May 15 Day 3 Indio to Blythe

Blythe, CA, the arm pit of Southern California, as the visitors affectionly call the town.

I completed century number 17...and what a tough one. Just before we got started I filled my tires and had a blowout. What an exciting way to start the morning. Pat, the mechanic from Hawaii, was there in a minute and put a new tire on. He figured the old one must have gotten pinched.

Terry and I had a dozen folks who wanted to ride with us and we all headed out of town together at 7:00 am for I-10. There are no secondary roads, so today we had to do most of the riding down the interstate.

Seven miles out of town we had to do a 10 mile climb and when I looked back there was only four of us together. What a tough climb in still 80 deg air with the sun in your face. At 20 miles I got together with the Brit, German, and nurse from Scottsdale and we were in a pace line the rest of the day. At the 50 mile point we had hot temps and a 20 mph crossing head wind to contend with, so the pace line was a life saver. The interstate felt safe, but was littered with blown out tires. I had a flat and the Brit had a flat we had to fix on the road. Everyone was tired, so the breaks were welcome. About a third of the group had flats from the steel wires in the steel belted truck tires.

Tracy, the tour director, said the only way to survive the desert heat is to continuously drink, and douse yourself with water. I for the day I drank three 60 oz camel back of Gadorade and water, and still arrived parched. Tomorrow I will have to concentrate on drinking more.

I was the sixth person to sign in at the motel, so did well. It was memorable, but the view was mostly the back of someones tire or leading and watching the road for debris.

Summary: 101 miles, 2500' climbing, 16.7 mph avg speed, 7 hours in the saddle, temps 70 - 102 deg.