The alarm went off at 6:00 am after a very peaceful, but far too short a night’s sleep. We are getting far too used to going to bed around 9 pm, so hitting the pillow close to 1 am made it very difficult to get out of bed. We packed and went into the kitchen where Anita was preparing breakfast while Archie was wandering around looking for some attention from the two strange visitors.
We continued chatting over a breakfast of oatmeal as we did last night about anything and everything, but time was quickly ticking on and we still had a 45-mile day to put in, hopefully getting to our destination early so that we could make the most of our treat.
On day two of our Route 66 adventure, while at the old gas station in the town of Dwight, our paths had crossed a chap by the name of Charles Sheffield from Dallas, Texas. At the time Charles had his bike parked up between the pumps, so we hovered around for a while for him to move on in order for us to get a photo of our bikes without a Harley Davidson in the shot. We bumped into Charles a few more times along the way, keeping in touch through email. He was on a 10k miles adventure with Route 66 only part of it, so finished Route 66 almost a month ago. When he made it back home he dropped us an email offering to treat us to a night in the iconic Route 66 Wigwam Motel in San Bernardino, the hotel he stayed in on his last night before Santa Monica Pier. He also offered another extra special treat for when we had finished, but it was too much to accept. A super guy and somebody that we will most certainly be keeping in touch with well after this adventure is over.
After a photoshoot on Anita’s driveway, with Archie as the star model, we headed up the street, retracing our tracks to rejoin Route 66.
The 7th Street left turn off the road from Apple Valley delivered us into Victorville Route 66 memorial to the Mother Road, with a gateway across the road, murals on walls and businesses making the most of being on this famous thoroughfare passing through the town.
As the traditional town buildings faded out, the out of town shopping malls kicked in. We were still pedalling uphill as we passed mile after mile of these soleless retail parks, wondering as we went how all these businesses, seeming to sell the same stuff, could possibly be financially viable. By the time even the retail parks were behind us we only had a few more miles of crumbling road to push on through until we reached the summit of Canjon Junction. However, before we could reach the summit we had to join the interstate for one last time, this time the I-15, so cycled a 6-mile stretch that there was no reasonable alternative for us to use.
We had heard about the cycle from the summit to San Bernardino, but nothing could compare us for the remainder for the day’s cycle. With steep gradient warning signs, emergency truck escape lanes and truck brake check areas, it became clear that we were in for a ride as soon as we reached the summit and could see the I-15 sweep downwards into the distance. Dabbing the brakes to keep the speed of the 6% gradient that we were not cruising down out of control, we made the most of the smooth hard shoulder and the best downhill section of the trip to date. The only stops we were forced to make were the off-ramps. As we were cycling on the hard shoulder, we had to cut over each of the off-ramps, so stopped to make sure no vehicles were using it to exit the interstate, before cycling across it as 90 degrees before continuing on down the hard shoulder.
We have two tactics of getting across these off-ramps, either by waiting for a break in the traffic when the interstate traffic is reasonably light, or waiting for a large truck to commit to staying on the interstate, in effect blocking the off-ramp, before going for it. On this very last off-ramp of the trip, it was the latter that we were forced to use as the traffic was very heavy. Just as a large truck committed to staying on the interstate Deborah started to pedal across the off-ramp and onto the triangular hatched area between the interstate and the off-ramp. Just then, the car that was in front of the truck, which had already passed the off-ramp lane decided that he did want to take the off-ramp, after all, so swerved through the hatched area that Deborah was now cycling toward. Upon noticing a cyclist in his path he slammed his breaks on and pressed on his horn. Thankfully he was never closer than 10m from Deborah, speeding off down the off-ramp when he was safely passed, but it could have all been a different story if he decided to go for the off-ramp just a second later than he did.
After we had done our final six miles of the I-15 we pulled off on to a quieter road that paralleled the interstate, which itself appeared to parallel another much older road, the original Route 66 at a guess, even though there were plenty of Route 66 signs painted onto the road surface of this new road that we were cycling on. Not wishing to be left out of the fun, this road also continued heading down toward San Bernardino at a steep rate of decline. Eventually, the scenery started to change from mountainous desert, that we had been passing through since the Canjon summit, to industrial, before a final transition to commercial before the right turn within two miles of the Wigwam Motel. By the time we made the turn, we had freewheeled more than twenty miles, fooling our Garmin cycle computers into believing we had both just broken our 40k personal bests. I have a feeling that personal best record will stand for quite some time.
After such a long time not using our legs the final 2 miles that pedalling was required was slow, but we were soon pulling into the reception parking area of the Route 66 Wigwam Motel. We checked in then went in search of food, finding Walgreen’s Pharmacy to be our only local choice. We bought a few things but figured a pizza delivery would be our best bet for the night, so headed back to the motel to sit beside the pool to figure out the evenings refuelling.
By the time we had watched the sunset and were back in the motel room neither of us could be bothered with a pizza tonight, so opted to take a little more weight out of our panniers and dine on anything edible we could find in there, and maybe a few things that edibility was questionable. We are now chilling and planning for an early night to make up for last night, with the prospect of a good night’s sleep without a railway line in miles, no neighbours (it’s a wigwam), no trucks, no coyotes… and no need to get up early as tomorrow, our penultimate day, is a reasonably short one too!
Well almost there. It’s been an adventure and well documented. Thanks for keeping your fans updated. We have delighted in your commentary. So glad we were on your early list of contacts. Who would know we may well come knocking on your door is Scotland sans bikes but ready for a sit on that exceptional sofa.😉😉
Great to hear from you Larry. You are bothmore than welcome to come over and sit on our sofa anytime, but expect you would want to get out and cycle Scotland before too long. If we could, we would turn around and do it all again when we reach Santa Monica tomorrow! 🙂
What am i gonna read when the trip is over? You’ll have to do another. Glad your both safe. Keep on Truckin’
Still the cycle to San Francisco up the Pacific Highway to do starting later on the week!! :-/