The Brothers’ Bike Ride

Usually after the end of a day’s ride, I pull out my math books and try to do some of the homework problems for the new course I an teaching this semester at Villanova University.  But tonight I just decided that it was past due for me to blog about our bide ride.  So here is my blog.  My wife Nancy keeps telling me it will be funny, but I’m not so sure.  Maybe to her, it will be.

Mark on 1st break - 5 Mar 2012

Today (5 Mar 2012) we rode ~91 miles from Brawley to Blythe, CA.  We left shortly after 7 am and started heading East along CA 78.  We saw lots of neat scenery (as you’ll see in some of my pictures) and also talked to several interesting people along the way, including Jack Watson from Colorado, and three border patrol agents at a check point along CA 78 between Glanus and Palo Verde, CA.

The ride to Blythe took us about 9 hours.  We climbed about 1000 feet today and really only had the wind in our face when we were climbing hills.  The temperature started out at about 50 degrees in Brawley and before we got to Glanus it was warm enough that we all shed our bright yellow-green  or orange (in Mark’s case) jackets.  It was 87 degrees by the time we made it to Blythe around 4pm.  We did 40 miles to a short distance beyond the Border Patrol check point and by that time I had consumed both my water bottles and eaten all my snacks, when Beth showed up in our trusty sag wagon vehicle with lots of more fluids and food!  Today she literally saved our lives – there’s just not much civilization between Brawley and Blythe.  In all I drank 5 water bottles today and all of us were completely out of fluids by the time we made it to Blythe.

Here are some of the pictures I took today along the ride.

Mark with desert and mountains along CA 78 - 5 Mar 2012

Irrigation canal outside Brawley - 5 Mar 2012

Agriculture is definitely “king” in Imperial County, CA.  There are lots and lots of farms growing greens of all sorts.  And lots and lots of trucks, too!  But there were all extremely courteous, going all the way over to the other side of the road before passing us.

Imperial County Irrigation ditch - 5 Mar 2012

Mark and Tim along CA 78 near Imperial County Dunes - 5 Mar 2012

Desert dunes in Imperial County along CA 78 - 5 Mar 2012

Desert and Mountains in background along CA 78 - 5 Mar 2012

Chocolate Mountains in Imperial County along CA 78 - 5 Mar 2012

Tim after taking care of business with Chocolate Mountains in the background - 5 Mar 2012

Tomorrow we ride close to 70 miles and climb another 1500 feet or so, so it will be another challenging day, one that I expect will take us nearly 7 hours, with all of the breaks we take and given that whenever we climb, there’s bound to be a strong wind in our face.