California Day 6 - Exploring Lancaster

 I spent the day exploring Lancaster and pondering what my life would have been like if my parents had never moved back to Ohio, and I had grown up here.

Here I am in front Antelope Valley Hospital where I was born 62 years ago.

Antelope Valley Hospital is now a giant medical center with dozens of buildings, which do not look like they date from 1963. But their web site has a history section that has a picture of the original hospital, which opened in 1955.

Before I was born, my mom worked as a nurse here, and my dad worked as an electronics technician at Edwards Air Force Base.

I'm pretty sure they rented a duplex like this one.

There are lots of identical duplexes within a couple miles of the hospital. I've seen photos from this time that could be in such a home, and I once had the actual address from old records my sister had (and maybe still does). This particular house is very close to my 2000s vintage AirBnB. It's a rough neighborhood now. This house is in much better shape than most of its identical neighbors.

Here is the high school in Lancaster, Antelope Valley High School.

Weird connection with Baltimore - Frank Zappa spent his childhood in southeast Baltimore and the vicinity. His family moved to Lancaster when he was a teenager, and he graduated from Antelope Valley High School.

There is a lot of Mid-Century Modern architecture in Lancaster, which had a period of rapid growth in the late 1950s/early 1960s. The high school is an interesting example.

For comparison, here is a picture from that era of Bellbrook (Ohio) High School, which I attended.

The cool Googie zig zag roofs were renovated into oblivion in the 1970s due to chronic leaking and energy efficiency.

Here in Lancaster, my sense is there is no appreciation whatsoever for the architecture of the 1950s and 1960s. Browsing through Redfin, every listing for an older home is all about opportunities to add ADUs, or to get rental income from the ADU already added.

One interesting characteristic of Lancaster is the pervasiveness of these columnar evergreens in landscaping.

See also the vintage picture of Antelope Valley Hospital. I believe these are "Taylor Juniper", which is a variety of Eastern Red-Cedar. This would obviously not be native to the Mojave Desert.

I remember when I was little, my parents had planted these around our house in Ohio. Perhaps this was an influence from California. The driveway was also lined with globular Arborvita. Which can also be seen in front of the old photo of Bellbrook High School above.

The newer developments do not include the non-native columnar evergreens. They have Bradford Pears instead. Ugh.

Note also in the picture above is the wall around the residential neighborhoods. Just like in Las Vegas, the streets are laid out with major thoroughfares on a 1 mile grid, with neighborhoods surrounded by walls. Perhaps this is a desert adapatation? The walls lower noise from the roads, and break the wind so the landscaping doesn't dry out as much?

Here's what the view is behind my AirBnB. You can see the AirBnB's neglected back yard, the one behind it with nicely maintained native xeriscape, and the one to the right with more intensely maintained trees and greenery.

I confess to being a bit disturbed by the play structure and kid's bike in the backyard. Are there kids normally living here who get relocated elsewhere when there is an AirBnb guest? This makes me uncomfortable.

Lancaster (pop 170,000) and neighboring Palmdale (pop 160,000) are the two main cities in the Antelope Valley region (pop 370,000). The Antelope Valley is roughly the same size as Howard County, MD. In addition to the local employment driven by the aerospace industry and military bases, the Antelope Valley is also a bedroom community for the Los Angeles region. There is commuter rail service to LA. There is also some local agriculture using irrigation from wells tapping the ever-lowering aquifer.

An urban area this size in the middle of the desert is spectacularly unsustainable. I imagine in the summer people spend their lives quickly moving from one air-conditioned space to another. Living on Mars would probably be similar.

I started my exploration of Lancaster with a morning visit to the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve.

This is a patch of intact Mojave Desert on the west edge of Lancaster. In the cool morning, it is teeming with life. There are quail, ground squirrels, and rabbits everywhere. Songbirds are abundant. There are hummingbirds. Another visitor told me where the Roadrunners hang out, but I didn't see one. 

The contrast is pretty stark with the developed areas, which are pretty much completely sterile. 

Next I went to the bike shop, and restocked on CO2 cartridges and spare tires. I had a nice time chatting with the owner, who greatly admired my touring bike setup.

After that was some tasty ceviche for lunch at a storefront tavern on the fancier side of town.

