Picture taken on Sunday, May 10, 2009
Arriving at the hotel in Riverside, CA after my first day of riding! Hurray, I made it!


Reporting on: Monday, May 11, 2009
Riding Interstate 10 from Riverside, CA to Indio, CA
Temperature: 102 degrees/Winds up to 30 mph
Elevation Climb for the Day: 3300 feet
Miles Ridden: 84

Today we crossed the San Andres Fault line, went through Palm Springs, saw the windmill "farms" and hit the lowest point on our tour. Indio (where we are tonight) is 14' below sea level!

We left the hotel in Riverside at 7:00 a.m. I rode with the "fast" group and arrived at the hotel in Indio about 2:15...and mighty glad to be here! We had 2 major "hill climbs" today which consisted of our 3300 foot climb...not a problem! Let me tell you...there is a lot of sand out here. One refreshing thing was that we could see snow in the surrounding mountains! Probably the most interest thing of the day was that about 20 miles outside of Palm Springs the wind came up. And I mean up! Thank goodness it was at our back - and for quite awhile I didn't need to pedal the bike at all - and was going about 30 mph. There was a lot of road construction along the way...but we were lucky that their were some parallel roads along side of Interstate 10 that we were able to travel on.

All in all it was a great day! I do have to tell you that about 20 miles before Indio I stopped at a Del Taco (yea, really!) and went into the restroom and doused myself with water. That means my hat (I wear it under my helmet for sun protection), my arm "coolers" (yes, I started out with arm "warmers" the first day when it was only 60 degrees in Manhattan Beach -two totally different pieces of clothing!) and the rest of my body! I rested for about 15 minutes and was refreshed and ready to go.

Tomorrow is another long day in the desert. That means long sleeves (my arm coolers), a visor under my helmet (for head, neck & eye protection), water in and on the body at all times (got to keep the core temp down) and of course LOTS of sunscreen. I also need to drink more than 20 oz. of fluid every hour! They recommend every time we take a drink of water from our camelbacks that we reapply the sunscreen on our lips! UGH! Does than mean I have to stop often - NO! It will all evaporate out of my body! I hope I 'm able remember that 60 degree morning we left Manhattan Beach!