Travel notes

Tucson

Thursday, july 28th

Casa Grande, AZ to Marana, AZ

Sleep I get in cities is spotty 'cause I can hook up to late night WiFi. Well, after it rains camping becomes difficult as well. In Casa Grande, I stayed up all night outside Lowe's and snatched an hour nap after sunrise and before breakfast on damp dirt on an empty lot. Then as I rode out of town, I came across an unleased shopping center, slept another hour in the shade of a support column. Rode 40 miles to Marana on two hours of sleep.

morning camp

Highlights of bicycling on the freeway

Playing 'the penis game' on the highway with myself. PENIS! It's a schoolboy game of daring and disruptive behavior. You take turns saying 'Penis' during class or in a quiet library. You have to say it louder than your opponent each time until one person gets caught or chickens out. It doesn't matter who wins. It's more about hilarious ways of passing off the word 'penis' really loudly.

Try these strategies. Pretend to read the dictionary from the word 'penicillin'. Cough. Squeak very high pitched and fast. Drawn out and incomprehensibly slow like a foghorn. Or have you tried just blatantly using it in a no context sentence. "MY PENIS IS ITCHY. MAY I USE THE BATHROOM?"

Gotta rally to cheer myself on. I howl. I sell miles at a ballpark. "20 miles, get your 20 miles here!" I do the Gangnam Style dance when I'm about to reach the exit to my destination.

Friday, July 29th
Marana, AZ to Tucson, AZ

"Tuksan - I shall not forget that name! I will have my revenge. TUKSAN!" ~~~~ something a bad guy in an action movie would say to the hero

morning camp

Sleeping in Marana was rough. 92F from 9pm to 1am. Mosquitoes chewed up my arms, toes, knobs on my fingers. I slept inside the mosquito net of my hammock, laid on the ground. Couldn't get the fabric to tent over me. I continued to get bitten where the mesh rested on my arms. I also didn't get a breeze 'cause the net wasn't raised enough to let air through. In the morning, mosquitoes were replaced by flies.

Marana, AZ

-

I was ushered off the Marana freeway in the morning. A highway patrolman pulled me over on his motorcycle. He wrote me a warning, instead of just talking to me, and seemed to be there just for me so I assume he had to placate a trepid 9 to 5'er who called in. I broke two spokes lowering my bicycle down a ditch to get off the freeway. The frontage road was closed and detours weren't marked, so it was a confusing hassle. Not having a good day to start.

-

Did laundry at a hotel after having breakfast. Only one washer and drier for guests. It was open. I went to an ATM, changed quarters, but someone started a wash in the time I was gone. I sat and waited. They didn't come back on time, so I took out their clothes and started my wash. A floss toothpick fell out with their clothes, gross. With a few minutes left in my wash, they came back and filled the drier. Man, second time getting blocked. I was so close to getting my laundry in before they came back. I'm not waiting another 50 minutes for the drier. Found a housekeeping lady and asked for help. She let me dry my clothes in their commercial machine in 8 minutes.

-

10am. Wearing clean clothes. Perfect timing. A bike shop is open nearby. Let's get spokes replaced. I needed the rear cassette removed to get the spoke in. I was in luck. The man working the shop was awesome. His music playlist already put me in a good mood. I learned more maintenance I can do to keep my bicycle running. I worked on my wheel while he kept a helpful eye to see if I need help. Thought I was crazy for taking the trip. I can't disagree with him.

My chain was super stretched. (A good article about it http://www.bikeradar.com/us/road/gear/article/bicycle-chain-wear-explained-46015/) Which makes sense, because I've had that thing fall off or slip while shifting dozens of times. Got a new chain. I feel a much better transfer of power when pedaling now. I'm apprehensive of stretching the new chain. But the cogs they roll over are already worn, so meh. It don't have to be perfect. Just get me to Florida.

After putting in some work, and a getting generous amount of help my bicycle is in better shape and I worked up an appetite. I've got a Mexican restaurant next door and lunch is on the house, the bike tech tells me. Could this get more convenient! Not if I planned it.

Delicious home style food in a warm family environment. Nana's Kitchen in Tucson. I ate everything put in front of me, haha. Taco, enchilada, stuffed bell pepper, beans and rice, chips and salsa. Desert was this sweet custard called Flan. Loved it. It was nice to taste a different cuisine than I normally get.

