Day 3,
I woke up pretty early, and before getting out of the tent, took a picture of the bright sky and green leaves. Packed all the stuff together and was back on the road. Now only one 500 ml bottle of water was left.
Next few hours I was walking up hill
again, occasionally stopping to take a picture or rest in the shade. Then I
realized that soon I will need water pretty badly. So, I took the empty bottle
in one hand and when a car would pass, I would show the bottle and turn it up
side down. Sure enough, next car, older Toyota Camry, stopped, turned around,
and without any words, the guy handed me sealed 1 liter bottle of water.
Amazing...
Not long after this, however, was a
ranger's station, where I stopped to fill out the empty bottle, this guy was
also extremely kind, and gave me a bottle of solid ice. This was right on the
point when a steep downhill started. Road was going down to the valley, from
the mountain range. I was rolling down the hill at terrific speed, and had to
brake hard on the turns. At one moment, while riding over some bump, water
bottles fell off the bike. Bungee cords are not the best to hold the bottle on
the back. I need some water cages.
In about an hour, road became flat
again. Desert. Vegetation has the same color as soil -
yellowish-gray. I was in the big valley now' and still looking for water! One bottle that I had left, I could drink in
one time.
About half a mile from the road, there
were little farm houses, but roads that lead there, were all sand-dust mixture
and with the narrow tires on the bike, I couldn't ride there at all.
Finally there was a house only about
100 meters from the road, so I parked the bike and walked there to ask for
water. I rang the door bell, but no one answered. Obviously no one was home,
even thought there were few cars in front of the house.
While walking back, I saw a garden hose
near a little gazebo. Well, I decided to fill up the bottles in case I need the
desperately. I didn't know if it was drinking water or not. I also sprayed some
water over my head... basically took a quick shower. In this kind of sun it
will dry out in few minutes. :)
In another 15-20 minutes of riding, I
saw a big mail forgone approaching the main road from one of the side roads. I
speed up to be able to intersect with it when it gets there. Driver sees me and
slows down. I waved a hand and when he was against me, I asked how far was the next town - Palmdale. Those mail trucks don't have
doors, so it was easy for him to talk to me. I also asked him where are the next services where I could get some water. He
pointed north, and said that Palmdale is right across next hill, but then asked
me: - Water? aren't you drinking sport drinks? I
answered that I don't drink it, but heard good things about it. He went inside
his truck, and brought a cold bottle of orange Gatorade. I smiled and thanked
him kindly. What a kind man. He continued on, and I have dried the bottle
entirely. Nice bottle with wide top, I could use it to put ice cubes in.
Well, after the next hill, I saw a big
intersecting autostrada, and a sign that Palmdale was
another 10 miles to the North East. That was to the right, to the left,
however, in 3 miles, was a town called
In 10 minutes or so, I entered Acton. It was
hard to miss its center; it was the only public square. All buildings were made
of wood and there was the post office, grocery store, bank, restaurant and a
sports club.
Behind the buildings, that were facing
the desert, I found another water house, so I washed the face, found a place in
the shade and ate a little lunch of bread with tuna. In the grocery store, I
got a bottle of cold milk and drank it entirely in one time. The time was
approaching
Next thing was the umbrella. Yes, I
took an umbrella with me :) , but didn't want to throw
it in the garbage, so I asked someone walking by if they needed it. One person
said no, but another one, a young man, around 30 y.o., stopped and started looking at the bike with
concern. I asked him if he wanted to take the umbrella that I didn't need
anymore. With even greater surprise he was looking at the umbrella and agreed
to take it. (This is probably not a very useful thing here in the desert). He asked me what I was doing and then took a
business card out of his valet. He said it was his Church in Palmdale, and that
I was invited to visit a service next day. I politely returned the card saying
that I remembered what street the Church was on.
I gave another cable to some kid and
when finished packing the stuff, started riding towards Palmdale.
There was approximately an hour till
the sunset. I stopped at Mc Donald's and ate a nice ice-cream. An older man
sitting at the opposite table started a conversation, which was interesting as
he knew the area around well. He was
interested by the trip and invited me to join him and his friends at the beer
bar later tonight. He also suggested a place to pitch a tent,
that was under the big tree, not far from there.
When I checked that place, it indeed
was pretty covered from the views, but was too close to the restaurant and to
the road. It also looked like someone was visiting that place occasionally. I
decided to keep going towards Palmdale, and in approximately a mile, I
something that could be a good spot for the tent. It was under the overpass,
with desert from both sides and invisible from the road above. The soil was
very flat from water that ran there before. I put the tent up in the dark and
another "cool" night was there. :)
Total mileage today - approximately 15-20 miles
Return to Day 2 Today's Pictures Continue to Day 4