I had a nice time talking to the manager about the dismal state of the craft brewing industry. He was admiring my Flying Dog bike jersey. We both think hyper local is the only way to stay in business as a craft brewer now.

After lunch, I went back to the AirBnB and did some bike maintenance. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out the best route over the many mountains and deserts between me and the Pacific Ocean. The next few days will be an unseasonably hot spell to add to the challenge. I don't have a plan for this yet.

For dinner, I went back to Lucky Lukes, which was open on Tuesdays, and a mob scene due to it being St. Patrick's Day. I tried the Buffalo Wings.

I sure am a long way from Buffalo. Just sayin'. 

While munching on my wings and drinking more Schwarzbier, I was watching the bartender make an endless stream of various unappealing bright-green drink specials. Until they ran out of Midori. Which picked right back up again after an emergency visit to a nearby liquor store.

But she also made this amazing looking thing:

me: "What's the drink with the red goop on top?"
Bartender: "It's a Mango Mamacita. Nobody has ever called that 'red goop' before."
me: "So what is the red goop?"
Bartender: "Mexican candy."
me: "Is it spicy?"
Bartender: "I don't think so." 
me: "Is that nonalcoholic?"
Bartender: "No way. It's 10%! It's our own seltzer."

So I tried one. The red goop is amazing. It's mildly spicy, sweet and salty. After grilling the bartender some more, she told me it's called "Refi-rim" and it's produced locally by a Mexican guy, "from his Mom's secret family recipe."

https://www.refisnacks.com/s/order?item=SMJLMLXSXIENY5P7MCUVYE2S#ERHT2IAYVP3JZGZ72ZZ762PW

This goes great with mango seltzer, but I'm pretty sure it would also be incredible on the rim of a glass of capsicumel. I have a plan.

California Day 5 - Victorville to Lancaster

 I am in Lancaster, CA.

I was born here, but my parents moved back to Ohio when I was an infant, and I have no memory of it. I'm taking a couple days off to see what it's like.

Today was 60 easy miles from Victorville on "The 138". It mostly looked like this:

Sixty miles, no hills, only 800 feet of climb. The last 40 miles was a gentle downhill. The first 40 miles was a tailwind, which became a cool, refreshing headwind for the last 20 miles, by which time the temperature was in the 80s.

I feel great, no cramping, I am hydrating, hydrating, hydrating.

I saw this amazing Fir tree thriving in the middle of the desert outside Victorville!

Oh wait. Never mind.

Why even bother making a fake tree to hide a cell tower out here in the middle of the desert? There are transmission lines everywhere you look.

This was just the first stage of my annoyance this morning. Garmin, you need to work on your auto-routing.

It is not helpful to tell me I need to make a U-turn in 24917 miles.

Another milestone for today is I saw flowing water!

First time this trip!

Lunch was at a Thai place in Palmdale. I wolfed down a mountain of Pad Thai before I remembered to take a picture. My appetite is strong, I feel great.

I have an AirBnB for three nights, at only $65/night. It's a room in a house with a shared kitchen and living room, but I seem to be the only guy here except for Jorge the caretaker, who stops by to feed the three huge German Shepherds in the back yard. It's quite a deal.

My room is huge, but it's on the second floor, so my bike is secure in the garage.

The farther west I've ridden, the nicer the cities get. Palmdale and Lancaster are almost nice. There is a ton of newer residential neighborhoods west of Victorville. Were these houses built right before the housing collapse in 2008? There are homes in the desert in the 40 miles between Victorville and Palmdale.

Lancaster and Palmdale look fairly prosperous. I believe most of this comes from the proximity to Edwards Air Force Base and the aerospace industry. (Which is why my parents were here when I was born.) There is also a prison in Lancaster.

Palmdale is nicer than Lancaster, which has plenty of street people and homeless. But Lancaster is trying hard, they have named the main commercial strip in town "The BLVD" and it is sort of alive. It has some shops and restaurants and a museum.

The BLVD has a brewpub, so I went to check it out for dinner. It's pretty good. Lots of varieties, not just IPAs, and they even has a Schwarzbier.

I love how the tap handles are random tools welded to the tops of the taps.

I did the corned beef sandwich special, due to the imminence of St. Patrick's Day, instead of wings. 

The food is yummy. I may be back here for wings.

All in all, it was a very easy and interesting day. 

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/17747917988

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