Beautiful new bicycle path into Tucson. Water stop at a hotel, and to collect travel shampoos. Shower at a community college.

Nerf keeping you safe

--- 6:30 pm

Another sudden storm. Dark engulfing clouds and tall flashes of lightning. Sand storm warning in effect until 8 pm.

Locals don't seem to be fazed by the approaching weather. A lady walks her dog. Pedestrians travel without hurry. I'm scrambling to get downtown where I can shelter indoors.

The community college where I was is locked up and everyone's gone home. I don't want to be stuck at a place where there's not supposed to be anyone there. Now I'm sitting in a waiting room at a hospital. The power went out briefly and I think the backup generator turned it back on. I hope my bicycle doesn't fly away along with the rack I locked it to. I put a tarp over my blankets and rolled my saddle bags shut. Should minimize any rain damage.

Ulix is too fat to fit in a saddle bag that's rolled shut for waterproofing. So I'm spending quality time with him. We go on walks in the rain. We catch up on conversation.

bonding with Ulix

LOL cum-a-dog next to hot jewels

The sky was so picturesque throughout the day but within a short hour a foul mood took hold. It's like spending time with a mentally disturbed loved one who normally is gentle, but could become unstable at any moment. Or showing the One Ring to Gollum.

-

Severe T-storms forecasted tomorrow and into next week. I dunno if traveling out of town would help me avoid them at all. Excuse to hang in town? I think so, if it weren't raining I'd find some other reason. Like not getting enough sleep.

I got no more than a couple hours of sleep on a bench in front of University of Arizona bookstore tonight. Laptop on my chest, headphones on, tuning into Twitch, charging my stuff. College kids walk by, it's Friday night, no security. Saturday morning, I'm still here.

U of A

If I stay two days here, I'll start to feel guilty. That should get me moving, storm or not. Barring the freeway submerged in 6 inches of rain.

-

The day was eventful. Good and bad, but all of it worthwhile. In the end, the good outpaces the bad because we move with it. But the bad propels us forward. Never would've gone to bike shop if it weren't for the broken spokes. If bad never happened, I wouldn't even be traveling. Etc, etc.

"Trust me"

Someone who tells you to 'trust me' is either a n00b at video games who knows nothing and can't be relied on, or a conman. Either way, you're better off on your own.

Tim Kaine, you can't trust Trump.

Kaine: I don't trust Donald Trump, 'believe me'

Trump, business is about trust.




Mark Hughes, founder of Herbalife the MLM pyramid scheme built on trust, greed, and selling the American Dream

9:15 into the video: "Trust me"

Selling the American Dream: Investigations, Inc.

Some swear by it and have built successful careers, but others say it's led to their financial ruin. CNBC's Herb Greenberg and Investigations Inc. goes inside the world of multi-level marketing to show how quickly people can find themselves dealing with unmanageable debt.

 
Undercover probe in 2014 reveals the pyramid scheme business model: get five other people to sign up, then make them get five other people to sign up.


"I love Herbalife." It makes anyone a multi millionaire. It cures cancer and diabetes. It makes women pregnant. Are you believing any of this? It's a cult.

Scam Life

Life insurance sold through multi-level marketing is such a scam.

A mentor is conducting his business in a noisy, busy McDonald's off the freeway near Casa Grande, AZ. Talking circles around his salesman, coming fast and from all angles, not letting his guy digest his words, just communicating that he knows much more than his mark, that following his words is undoubtedly the best action his mark could take, and that his mark needs to buy in and is already missing out on a huge market. Making his salesman feel like he needs to prove his guts, his business shark instincts and become one of the money making boys.

Not letting his mark get in a second word. Guiding the flow of conversation every second, pushing past any reservation or disagreement of ideas.

pyramid scheme business practices. the mentor recruits a salesman and fast talks him into how his life insurance business will take off. he starts with buying his family and close friends into the plan. exploit the trust that he has built up. then continually up-sell to his salesman and convince his network to do the same. the salesman never gets to spreading his business to a broader customer base, because the policies he is selling are ripoffs and only the people closest to him would buy blindly on trust. In the end, you're exploiting yourself and everyone you know to fill the pockets of your mentor. The salesman buys because of a combination of ignorance, greed, keeping up with his successful peers in the company, and desperation.

