It was a restless night with the sound of the trucks coming and going from the service station, so the 5 am alarm was not a welcome noise. Packing was relatively quick, so we were ready for the road before 6 am. Deborah enjoyed her evening hot chocolate so much she needed another fix before hitting the road, so breakfast of hot chocolate and biscuits was enjoyed standing with our bikes outside of the service station. We eventually kicked back the kickstands at 6:30 am.
We had 52 miles to cover today with a mixture of ups and downs, but nothing too serious. The wind was still blowing hard on our nose, so the first few miles were a bit of a struggle until we warmed up.
Today’s route again took us through towns by name only, now just a few roadside ruins and maybe a block of stone with the name of the town on it as the only evidence that it ever existed.
The day warmed back up to the mid-thirties by noon, but so had we, so the miles passed relatively quickly without anything to stop for along the way. The first town with any inhabitants was Newberry Springs, made up of a handful of houses, an RV park and a service station. Just beyond Daggett, the only other town on the route, Route 66 cuts straight through the US Marine Corps Logistics Base, or rather the US Marine Corps Logistics Base has been built directly over Route 66. As the US army is not too happy about cyclists cutting through their base, we were forced onto the I-40 for two miles.
The off-ramp of the I-40 delivered us to a Walmart where we picked up a few essentials to keep us going for the next few days. Picking the cheapest motel with a free breakfast on booking.com we headed to the Economy Inn. It wasn’t too hard to find as it was on the same street as all of the other cheap hotels, something that US towns seem quite good at arranging.
After checking in and handing over the cash I asked the timing of breakfast, with the chap behind the counter, clearly the owner’s son, informing us that the doughnuts would be available from 7 am onwards. I pointed out that the description on the motel website stated a continental breakfast, to which he responded that at this motel a continental breakfast including doughnuts only. I attempted to explain that a continental breakfast is already defined and that there is no need for him to redefine it, but he was not having it. I requested a refund so that I could go to a motel that uses the accepted definition of a continental breakfast when preparing the morning’s feast, but he was not having any of it. I’ll put it down to experience and will be sure to provide a glowing reference on the booking.com website tomorrow.
After quickly making the room homely, by emptying the contents of our panniers on the floor, we showered and headed out for food. The intention was to find a restaurant to relax in, but after finding none that serve anything remotely veggie from the menu, we ended up in a 99c supermarket just across from the motel. We weren’t holding out too much hope when Deborah spotted potatoes. Surely they couldn’t possibly sell vegetarian baked beans too. Result. We ended up back in the motel room with a 99c bag of spuds, two 99c tins of baked beans, a 99c bag of cheese, a 99c tub of sour cream and a 99c carton of yoghurt. With only one microwavable container the microwave has been working shifts, but we are fed and happy and left with plenty of time to chill before time to sleep.
It’s a relatively short cycle tomorrow to a Warmshower host in Victorville, so we may even set the alarm to a semi-reasonable time tomorrow, but early enough to make sure we get our fair share of doughnuts and then a few more on top of that.
Cheap hotels really live to their names it seems.
Still don’t understand how little you seem to be able to find to eat. It’s not like the US doesn’t have vegetarians!
It’s usually okay in big supermarkets, but most of our route doesn’t take us near them… this is Route 66, so gas stations, convenience stores and fast food joints along the road are what we have available during the day, with a big hike across town in the dark at night if we want anything else. Unlike the UK, gas station sandwiches are never veggie, with the exception of Burger King, no fast food joints off a veggie burger alternative, and convenience stores don’t have a great deal of choice at the best of times.
Gotta love those continental breakfasts.