The day started with a spectacular desert sunrise. We rode through the “salad bowl” of America. Yuma is known for its agriculture and we saw green fields everywhere at the start of the ride. We also saw a group of laborers picking a crop and it was packaged right there in the field. Very interesting to watch, and they waved to us too! It appeared that the laborers were brought in by bus.
We stopped for lunch Jack’s Whistle Stop Café. The café is normally closed on Wednesdays, but they opened just for us. I had the best turkey blast sandwich ever! It included turkey, avocado and bacon.
After pedaling about 12 miles on I-8, we arrived in Dateland and had their world-famous milkshakes. Janet had date, and I had cactus – they were awesome. A perfect way to end a long hot day in the sun where there is no such thing as shade.
Stats from the day:
Start city: Yuma, AZ
End city: Dateland, AZ
Miles: 70.39
Total miles to date: 267.59
Pedaling time: 5 hours, 7 minutes
Avg. speed: 13.8
Feet climbed: 860
Fatigue factor: 7 out of 10 (10 is the worst)
Wind: start: N 4 mph; end WNW 4 mph
Road condition: 3 out of 5 (1 is the worst); I-8 section was good today
Temperature extremes: 51 at ride start, 82 at ride finish
Desert sunrise
Sunrise, part 2
Crops were everywhere.
A photo of picking and packaging in the field.
Janet, Semone and I rode together all day - it really helped to have an extra person take turns pulling! This photo was at a SAG stop.
World-famous milk shakes! Cactus and Date
The Garmin route ended 12 miles short today (at our last rest stop) because I lost phone service. I had to use a Hot Spot at the end just to sync to my phone to get the days stats.