The mentor is talking about bribes and gifts, passing it off as legal. Slimy as fuck.

--
I was recruited by a life insurance salesman to World Financial Group in Sudbury, MA. I smelled a stinker from the get go, but I went with him to see firsthand what went on. My parents participated in a luxury goods salesmen pyramid scheme when they first got to America. I wanted to see if it was the same. This organization has a more sophisticated approach, they sell life insurance. This branch targeted minorities, who don't know much about the American legal system and have close knit ethnic communities that trust each other to give financial advice.

The only way to make money is to become a mentor and exploit new recruits who want to be salesmen. Hook them with promises of wealth, parade some of the company's large tree salaries around, feed them stories how they will change their lives. None of that insurance selling is going to get you rich - all that money is funneling up to the top of the pyramid. It's when you attract new members, who are going to sell policies to their closest network, greedily thinking they are going to be rich, instead they make you rich that you stand to make any gains.

exclusive meetings for 'advanced' members that new members are not allowed to see. the promo video actually bragged that their business model had like 200% growth every year. Like, that's the dumbest indication that the business is a fucking scam. Because no legit organization can do that. The numbers don't add up. There is no demand that high for any legit product that can absorb that much growth. But a pyramid scheme HAS TO grow its base twice over every year to fund the members at each level, because it has no product - its sole income is generated from its lowest members paying into it.

I was taking an elevator with the guy trying to recruit me. His higher ups are telling him he's under-covered with his own life insurance policy and pressuring him to pay more. This guy is unemployed and struggling to move up in the company because he has no recruits. He was at tears in financial desperation, delusional telling me how he knew this company would turn his life around. Meanwhile his mentors are laughing and teasing him that his policy is inferior, to get more money out of him. The people who get rich in these companies are sociopaths with large network of contacts that they exploit and then dispose of.
--

don't trust anyone who spends all his time working you over to make you rich. don't trust anyone who tries hard to look like a business hotshot at McDonald's. don't trust anyone who gives you tips how to skirt the law to make money, how to exploit and manipulate others as part of 'business tactics', yet tries to come off as friendly and helpful to you.

why would they spend so much time on YOU, if they're making so much money on their own business, if YOU weren't the thing they're making money off of. Duh. You see any other small business owner spend all their time mentoring someone who wants to copy them, instead of managing their own revenue? You see restaurant owners going to other restaurants, sharing all their know how and tips, instead of making sure customers frequent their own restaurant? You are their income, not their friend.

'here let me educate you.' says the mentor, sharing a 'business tactic'. bullshit. all you want is me to buy what you're selling. isn't it obvious? the salesman is not being mentored, that he's trying to get you to buy the plan in the guise of 'teaching you how to be a salesman'?

isn't it obvious something's wrong when the guy 'helping' you is pushing to set up the next meeting to talk again? if you're really getting his help, shouldn't you be the one trying to get a hold of him? doesn't it remind you of religious solicitors wanting to talk to you about jesus christ, suspiciously eager to save your soul?

Ponzi schemes. Trump's business school. The bestselling book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. All part of a valueless SCAMerica that makes me sick.

Life insurance is the perfect product to sell as a scam. Because the person who buys it never sees a dime of the money. And it's a private information you won't disclose how much your life policy is worth to many people. So you can run the whole operation without paying any money to your customers for a long long time.

I'm surprised these shady organizations aren't brought to public attention, often and thoroughly. There are many stories like these that aren't being told:
1) http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/world-financial-group/san-jose-california-95131/world-financial-group-scam-pyramid-scheme-company-beware-san-jose-california-384984.
2) https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/34c6im/world_financial_group_be_careful_of_this_mlm/.

A documentary or movie exposing such practices would be a much needed addition to our American cultural history.

Hot Flashes

Casa Grande before the storm

Wednesday, July 27th
Gila Bend, AZ to Casa Grande, AZ

Wow this place is bigger than I'd expected. It's at the southern tip of Phoenix. There's every service I'd hope for from a city: buffets, McDonald's, Walmart, Lowe's, a library, and the like.

