We left Jackson's RV ADULT Park. I wondered what they meant by ADULT. I was afraid that they wouldn't let Hap in, but Jackson said it was because he didn't want little kids there. So I checked to see if it was ok that Hap stayed. He said yes. We left in beautiful sunny weather. Temps about 70 degrees. We were riding on roads parallel to I - 8. The road service was alittle rough but there was hardly any traffic. We had alittle bit of a headwind also. The terrain is still mostly desert. We stopped in Seeley for a snack of chocolate milk and a cake. I should have brushed up on my spanish before coming on this trip. If you don't speak spanish in this part of the country your in trouble. Have you checked gas prices lately?? 3.34 per gallon. We'll get another 25 miles out of our chocolate milk!
We arrived in El Centro and decided to stop early today since it was turkey day. First we stopped at a grocery for supplies. Hap went into the store. We don't want to leave the bike alone. So I was the lookout. Hap was in the store forever. When he finally came out, I said what took you so long? He said he met his friend Roseanne. She had stopped him because she had seen the bike outside. She asked him if we were a team or something? He said yes, we are a team of two. But we happen to be riding to raise awareness about Alpha One. So he talked about Alpha One, gave her a card. Then he was asking her if she knew of any restaurants in town that were serving a thanksgiving dinner? Since she was just in town visiting her mother, she called her mother. While waiting for her mother to answer the phone, an old friend of her's that she grew up with, walked by. So they hailed Mike or Richard (Hap couldn't remember), and he came over. They asked him about where to find a dinner. He said he didn't know of any restaurants but there was the Police Athletic League serving a dinner and gave him directions. An hour later Hap came out and told me this story. We left the grocery store and headed to the PAL dinner. We road all over El Centro looking for it and finally found it. So we had a our turkey dinner. After eating we headed off to a RV park on the east side of town. When we got there, there was a sign on the office door that said CLOSED for Thanksgiving. Mmmm..... so we walked to the first trailer and a lady came out. Of course she didn't speakidy english very well but said something like. Yes you can put a tent over there. We will get you key. Mmm....what do we need a key for?? We put up our tent where she told us to and then discovered what we needed the key for. The showers and the bathroom. We went back over to her trailer and asked for a key. She said again, that the man (??) would bring us a key. So we waited and played cards and waited. Finally she came over with a key but said as soorn as we were done with it, to bring it back to her. That there was a party in the party house and they needed the key. Apparently there was only ONE key! There must be something that we are missing?? We took our showers, and took the key back to her. Finally Hap went back over and got us the key to the bathroom. We were allowed to keep the key all night. It got dark by 5:30pm so we went to bed at 6p. The next morning when we got up a guy in a golf cart came by and said he needed the key we had and he gave us another key. Don't ask me.....I'm just glad I was able to use the bathroom!
We left this morning to another beautiful sunny day. Temps in the 70's again. We rode into Holtsville and found a mexican (that's funny cause they are ALL mexican) diner for breakfast. We planned to ride into Yuma today. We talked to several people who told us not to ride on the side road that looked like it went along I-8 because it just was a deadend. When we got to the entrance to I-8 there was a sign on the ramp that said No bicycles. Generally in places like this if there isn't a side road you are allowed to ride on the interstate. Our only option was to go back to El Centro and get on a completely different road. We didn't think that was a very good option. So onto the interstate we went. But the whole time we were thinking that helicopters were going to swoop down, lights were going to flash and loudspeakers saying "YOU ON THE BIKE!" We road about 15 miles down the interstate and got off at the first exit. We hoped that at this point it was ok for bikes to ride on it. But no, there was still THAT sign. Maybe that's just a guideline Hap? We could still see the side road that we were told was a dead end so we thought ok let's see what happens over there. It ran along side of I 8. It was really rough and bumpy. My back just loved it! We stayed on it to the next entrance ramp and then tried again. Guess what? Yes, THAT sign was still there. But we just had no choice. We couldn't go forward and we didn't want to go back. We had about 20 miles to Yuma. At every exit we got off and hoped for a sign that said Bicycles ok. FINALLY we saw one. Now where exactly one was supposed to start riding on the interstate I am not sure. Because where we finally saw a sign was miles from anywhere. We road through alot of sand dune area today and saw thousands of RV's, dune buggies, motorcycles, four wheelers and other toys. The wind picked up through this area so much so that sand was in our teeth and eyes. Then Hap ran over some oil or something that splashed up on us and that was also very special! We finally arrived in Yuma and stopped at a visitor's center to find a campground. She said that only a couple of RV parks allowed tents and none of them were in town. We opted to stay in a hotel. We also stopped at a bike shop and Hap bought a new tire and tire liners for the trailer. Hopefully this will stop our flat tire problem. We found the hotel, ordered take out from Pizza Hut, did the laundry, and watched football on TV. How about our Buckeyes! GO BUCKS! It had been a long day. The next few days we will be riding on I 8 east on our way to Tucson. Don't worry though we checked it is legal to ride on the interstate in Arizona.
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