A great nights sleep and a long lie-in, getting up at 7:30 am. We weren’t expecting much from the breakfast, but even that low expectation was surpassed with a doughnut in a sealed plastic bag and lukewarm coffee. When Deborah asked for some hot water the owner filled a mug with cold water and placed it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Perfect!
Back at the room, we rustled together some additional fuel for the day while packing before heading off. The cycle out of Barstow was primarily uphill with a few Route 66 historic markers along the way, so it took a little longer to get across the city limits than planned.
Today was primarily an uphill day, but nothing too strenuous and with enough photoshoot distractions along the side of the road to make the first 30 miles pass without noticing the cycling. Unfortunately, as has been the case for the past 2,000+ miles, the photo distractions were too often the decaying remnant of a time before the building of the interstate.
One Route 66 attraction that we have been looking forward to seeing since it had been visited by Billy Connelly on his journey along the Mother Road, came into view in the early afternoon, the Bottle Tree Ranch. Elmer Long started to build the attraction 18 years ago, adding to it throughout that time until his death in June earlier this year. Since then Brian has taken over the custodianship of this remarkable sanctuary, working on his own projects now to ensure the Elmer’ s legacy continues. When we arrived we had the place to ourselves, wandering through the bottle trees, each with its own character, with wind chimes hanging from a few of them adding an eerie feel to the place.
A couple of German guys turned up and took turns at taking a photo of each other next to an old Jeep that was a feature in the middle of the glass forest. I offered to take a photo of both of them, but received a rather straight response of ‘That will not be necessary”. You have to love the Germans!
As we approached our overnight stop for the day the landscape changed to a more industrial feel, with a large cement factory taking prominence, although Route 66 continued to maintain its presence. A single row of Route 66 shops we passed in the middle of the industrial area appeared to be more of a factory workers hangout than a tourist stopover, which may allow it to survive longer than most others.
We arrived in Victorville in the early afternoon after what felt like a very relaxed day’s cycle, clocking in 40 miles. As tomorrow night’s stop is San Bernardino, this seemed the logical place to call it a day so we had arranged a Warmshowers host in the town next door, Apple Valley. Anita had asked us to get in touch when we knew when we would likely to arrive, so as we were super early we called in at the first service station we came to and bought a huge brain freezer before heading next door to the Subway.
While eating Deborah’s chosen contents of a Veggie Delight, with our bikes parked up in view outside, a chap came in wearing his orange work gear and asked about our bikes and where we had come from. We ended up talking to David for over half an hour about our journey and the bikes themselves. While David has a bike he hasn’t used it for a long time, so hopefully, our short interaction will motivate him to oil the chain and go cycle around the block.
Shortly after David left another guy came into the Subway. Chris introduced himself as a cyclist and involved in the local Warmshowers scene. He had previously raced and listed so many tours he has completed that I can’t remember any of them now, but I do remember being impressed at the time of hearing. While Chris went off to place his order I received a message back from Anita that she was at home, so after a short continuation of our chat we said our goodbyes to Chris as we both headed out together, getting a shout out from Chris as he passed us at the first set of light.
It was a three-mile cycle to Anita’s home, with a few good uphill sections to give our legs a shock after they had started to chill for the evening, thinking that cycling was done for the day. By the time we pulled up onto Anita’s driveway, it was dark, reminding me that I really do need to rewire the front charging hub, damaged way back on a very cold morning in the Grand Canyon.
Anita and Archie, her little white dog, welcomed us into her lovely home, currently a sorting area for a huge garage sale. After an initial chat, we took a shower while Anita prepared dinner. Over dinner, we chatted more, with time passing too quickly. Before we realised it we were into the early hours of Friday and well past our bedtime.