My phone is not charging in the heat. It also overheats and turns itself off when I use it. I got into town and had a hard time manually locating a McDonald's for a 59 cent ice cream cone and $1 unlimited Powerade refills.

So I stumbled into a Dairy Queen to ask directions. On a whim, I inquired if they had a free ice cream promotion for crazy bicyclists going coast to coast. The teen performed her summer job responsibilities by the book. Tough crowd. I stumbled back out.

A father of another Dairy Queen summer employee picked up his son at the same time I was leaving. He saw me riding across the street, pulled me over, and bought me a root beer ice cream shake at Whataburger. What a treat!

This root beer shake was ice cold and the large size was, no kidding, large. I downed ice water and shake in rapid succession. My hands were trembling. Blood was rushing out of my limbs to my stomach. In a short minute the inside of my body was 70F colder than the outside. I put my head down. Then I sat out in the 100F wearing long sleeves, shivering. Y'all do the optimal thing and drink warm water on a hot day if you like. But man, that ice cream shake was tasty! And I'd do it again!

Crazy thunderstorms tonight. Lightning spread across the entire sky. The wind picked up as the thunder rolled closer. Then within fifteen minutes, sand filled the air and the road, buildings, cars could not be seen. The sky burst rain.

I got out of Golden Corral at 9 pm when the sand storm approached. I thought, I'm so screwed. Gonna get struck by lightning on my bicycle. Then I'm going to collapse and drown in rain when the storm passes through.

I approached an intersection when the sand picked up. I could see dust clouds stopping light from street lamps. The wind was blowing onto my back, so my sight was temporarily spared. Then gusts intensified and sand whipped around into my eyes. I dismounted Veltro. Soon the city block was a swirling hourglass. Traffic stopped. A business sign crossed the sidewalk.

I looked down at my legs. Sand rushed past them. I felt like I was standing on two massive tree trunks in a hurricane. The sand in the air was so thick that I could not see if I turned my head around, so I walked backwards and looked sideways, seeking cover. Retraced my route to a Walgreen's and ducked inside. When I took off my backpack I saw it was covered in dust. Then rain dumped outside.

An hour later, the storm has passed. Wind continues to gust intermittently with less bravado. Lightning flashes in the distance where the storm travels. Here though, it is cool and dry. How suddenly it strikes and is gone.

Travel map.

Basic needs in the desert

Tuesday, July 26th
Dateland, AZ to Gila Bend, AZ

(It's pronounced 'Heela'. I think they put 'g's and 'h's in Spanish just to confuse English speakers.)

A place to sleep

Who says you can't find two trees in the desert? At least in town you might, 'cause they're planted for tourists who like palm trees.

Morning camp in Gila Bend.

Wind gusts were strong during the night. The top of the palm tree above my head was blown clear off. My hammock only shook a little, but the wind over my face was loud.

It was around 90F when I slept at 9 pm. The air quality was bad. Something about high ozone levels in the region causing difficulties breathing. My lungs felt like they were inside a sepulcher.

High spirits

Slick Willy Clinton was charismatic as ever on Television, celebrating Hillary's nomination at the evening's Democratic National Convention in Pennsylvania. The body becomes weak but the spirit remains strong. I wonder how much he will age after eight more years of vicariously being president through his wife.

Hydration

Staying hydrated out in the middle of nowhere is expensive. Eight bottles of Powerades, Gatorades, and Aquafinas to Gila Bend. $2 a bottle, with no good alternative. Little grocery marts don't sell gallons of imported water - the brand they carry is filtered from somewhere nearby and doesn't feel right in my stomach.

I rejoiced when I landed in town at McDonald's. For $1, I drank enough Powerade to match the amount I rationed on the road. My tongue was blue.

I got a tip to drink salt early in the day to retain water. Plain water flows through me much faster. I've been downing Powerade and the salt in it does help. I rarely have to pee.

But the sports drinks are as bad for my teeth as soda. High fructose corn syrup is the foremost additive in all these drinks. The main problem is not that it sticks to your teeth, like some people believe, who suggest you drink with a straw and rinse your mouth. Just by ingesting the syrup, minerals leach out of you and your teeth rot from the inside!

