The first 35 miles were not a problem. The heat was intense but bearable and the winds were weak so we were able to cover them in just over two hours and a half. We arrived then into a small city called Boron. There we found a few gas stations, and, as usual, a Subway. We had lunch, called Brazil and rested for about two hours before returning to the road, in the hope that the heat would be lower when we do. Unfortunately we were wrong and temperatures were still very high.
Just as we had left Boron we saw a large line of cars forming ahead of us: an accident had just occurred moments ago. As we passed the scene we saw that a car had crashed against a truck. The front part of the car where the engine is located had been removed completely by the impact, and both occupants were unconscious. Judging by the intensity of the impact, chances are they were both dead.
We passed without stopping at all. A few police cars were just arriving on the scene and we moved forward as fast as we could.
The next twenty miles were not too hard. We covered that distance without much trouble, but as we approached Mojave things started to change. The closer we got to the city, the greater the wind speeds were. At about five miles away we could barely pedal our bikes forward. Once more time we started seeing the wind turbines covering the nearby mountain, a very bad sign that winds in that region were constant.
We knew we had little time to get there before the supermarkets were closed so we pedaled as hard as we could. Unfortunately, when we were about three miles away from the city my rear tire went flat. We had it fixed and tube exchanged, but that delay was enough to make us waist the last few minutes of sunlight stopped in the shoulder.
We could see the city lights as we slowly approached the city. Every meter was hard to cover and it took us a very long time to enter the city limits. Once we did we realized we had followed the wrong path and ended up on its North border, three miles away from the actual city. We powered trough those three miles and, very tired arrived in the only supermarket that seemed opened. Thankfully it really was. My uncle purchased the food we needed and we headed to the hotel, a nearby Motel 6.
That was a very hard day but the hotel was rewarding. The room was clean and everything worked. We had diner, showered, washed clothes and went to sleep as fast as we could.
