California Day 4 - Barstow to Victorville

 It was a short day today, less than 40 miles, which gave me a good opportunity to  recover from yesterday. All of it was on Route 66.

Route 66 has a gentle climb the whole way to Victorville. The picture is one of the few spots where there are some ups and downs. The BNSF main line parallels the highway, so you get to have fun watching nonstop trains.

I'm getting near civilization. From Vegas to Barstow, it's all barely alive desert towns scraping by on traffic at the highway exits. Barstow is an actual town. It's a very, very gritty town, but it's a town. There is a huge rail yard and a marine base nearby. Victorville is also gritty, but not as gritty as Barstow, and there are nice things once in awhile, like this terrific restaurant, the Red Hen Cafe, where I had lunch.

And lunch was terrific. I finally felt recovered after I ate this. I was dragging all morning.

The railroad runs right by Route 66 coming into Victorville. I got to see a train carrying tanks!

I thought tanks on flatcars only happened in toy train sets. There were 26 tanks, two per flatcar.

I scored on a historic Route 66 hotel tonight. I'm at the New Corral Motel. It's spotless, perfectly maintained, and it has excellent WiFi. There are no long-term residents here.

Such a nice room!

And there is a China Buffet in that giant shopping center across the street.

So many tentacle options!

I will be hammering out the miles tomorrow.

Here is the Strava page for today: https://www.strava.com/activities/17737004158

California Day 3 - Baker to Barstow

 I'm in Barstow, California. It's between Kingman, and San Bernidino, if you have plans to motor west.

This place is an actual survivor from the glory days of Route 66.

So much history in my room for only $65. And stale cigarette smoke, since today was brutal, and I was too spent to ride any farther. But the room is fine, everything works. This place gets the Red Dot of Quality award. They are leaning in to the history, by placing numerous rusting and non-operable cars from the 1940s in the parking lot...

Like the historic motels along Route 1 in my home of Elkridge,  this place is mostly occupied by long-term residents one step away from  being homeless. There are lots of little kids riding bikes. They and their fathers were highly impressed by my touring bike setup.

Today was very, very brutal. 66 miles, 2800 feet of climb, and a screaming headwind all afternoon. It took me 8 1/2 hours of pedaling, plus breaks. The temperatures were in the upper 80s, but the humidity is so low out here in the desert, it's quite comfortable. The downside is you dehydrate. Despite drinking 5 bottles of water, and a Gatorade, I have been been cramping very severely all evening. So instead of going out for dinner (no appetite due to the very strenuous day) I have been forcing as much after-the-fact electrolytes (Skratch) and salty snacks from the snack bag into me.

I didn't have anything to eat during the ride other than an apple and a bottle of Gatorade (mistake!), but I did have breakfast at the Greek restaurant in Baker.

Despite all the statues of topless goddesses, this place is barely hanging on. Counter service only, all dishes and utensils are disposable,  and the menu  is mostly Mexican food.

I am done with riding on the shoulder of the Interstate. But not before  I passed  this sign.

Zzyzx is a ghost down about 10 miles off the freeway in the Mojave National Reserve. Having the last name in the road atlas is apparently not the path to prosperity.

This sign was very, very welcome.

You're only allowed to ride on the shoulder of the Interstate when there is no other road. This sign actually conveys the happy news that there is an alternative after the next exit.

Now this is more like it.

I  rode a total of 100 miles on the shoulder of I-15. I gott this wonderful no-traffic two lane roads running parallel to I 15 for the next 20 miles. These 20 miles were still right into a strong headwind and slightly uphill the whole way.

And then it was back on I-15 for what should have been a short four mile stretch over a big hill. My bike maps says you can use a frontage road to get halfway up the hill, and then ride legally on the interstate.

Uh oh.

There's the sign that says no bikes on the freeway, and behind it is the sign saying the frontage road is closed. 

What to do? Try the frontage road anyway, and see if you can get through on a bike? Or take the interstate and hope the shoulder is rideable?

I chose I-15. And after climbing way up the hill, a police cruiser went by and the officer yelled "GET OFF THE FREEWAY" at me from the bullhorn on top of the car, without stopping.

So I got off at the next exit, which was where the frontage road ends. And, as expected, the ramp leading back onto I-15 had a sign that said "No Pedestrians", so bikes must be OK. So I got right back on and finished riding over the hill.