HFCS causes more intense blood fructose fluctuations than white sugar does and this causes more minerals to be pulled from our teeth and bones. Losing these minerals weakens the tooth and leaves it open for decay. - http://www.rothfusfamilydental.com/high-fructose-corn-syrup-damaging-teeth/

So I suppose I'll cut down on sports drinks and eat pretzels in the morning or something.

Travel map.

Desert Travel

Yuma

What's a desert?
It's like a beach with more sand.

Monday, July 27th
Yuma, AZ to Dateland, AZ

Daybreak over Northern Arizona University. Yuma, AZ.

A janitor found me around 5 am in my classroom. I heard him and woke up before he noticed me, so I prepared for the encounter. I sat waving, trying to look as docile as I could. But still, the sight of me made him jump backwards with surprise. I was afraid he'd have a heart attack.

Pizza Pizza! previous night
Little Caesar's was within walking distance :)

When his pulse settled down, he and I calmly conversed. He was cool with me and a really gentle person. He wasn't going to report me or kick me out. He helped me. We shared our stories. I learned that he lived in Mexico, as an American citizen, and worked in Arizona.

Northern Arizona University

Arizona Western College
shares the same campus

Then I gathered and set out. But sand and dust fills the air outside Yuma. Coughs and asthma symptoms. No shops nearby had bandana handkerchiefs to sell, so I bought a kitchen towel to cover my face.

We ready to rob a bank.

A food bank

A cool breeze carried me throughout the day. In the morning, clouds provided intermittent cover.

Travel map.

Highway 8 Eastbound to Dateland.

Yuma, AZ

Wellton, AZ

Roll, AZ

Roll, AZ

For lunch, I ate a tub of ice cream. I felt fine. Silly me. I'd done it before, but not in mid-day heat. I drank water, then I took a nap. The combination of undigested cream, the bacteria in the water, and the hot incubator of a sleeping stomach likely spawned colonies of bacteria. Anything I drank picked up that bacteria, rumbled and churned, then was flushed out. Drink to hydrate, feel sick, flush and repeat.

I had diarrhea since noon. Locals drink from the tap, but my stomach can't handle it. I got sick after putting ice into my bottled water at a high school. For the rest of the day, my stomach would not hold any liquids. I drank only bottled water that came from far away from then on. But even with clean water, every few miles I'd have to roll off the road and squat behind some scrub trees.

Dark storm clouds reached their arms down and throttled necks of mountain peaks to the north. Lightning flashed. A man outside the Dateland Travel Center told me the sky could dump four inches of rain in thirty minutes. It was monsoon season.

I was lucky to cross paths with a nice lady inside the Travel Center in the evening. Her home was an RV at a campground in Dateland. The camp had showers. I played with her three tiny chihuahua dogs and learned that most everything found in a house can fit into a car. She let me sleep on her couch and cooked me breakfast. Thank you! : -)

Squat

Sunday. It's 1:30 am. I'm in an empty university classroom outside Yuma. Found this place around 4 pm on Saturday. The first automatic sliding door I approached on bicycle opened up. So I locked up at a rack nearby, and came inside. Turns out the building is closed and all the other doors are locked. No janitors come by to find me.

I was smoked by the last leg of the bike ride to university. The wind is strong on flat desert. I was fine until I turned south into campus and for some reason the wind picked up and smothered me. I came direct from lunch, and a combination of food coma and heat fatigue overwhelmed me after I got inside.

I slept on the floor for two hours. Woke up. Walked around the school. Few people out on the soccer field. Saw a guy collecting Pokemon, and a group of students watching cartoons in another classroom. The bathrooms were unlocked. So there were people about.

Came back to the room and blogged for four hours. Now I need to pee. Hope no one is around to see me when I go out, and can get back inside.

I want to leave early in the morning before anyone discovers me. And get breakfast. But I'm dead tired and could sleep a good 12 hours in here.

10:00 am. Still here. There's heavy winds outside. The horizon is obscured by clouds of dust and sand. I need a handkerchief to cover my face so I don't breathe this stuff into my lungs.

The sliding doors opened at 7:30 am and I darted up, thinking someone was coming inside. Nobody came in. I peeked out the windows. A bird struggled to fly against the wind. Maybe it set off the motion sensors.

I'll try to stay here until dinner. There's a buffet on my route out of town. I have jerky and water until then. Doesn't look like anyone will come. It's Sunday and the university is closed.

