Pine Valley to Brawley, CA

How do you know when you are on a tour?

I will have to admit that the first two days of the tour it did not
feel any different than a regular Knickerbiker outing. But today,
that changed.

The first reason is because the first two days consisted of various
parts of regular Knickerbiker rides. Rides we have enjoyed many
times before. But today, after we passed Jacumba we were riding on
roads we had never cycled before. But the bigger reason would be the
weather. Only on a tour would we consider riding in so much cold
hard rain. I believe that had this been several weeks into the tour,
we would have laid over. But with so many miles ahead of us, we did
not want to fall behind this early in the tour.

So we donned our rain gear, put plastic bags on any and everything
we could and off we went into the pouring rain and wind. Due to some
first day confusions we got off to a later start than we had
intended. With so much wind and water, our brakes were not
functioning at 100% and we could not take advantage of the nice down
hill from Pine Valley to La Posta. Water managed to seep in
everywhere. We stopped at the La Posta Diner, not because we were
hungry, because Marge had prepared for us a wonderful breakfast, but
because we needed to warm up and dry off a bit.

Brawley was still 80 miles away, and we were far behind schedule. We
began talking about spending the night in El Centro or even Jacumba.
Gail couldn't help noticing the limitation of wearing plastic bags
on her hands, but I will let her tell you about that. The twenty
minutes we spend shivering in the La Posta Diner, helped in another
way. Rain changed from a steady pour to light showers, and we began
the climb to Live Oak Springs. We were still pretty damp and cold,
so much so, and I know you are going to find this hard to believe,
that six of us decided to pass on The Candy Cottage just to get to
Jacumba sooner so we could sit in a warm restaurant.

Originally we were planning on passing on the Spa, but we now needed
to warm up again. I was beginning to shiver at the restaurant
because all my clothes were now damp or wet. Now it was 1:30 and it
was still 60 miles to Brawley. El Centro was looking more and more
likely. But again, the time in the restaurant was well spent,
because when we got out, while it was still very overcast, the rain
had stopped, and even the roads had started to dry. So off we went.
The winds had actually picked up, but now it was a tailwind, The
wind did make the drop down to Ocotillo a bit tricky, but we were
beginning to actually dry out.

By the time we hit the valley floor, it was partially cloudy. Yes we
actually saw the sun. It was rapidly become a beautiful day, with a
wonderful amazingly strong wind at our backs. We were easily
cruising in the high twenties along the highway. At this point I
would like to thank Larry Zinn for advising us to stay on I-8. It is
because of his advice that this tour has officially become two
thirds of a triathlon. Let's hope no one falls off of the ferry on
Lake Michigan and picks up the remaining third, but that is also
another story.

Since we made up for some lost time, and the weather was just great,
we decided to push on to Brawley. A nice and helpful gentleman,
Hank, helped us out on a better route. The biggest problem we now
faced was that very strong tailwind became a crosswind as we turned
north. But we were too determined at this point to stop. We arrived
at 6:30, an hour and half later than I had planned, but we were all
here safe and sound.

Tomorrow, we hope to go through the pass north-east of Glamis, and
make it to Blythe, CA. The weather is supposed to a high of 80
degrees and sunny. So we will pack our rain gear, and get out the
sun block.