Recycled water

Wednesday, July 20th
El Centro, CA

On paper, the town has everything I could ask for. A Walmart, a Costco, a Lowe's, a bike shop, a Golden Corral buffet, a 24 hr dining area Jack in the Box, and Holiday Inn breakfast, and a community college. I should love it here. But it's out in the desert, and that changes things a bit.

McDonald's

No need to mention the heat or the amount of insects. This place has the unpleasant smell of recycled water everywhere. Now for those who live in regions of plentiful water, you may never have experienced the product of water reclamation. It's sewage that had solids removed, chlorine added, and been repeatedly filtered. The end result is far from pristine. Recycled water smells to me like dirt farm and diluted pee.

I'm at IVC. Irvine Valley College. Stole a nice much-needed shower. Now I smell like soap and recycled water.

The drinking water tastes wrong. It's got a black taste like potting soil. I drank from three places, and each time I felt ill. Walmart, Jack-in-the-Box, and the college. I hope I wasn't drinking recycled water. And I hope restaurants don't cook with it! I can drink bottled water if necessary, but I can't replace clean meals!

Looks like there are fertilizer and aluminum plants in the area. El Centro water report 2015.

Turbidity (cloudiness of drinking water) exceeds the MCL limit. Odor is at the threshold. Coloration is high.

Excess aluminum violates safety standards.

I am skeptical of the report saying the sources of these contaminants are 'natural'. Arizona and New Mexico are reliant on fresh water flowing down from the Colorado River. When I was living in Colorado in December, a librarian there told me how big companies near Colorado Springs would pollute the water and leave it to local governments downstream to clean up their waste. Here's a 2008 article related to that. They got away with it by bribing politicians and getting people to look the other way. And they continue to flush their shit where other people live.

August, 2015: States downstream from contaminated river upset that EPA didn't alert them

"Officials for New Mexico’s San Juan County Office of Emergency Management said they learned of the oncoming rush of wastewater laden with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals not from the EPA, but in a newspaper in nearby Durango, Colo."

It incited resentment that I feel is much deserved. The water down here is bad.

The heat is on

Tuesday, July 19th
El Centro, CA

115F week. Desert everywhere around me.

It is half past midnight and the temperature remains a stifling 95F. The daily lows are above 80F. No point in waiting for it to cool down. It's hot 24/7.

No, this shit is not fun.

I'm sitting outside Lowe's. Insects are all over me as I am typing. They are crawling over me, flying at me, and jumping onto me. Grasshoppers, round little black bugs, flying things, you name it. A huge mother cockroach just climbed out from beneath my tarp, inches from my hand. Some are making me itchy and others are biting me. Fuck this. I am standing up.

Freeway is a smooth ride but bicycles are prohibited whenever there is any alternative route. The alternative route sucks. Bumpy cracked service road for 18 wheelers and pickup trucks. I turn off the freeway because I think, well maybe it'll be a decent paved road. But I would be much better not putting unwarranted faith in utopias.

Bicycle rear tire is shred to a skin. Ran over a nail in the morning that tore out a chunk of rubber and left punctures on both sides of the inner tube! It was about 10 inches long with screw threads the entire length.

Luckily, I had a spare tube. The worn tire is holding up but will soon be replaced.

The desert road beside the freeway ground my treads. I was expecting to hear a pop at any time and discover that all the loose rocks on the road had rushed into my burst tube. But they didn't. Instead, I heard a sound that I couldn't identify.

Took my wheel out and inspected it to find a spoke on my rear wheel came out of its nipple. I didn't know if it was broken or how to fix it, so I bent the spoke around its neighbors to stop it from spinning around and kept going. I'll need to find a new spoke tomorrow. Also the kickstand is flopping around, so I made a bandana.

Some highlights of the day. $7.77 prime rib at Golden Acorn Casino. $10 Free Play credits at video poker generated $6 into my wallet. Their free soda machines were fully stocked with flavors. Raspberry vanilla coke tastes pretty good. Honorable mentions for orange Coke, and peach Dasani.

I followed Old Highway 80 and Highway 8 to El Centro, CA.

Some nice desert mountain views.

At the end of my 70 mile traveling day, I unloaded at Walmart.

And drank Ulix under the table.

Morning camp on Tuesday above a highway intersection near Pine Valley. Place was perfect. I fell asleep under clear stars.

Campsite thanks to a tip from a Christian college student. Never would have noticed it on my own. Their church had some youth summer outing going on and the event organizer offered me free ice cream when I walked by. :-). We got to talking. It was nice to share my stories with people.

Pine Valley, CA

Monday, July 18th
Blossom Valley, CA to Pine Valley, CA

Viejas casino had a $20 buffet with free beer. I let the ice water alone and downed three Stella Artoisies. The carbs in beer taste so good. My first gulp on an empty stomach got me a bit tipsy. I haven't had an alcohol in over a year, I think.

At a shopping plaza across from the casino...

I got a new pair of Nikes!

Pegasus 32 running shoe. I've been wearing this line since the 2000 model, because they can reliably withstand a pounding. The mesh on the top is breathable, unlike the Pegasus 30 I'd been wearing. Should help the ventilation.

Let me tell you why orange is a good color. Orange is yellow, which is happy, plus red, which is strong. And hunters won't shoot you in the foot.