The classroom where students were watching cartoons is locked now. So are the indoor bathrooms by the library. The outside ones are still open. Someone did lock up the place at night. But they only checked the areas that were in use.

It's a Desert!

morning camp @ Home Depot

Thursday, July 21st
El Centro, CA to Yuma, AZ

My brain is worn out. My stomach feels worn out, too. All day it's been filtering various grays of drinking water.

Ran out of water two hours into my ride. There was road construction much of the way into Yuma, with one of two lanes open to traffic. So I passed by several maintenance workers sitting in trucks by the roadside, and they gave me various brands of bottled water.

'Daddy' dumpster

I also found two unopened bottled waters in a ditch off the freeway. Nothing else was available at the time, so I tested a sip of each. Somehow bacteria can grow inside unopened bottles. It was not safe to drink.

I poured the water into my bottle anyway to rinse my mouth or something. Later, I poured it over my head to cool off but the water scalded my scalp. The water had been sitting out in the sun for a long time.

People offered me abundant generosity. I nearly forgot I ate breakfast. It was too long ago. Two apples on the road. A bagel and sliced turkey breast donated to me for lunch. Now dinner. Beef jerky and bakery sweet breads. Also donations. If I don't eat both loaves tonight they might become sticky garbage in the morning.

--- The apprehensive man

I intended to ride the freeway from start to finish, but encountered an apprehensive man early into my ride. He was with the construction company doing road work. I saw him in his truck to my right, on another road they were building. He slowed down and picked up his cell phone. Motioned me over with his hand and pretended to be doing me a favor. Said, take a rest.

OK, I do look kinda douchebaggy with my bright orange sneakers, yellow jacket, sunglasses, and running shorts. So I get that someone might look at me and think, look at this asshole on his bicycle. But if you're going to stop me, give me an explanation.

I'm saying hi to him. Guy goes back to his phone. He won't man up to confrontation. I get the ball rolling, What's the issue? You can't be on the freeway. I'm going to Yuma, this is the only road available. You can't - stay here, take a rest, I'm calling CSD (? County Sheriff Department ?).

He's not cooperative at all. You're with the construction? Okay, look I'll get off the freeway. Can I use this road you're on, which has no cars on it? No. It's under construction. Okay fine. Can I do this? Do this? Still no. Take a rest, wait for CSD. You're not giving me any options here!

"You could cause a three car pileup!"
I could cause an accident if I were driving! I'm not drunk, or feeble, or reckless. People can see me for miles because of how flat it is, and their speed is slow because of road work. There is a super wide shoulder - I am not in the driving lane at all. What danger?

"I've driven to Yuma, it's a desert!"
Wow? In a car? I've heard of those things. But please tell me, what's a desert?

"You will not like it."
Sitting here watching you fumble with your phone isn't helping me get me to Yuma, guy.

This man has no authority to detain me. And he's got no balls to call shots of his own. If he wants his area free of bicyclists, I'm willing to comply. That's part of his responsibility to his job. But he can't passive aggressively tell me not to go to Yuma, on account that it personally worries him.

I got a long road ahead of me, it's 9:30 am at the best traveling time while temperatures are low, I'm not waiting here for an hour while someone on the phone gives you the runaround. Don't waste the sheriff's time and mine. When he gets out here, he'll tell me to do what I'm about to tell you.

You are soooo apprehensive about the situation and can't resolve it, so I'm telling you what's going to happen. I'll take the next exit at that bridge right up ahead. I'll be off the freeway, off your road, and won't be any danger to you, your workers, or any of the cars driving by. You do what you got to: call CSD and have them pick me up if you have to, I have no problem talking to anyone.

It took me an hour and a half to get back on the freeway because of that spineless schlub. There were closed on-ramps and detours down the road. Afterwards, no one else bothered me. I counted at least five law enforcement cars that drove by without caring that I was on the freeway.

Road Closed.
LOL Rejected
Not today, concrete barrier!

A mere three stranded barbed wire fence separated the cracked bumpy road (which was closed to traffic anyway) from a smooth freeway. Eventually, I came across a cut in the fence. Beer bottles and tracks in the sand. Apparently some drunks wanted to dirt bike in the desert.

