A real change from the morning smelling freshly mowed hay in cool temps in the 50s to dune buggys playing in the dunes near Glamis with temps in the low 90s to freshly mowed hay in Ripley.

Haven’t seen any other cyclists yet. Today’s ride was rather lonely with the occasional big rigs and pick up trucks. Strange that half the big rigs gave me plenty space on this 2 lane road, yet some seemed to take pride in not crossing the center line. The force of the wind from one truck flipped the flevo roof open – no permanent damage.

Most of the roads today were chip seal. Seems to sap the speed. Downhills today were great – rollers with speeds between 20 and 40. Almost stiffened up from not pedaling. From Ripley to Blythe was smooth asphalt almost hypnotic pedaling with nothing but the sound of a quiet chain and the occasional heart arrhythmia (just kidding if your reading this Dr.)

When the route guide says little or no services for 60 miles, they’re not kidding. Must be something to do with that bombing range I passed.

So back to the hay, I remember being on the wagon behind the baler and stacking the bales on the wagon. In Ripley, they had a machine that scooped the bales off the field, arranged them neatly in a horizontal plane, then lifted that plane vertically and pushed that vertical stack into the other vertical stacks already done. (Maybe it’s an engineer thing as I found it interesting)

My route tomorrow no longer has a campground at my planned destination, so we’ll see if I do more or less. I may not be connected either so the day 5 post may be delayed. (I’m betting on ****)