Starting mileage 2248
Ending mileage 2480
My journey today was to Rialto, a small town in San Barnadino, California. I had booked into stay at a wigwam hotel. I left Laughlin and started my 240 mile journey. To say it was hot is an understatement. The late morning heat was over 115 degrees. I had stopped for breakfast at McDonalds earlier but in the first 30 minutes of riding I was feeling very dehydrated and a little dizzy. This made for a few stops along the way at gas stations to down bottles of water or Gatorade. The heat was so intense it was burning through my factor 15.
Now not because I am any kind of geek but I had been watching a Bear Grylls type survival program a few nights before that had been showing how to survive in the desert heat. This helped me through the day. I put my helmet and my gloves on. I also put my neck wrap around the lower part of my face. The idea here is to keep light clothes on covering the skin from direct contact with the sun. This actually has the affect of keeping the body temperature cooler. It worked and I thanked my geekiness.
The journey into California was reasonably uneventful. The biggest change I noticed was in both the scenery and the cars. Nearing the end of my days journey I was well and truly in California. The desert was replaced by trees and hills, the temperature wasn't as scorching as Arizona the were more signs of civilisation. The cars had changed, there were a lot more expensive vehicles, a lot more sports bikes and a lot more aggressive driving.
I got to the wigwam hotel in Rialto and met the son of the owners. This place is a lot cooler than the photos on the website. The wigwams are spacious and comfortable and not that expensive. I cooled down in the pool and got chatting. He invited me out to drink a few beers with him and grab some food if I was keen. I was getting very used to this hospitality and gladly said yes. He drove us out to a great burger and beer place called Eureka! Burger. The barman and staff were a lot of fun and made for a great beer tasting evening.
Home and bed a little drunk feeling that my journey was coming to an end. I was to get up for 7am tomorrow as I had to drop the bike off in San Diego, 120 miles away by 10am.