I am done with riding on the interstate.

Here's the Strava page: https://www.strava.com/activities/17725562517

California Day 2 - Primm, NV to Baker, CA

 I'm in California.

I love how this guy is posing with his baby in front of the sign. His wife is off the frame taking a picture.

The only road in this part of California is I-15. So I rode the shoulder of I-15 all day for 50 miles. As you can see at the start, the shoulder is really, really narrow.

It did get better in a couple miles. TGIF.

There were only two hills today. Two climbs, and two descents. You can see the start of the first hill above. It's a 2000 foot climb, over that mountain, at about 6% on the average, for 9 miles. It took me nearly two hours. 

There was payback to finish the day.

My AirBnB is at the bottom of the hill. I didn't actually have to pedal again if I didn't want to.

And here is the other descent, and climb. The next ridge is 12.5 miles away, which was 25% of the day's ride.

Lunch was gas station chicken at "The Bird House", which also sells lots of jerky made from every animal they could find. Jerky seems to be the big thing here in the desert. It's probably really easy to make. Set meat out in the sun. Done.

The Chicken Box was yummy.

It's amazing how far you can see out here. This is a picture of Primm, looking back from 9 miles away.

And here's a picture from halfway down the big payback, with Baker at the bottom of the hill 8 miles away.

Does anyone remember way back when we used to play Sim City on the computer? And they had this super advanced Concentrated Solar Array power plant where a bunch of mirrors concentrated sunlight on some sort of magic box that turned it into electricity?

Today, I came across them in real life. They actually exist! 

So I am now here in Baker, relaxing in my very expensive ($180) AirBnB, which is a single room in a double-wide trailer, which has another room which another guest could show up and occupy at any time. And I am glad to be here because this is the only lodging in the 115 miles between Primm and Barstow. The alternative is stealth camping somehow next to the Interstate.

But when you go inside, it's amazing. Mercedes, the host, has jazzed up her double-wide trailer AirBnb with the best of them, following all the lastest trends from home decor magazines....

...while leaving the paneling and shag carpet from the 1970s in place. I love this so much.

I walked over to the Fatburger in the travel plaza a half mile away to get dinner. 

Because it is the closest beer. 

I believe this technically qualifies as more gas station chicken.

Everything is going great. I feel good, the weather is awesome, and I love riding through the desert. I did have two flats today, and I discovered the glue in my patch kit has dried out. So I have two more spare tubes to get me to the next bike shop, which is 69 miles away in Barstow. Cross fingers. 

Here is the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/17713097325

California Day 1 - Las Vegas to Primm, NV

 I can see California from here. Primm is on the state line.

Primm is almost a ghost town. It used to have three casinos with big hotels, a monorail, a roller coaster, and a shopping mall. Now, it is one casino, with a two star hotel. All that other stuff is abandoned.

The hotel was claimed to a Travelodge when I booked my room online, but there is no sign that says Travelodge anywhere, which makes finding it an adventure. It's pretty nice for a Travelodge.

There are also a few fast food restaurants and a gas station. I ate at this Mexican place.

I wound up with a Chile Relleno Burrito somehow. The girl at the counter didn't speak English, and I don't speak Spanish. It was tasty regardless.

Walking back, I discovered what I suspect is keeping the last casino hotel afloat.

There is a ginormous Tesla Supercharger, so people are probably going in to play slots when they are forced to charge here. I'm grateful, because the next hotel is 60 miles away.

It's probably not because they have the actual car where Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death in the dead shopping mall.

It was only 40 miles today, easy peasey, great weather. The first miles were a gentle 2% climb, the last half was all downhill.

I had fully loaded up the snack bag at a Whole Foods by the airport, where they have this totally natural looking xeriscaping with native cacti.

I had lunch at the last restaurant before the desert started, which was about 10 miles from the Flamingo.

It was almost completely empty. The edge of the developed area in Las Vegas is cheap, dense apartment blocks.

The wings were OK, the flavor was right, but they were very mild, and not very crisply fried.

But I am very far from Buffalo.

The plan today was to ride Las Vegas Boulevard the whole way to Primm. It runs parallel to I-15, and it has no traffic and a nice shoulder. 

Also, there is art.

For some reason, quite a number of people have driven clear out here to walk around these stacks of brightly painted rocks. You can see them if you look close. The rocks are very big.