Morning camp on Monday. Elementary school grounds in Blossom Valley, CA

Nick, you will be happy to know that I was dislodged by a sprinkler underneath a tree once during the night. It turned on for 2 minutes then shut off. :shrug:

I was awoken by a million and nine hundred, ninety nine thousand and nine hundred ninety nine ants swarming over my pillow, my backpack, everything.

View from morning camp over Blossom Valley.

Big scary mountains were once in the distance. And now they are behind me.

Travelin pictures

San Diego State University

Looks like a wealthy Mexican villa.

Bonita Cove Park. San Diego, CA.

UCSD library

Looks like it landed from space.

View from top floor

The terrain is pretty flat. You can see far in all directions.

Ants got into my water? What why? I guess they need to drink too.

Buffet with Ulix.

No matter how much I eat, he never gains weight. I'm the one who carries him around, so... lucky me.


Rolling down to San Diego harbor.

Nice weather at the beach.

Mission Beach. San Diego, CA.

Slomo

Local celebrity "Slomo", an old guy roller blading in slow motion. Often on one leg.

"For the large part, it's a grinding affair -
Working away, having a family, making the whole thing happen.
And at the end of it,
Most people are pretty worn out.
They don't believe in God.
They don't believe in anything beyond
this ephemeral existence that we're in now, and
their attitudes are cynical.
They are what we call in america, assholes.
And I was one of them."

John Kitchin, a.k.a Slomo, is a former doctor who developed prosopagnosia, a disability that prevents him from recognizing people's faces. He left his career and cashed in his wealth to enjoy a spiritual life through skating.

"A personal delusional system
and you believe it because you choose to.
When I skate, I try to regress down to what I think is about eleven and a half.
Which is the last of the idealistic years."

I'm way ahead of this guy in life, because I quit my career before I even had one! Didn't have to wait till I had three luxury cars and a mansion to pursue what I wanted.

Maybe I can make the whole thing work backwards... get filthy stinking rich by shedding material possessions and pursuing a life of pure freedom. No? Not likely, you say? Well let me ask you this then... do you have any spare change? ^_^

"Who needs money
when we've got feathers?"

Mission Bay.

Clever ending <- insert here. Profound conclusion.

Travel audio notes

And with this post, I'll be caught up to the present.

Saturday, July 16th
San Diego, CA

University of California San Diego

Morning camp. Fitness trail inside UCSD campus.

Heh. I got a kick out of making it through the night inside campus without getting kicked out. One guy walked past at 11pm when I was setting up my hammock, but I didn't see anyone else the entire night. Rolled out at 6 am.

When you're bicycling for a long time, what do you do Jonathan? Don't you get bored?

Well... an active imagination, stupidity, and being easily self-amused work in my favor! This is what I do on long rides: talk to myself and improvise songs.

Here's a song I call Stiff Hill:

Stiff Hill

Bee Kay La Neigh

You make me so hot.

I sweat and I thirst to climb on top.

La Neigh Bee Kay

I ride you hard and long.

When I go down, this is my favorite song.

Turn headlights on

How I feel bicycling after the buffet

Are we there yet to roadrunner university?

Real travel tips and experiences

You went the wrong way. Y u no tell me this no more, GPS lady?

Deep thoughts

i like handicap people. not because they are hardworking productive members of our society despite the tough challenges they must overcome every day. because when there's no place to lock up my bicycle, there's always a handicap parking sign pole to use.

Putting a $250 minimum fine for misuse of the handicap spot seems ineffective to me. It's not so much that people without permits abuse the spots. It's that pretty much anyone can get a permit. For being fat, or old, or hard of vision.

Legoland

Thursday, July 14th
Carlsbad, CA

Going to this place is so much fun without having to deal with parents or children. Haha!

While I was taking Ulix's picture, a father furious was at his son for wandering off. Irrepressible yelling vs motionless crying. I'd never lose Ulix.

I wanted to see the world landmarks and buildings made of Legos. The scale size was smaller than I expected, but the sets were well designed and there were a lot of locales to see.

Several buildings had funny knock-off names of the real thing.

Dinky Donuts

Licked and Wardie's

At first, I didn't see many customers coming in, even though inside was packed. Somehow GPS Lady and a lack of directional common sense put me at a rear entrance to the park.

The posted admission price was steep, but out of curiosity I went up to the gate see what a hypothetical day surrounded by Legos would cost me.

Well turns out I can take a look around the park for an hour without paying the full admission. Hey, looks like it never hurts to ask. I grabbed Ulix and thanked the sweet young lady who let me into the park.

Was gonna go back to the park the next day. Made plans with the employee I met at the gate to tour the park together. She seemed cool in person but afterwards she flaked out on me via text. Maybe her friends told her to ditch me. FeelsBadMan.

Ulix had a great time.

He found bears of other ethnicities.

Chewy looks like he's made out of peanut butter.

Armored bear Ulix.

A yellow Shrek

Me hitting up every buffet I encounter. ^_^

I dunno what Lego that is, but his smile is hilarious.

All signs should look like this. Tell it as it is, sister.

Pickachew dolls everywhere. Every caricature he drew had Pika on it. LOL. Quite good drawing tho.

Later, alligator.

LOL the one big kid sitting in the middle of the up and down ride cracks me up.

Throwable oversized foam Lego blocks. I would love to fight someone using those! Hehehe.

A swaggin' dragon.

Me on a playdate with my Lego buddy. She's going to do my hair, and then we're going to paint our nails.

Money boat

The world, Chico. And everything in it.

and Ulix