I think I was sound asleep when my head hit the pillow. Mark’s snoring didn’t bother me a bit. After breakfast in a fifties diner, started off and my rear wheel shifted at the start of the first climb. Locked it down as tight as I could and went back to the gameplan of day one. Brian even gave it an extra turn and it held the rest of the day.
I knew starting out that we had 5 major climbs today. The difference between day 1 and day 2 was we start hard and finish easy. Yesterday we started easy and finished hard. The wind was back but it didn’t demoralize me the way it did yesterday. My legs felt strong and I was enjoying the scenery. The only time the wind made me nervous was when we were on the interstate coasting down into Ocotillo. Unlike Brian and Mark, I apply the brakes and never go above 20 mph if that on these long steep descents. Wiped out on a downhill in Cape Bretton Island, Nova Scotia in 1990. Never want to do that again.
Lots of Border Patrol Agents today. Also saw the border fence – not more than 75 yards from the road we were on in places. It is amazing the difference in the landscape when irrigation is available as it is in the Imperial Valley. You can be riding thru dusty brown earth and all of a sudden be riding thru green, lush spinach fields.
Very happy my bike had a front strobe light and a rear blinking red light. We didn’t get into El Centro until the around 6 pm and it was getting dark. The lights relieved my anxiety about biking that late. We’ll plan better our long days and arrive at our destination before dark.