7 and 10 y.o.) invited us to their home to sleep in their huge 5 wheeler camper which was parked in the drive way. Dad jumped back in the car to guide us the couple of miles (tiny bit up the hill) to their home and “clean up” which consisted of driving all his “toys” out of the camper into the garage, which was also full of toys of that kind “ATV” of all sizes and shapes...at least 5 of them!
We spend a cushy night - so glad not to have to pitch at tent!
A grey and drizzly day greeted us in the morning, but also a jar of coffee and 6 fresh eggs. Those people are the sunshine guiding us into this day - who needs the sun in the sky?
The day improved (weather wise) and way up in the mountains we rode between snow mounts, but the roads were clear.
And then before the desert, we camped up on the mountain, so we can descend down to Borrego Springs and into the blooming desert early in the day.
And so we did...
