Wednesday, June 1st:

       Whoo! Today was a LONG day! Our day started out at 5:00 when we woke up and got ready for 119 miles from Indio to Vidal Junction, right near the border of Arizona. Once again, the heat in Southern California caught up to us quickly, reaching 90 degress before 10:00 even rolled around! One thing that we did differently today is that we had to ride on the freeway, Interstate 10, for about 40 miles- because there were no highways that went into Eastern California. Along the freeway, Christian got a flat tire- and we stopped promptly to fix it. Afterwards, we got off of the freeway and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the only diner between Indio and Vidal- and run down and beat up place where they didn't even have the ingredients to make most of the stuff on their menu! So we were offered either tuna or turkey sandwiches, graciously thanked the lady for the meal, and set back off. We began by heading north on Highway 177, then finally onto Highway 64 East which led us straight into Vidal Junction. However, along the way, we somehow managed to pop another 3 tires- all three of them were Ed's. After stopping over and over and over again, we finally made it into Vidal 119 miles later, where we put the bikes onto the racks and drove over to Parker, Arizona where there was a Best Western Hotel waiting for our weary heads.