Tuesday, March 5th
Fast pace line from Palm Desert to Mecca and then we took a side road ( Box Canyon Rd) which turned out to be closed to traffic. Due to mud slides/flash floods, the road has practically disintegrated in places through this incredible canyon. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss an inch of this ride! We had to push our way through some deep sand, up and down some broken pieces of left over pavement
but the scenery and the “ride” itself was “out of this world!” 20 miles of this - the endorphins played their part and I never felt tired - not even when we set up camp right where we wound up back at Highway 10 under the stars with the highway noises....I was still wound up!
The desert continued the next day- part of it on Highway 10, but then we took another side road to experience more pure desert - heat, wind, smells, flowers...the desert is full of flowers everywhere! What a time to ride through it!! Lucky, is what we are!
On the road again. Yes, feeling free and independent - lucky to be alive and capable. My Gurly purring under me, crunching from all the sand. Going places I’ve never been.....under my own power. That is quite a feeling when I can stop my mind from thinking too much about where the next water/food/shelter source is. Here we are again camping off the road - as far as we could drag our loaded bikes through the sand away from the road. We have enough food/water and our tents are adequate shelters. This is what I mean, this is what I am after, this is what I want! And I am doing it!
I miss you all, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in this world except for right here right now. Thank you!
...but then this happened: James woke me up in the middle of the night. He had just gone out of the tent to pee and saw lightning across the desert sky followed by thunder... counting 13 seconds in between ( which means the lightning hit the ground 2.6 miles away from us) . Now, I just said. “adequate shelter” earlier BUT: that is not the case anymore!
I was wide awake, my heart pounding. James admitted he was about to “crap his pants” and we started to plan our escape from the wide open space.
Instead of panicking and just doing something (which I felt like doing..) I “calmly“ took out my phone and found that I had service...went “on line” and started reading out to James what was recommended in a situation like that. First, all it said was: Seek shelter...move towards shelter..Well, clearly there is none at the moment, we are in the MIDDLE of the desert. Then, more specific: get out of your tent, DON’T lie down flat on the ground...spread out (if you are in a group with other people)...crouch down....balls of your feet/toes touching the ground, heels up and touching, hand over your ears.....DON’T TOUCH THE GROUND with your hands....geez!
The storm wasn’t right above us...... yet!
So we waited and counted between lighting and thunder holding each other like “Hänsel und Gretel” lost...but ready for the next educated action.....and the storm started to move away from us.....
Thankful....super thankful!! That was SCARY!!!
Sure enough, all this is part of being “free” and being out there, not knowing what is next.