---

The trip. 8 am to 9 pm.

Road snapshots

I didn't get many pictures, because the heat would shut off my phone each time I tried to use it. But, there's not really much to photograph anyway.

The land becomes barren. Lots of cars passed on the freeway, so I could always flag someone down if I had a health emergency. Call boxes and phone reception were available too.

There was a 5 mph breeze from morning to evening that helped me get through the high temperatures.

On the road to Yuma, I found a bathroom near a water processing plant with air conditioning. LOL.

It was 117F at 2 pm. No drinking water. 20 miles to Yuma. 

I got a flat tire. Luckily, a rest area was a mile ahead of me. It was just one building with four outhouses and a single wash basin. I laid out all my possessions in the shadow on the narrow cement in front of the bathrooms. First I get water, then I fix my bike.

Rest area

The rest area didn't have much, but people stopped by. Some people complained to me about the heat, about the outhouse smell. It's funny to hear it from them. I didn't say anything back. Some ignored me. But more than a few gave me water. One man gave me lunch. Another supplied me with spare tubes and offered to help get my bicycle fixed in Yuma. Altogether, I got the help I needed to make the rest of the trip.

I landed at Quechan casino about ten miles outside of Yuma.

Husky Ulix

Hopped to Paradise casino just north of town.

people who warn you its not safe...
are the ones you need to watch out for

Saw a shooting star. it was like someone flicked the lights on and off, but then i realized i was outside where there were no lights. I look up and this bright trail breaks off from a point in the sky like the tip of a sparkler.

Thursday night was hot. I did not have energy to camp anywhere nice. Drank a smoothie at Albertson's grocery and slept between two walls nearby.


Friday, July 22nd
Yuma, AZ.

Flies were picking at my face in the morning. I was not in any condition to travel.

morning camp

My right fingers are tingly numb. It's been like this for two weeks, maybe more. A combination of handlebars, backpack straps, and computer mouse. And when I sleep, I always feel a constricting pain in my right hand. The knuckles lock up when I flex them.

I got a motel room around 8:30 am. It's a short walk from Golden Corral. The shower works, the air conditioning is cold, I've got electricity and slow but reliable WiFi. It's a much needed relief and it cost me under $40.

Sleep. Slept. Sleep. The only two times I left my room were for lunch and once in the night to buy water.

A rare lodging was not without its labor.

The room was cheap because it needed renovation. Killed a dozen drain flies. They came out of a crack behind the toilet. A dozen more flies replaced the previous ones. Endless. I still killed them, on principle. The room smells mildly of old ventilation and sink.

The first thing I did was take a shower. My bags and gear came next. I washed and wiped as much of my stuff as I could. Cleaned out the inside of my backpack thoroughly. No ants, but a pair of round bugs were in there. Two months of outside dirt takes some cleaning.

Ulix got his bath too.

Ulix wonders how long bears live. I told him, it's best not to live longer than our dreams. 'Cause what would we do after? It's better to live always having something in front of you. Then to have someone else finish your dream afterwards.

Am I going to live after you're gone, Jonathan?

Sure, Ulix. You're going to live on and finish my dream. Then you'll get to do whatever you want for a long time, and then you can pass along your dream to someone else.

Well, I don't want to live for that long. Just a little longer than you.

Why's that?

So I can poke at you with a stick.

How come you want to poke me with a stick after I'm dead, Ulix?

Well, you might not let me when you're alive.

But why poke me?

Or anything else. It doesn't really matter.

You just want to poke something with a stick?

Yeah. It looks fun.

I'll find you an extra long stick to poke with, buddy.

He looks so clean at lunch.

I gave myself a haircut. I noticed an open wound on my face from sun acne. I was scared of flies laying eggs inside. Picked at it to be sure. The white tissue I took out was normal.

I need to carry a lot more water in the desert. Water is heavy, so I had to rethink my pack. I threw out anything in my bags I hadn't used. Cords and tie downs were useless to me. Camp shower, plastic attachments, junk tools. What I took out was still far less than the water I put in. One tub in each saddle bag, to balance the weight.

Acclimated to surroundings. After being indoors with air conditioning, I don't know how I'm going to face the heat again. From my prior position, it was unpleasant but navigable. Now it seems impossible.