My plan to ride Las Vegas Boulevard clear to Primm had a problem.

The road is closed. This is one of more than a few signs making it perfectly clear that the bike route is the shoulder of I-15.

So the shoulder it is.

It's a really nice shoulder. Glassy smooth, and very little debris. You can actually see Primm off in the distance 12 miles away, in front of the mountain.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/17701848144

California Day 0 - Last Chance Shopping and Errands in Las Vegas

 I loathe Las Vegas. This is the worst, dumbest city in the world. It's a giant Gatlinburg, but with a somewhat lower proportion of hillbillies. Its only purpose is to extract as much money as possible from suckers.

Here are two pictures that sum it up for me:

This is the smoke detector in my room at the Flamingo.

My room doesn't have a coffee maker, either. During the conference, I would just go downstairs one floor and grab a cup early from the urns set out for conference attendees. Conference attendees get a discount room rate, which means we are all on the 4th floor of the 28th floor building, with a view of air conditioning units and spotlights. But today, my conference is over, and I didn't feel like stealing coffee from the next conference, so I went down to the lobby and bought coffee from the cafe in the mini-mall in the lobby. $9. There was a Starbucks, too, but God only knows what that would have cost.

Next up is the picture of my beer, where it has been sitting lonely and forgotten under the tap for 10 minutes at the Gordon Ramsey Burger restaurant. 

When I finally got the absurdly overworked bartender's attention he apologized profusely, and offered to comp me the next one. He said he is still learning "the new system" they just put in place, which I suspect is a system whereby they can have fewer servers doing more work less effectively. 

When the bartender brought me my next, free, Guinness, he apologized again for "making me drink more beer than I wanted to."

me: "That's not actually true."

He laughed. 

The Gordon Ramsey burger is nothing special and it is nowhere near as good as a bacon double smash burger with Old Bay tots at the Cheesesteak Factory on Route 1, despite costing way more money, and the Cheesesteak Factory smashburger is not cheap. Cost of a Gordon Ramsey Backyard Burger with fries and one Guinness, plus 20% tip was $56. Total ripoff.

The airport noise conference ended at 3:00, so I got right on my bike and headed west 10 miles to REI to do my last chance essential shopping and errands, which were air in the bike tires, a headlight since I forgot to back the mount for the light I brought, and a belt, which I forgot to pack, resulting in my pants sliding down throughout the conference.

There was a Bike World on the way to the REI. Bike World is a low end bike shop chain that sells bike brands like Diamondback and Mongoose, barely a step above department store bikes. The shop looks like it has been there forever. It has a very faded "Schwinn" sign out front. But they are awesome. I explained how I forgot my bike mount, and the guy there said "let me see the light", which was a Knog Blinder which has a proprietary mount. He returned with a general-purpose velcro strap mount, which gets the job done just fine. $5. Bike World is the best. 

So on to REI, where I got a belt and some energy bars to get me through the long, service-free stretches of desert highway coming up. 

When you get out to where people actually live, prices become normal. Where people actually live is still weird though. Here's what a residential neighborhood looks like:

What we have here is a large city block bounded by major two lane connector roads (with bike lanes)  where the whole block is a giant walled compound. Walls are cinder block, painted to match the mountains in the distance. Inside are densely packed condos and snout houses. Condos sell in the 300s, snout houses in the 400s. There are miles and miles of these walled compounds. Why would anyone want to live in such a place?

Well you could also choose an apartment in a tower that looks just like a casino, I guess. 

Heading back towards downtown, I came upon this piece of work from Frank Gehry.

It's the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.  There is nothing wrong with this building, it's just that your brain is sick.

I picked my route home so I could see more of the historic Fremont Street District in downtown Las Vegas. Ha ha ha.

https://youtu.be/jJmdve7ST7M

Historic Fremont Street is  now "The Fremont Experience", which is two entire city blocks enclosed under a giant video screen showing seizure-inducing graphics as music blasts away. All two blocks are an open air bar. You can also ride a zip line the whole length of it if you want. I wonder if Las Vegas has a Historic Preservation Commission that approved this?

I noticed that the side streets are named after entertainers from the 1950s and 1960s. Who would have thought that the Rat Pack would eventually become this exercise in humility?

I hate Las Vegas.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/17692221989