This is for real...

Today was definitely the real deal. We left the hotel with a very pleasant cover of fog, cool and perfect for a ride. After a mile through Riverside morning rush traffic we turned left and began a 3 & 1/2 mile climb-I kept thinking of Ithaca and the Anchor House ride a couple of years ago - just enough time to let the coffee settle and we go up...Tom and I found ourselves with a group of maybe eight other riders as we left the hill and moved out into the country. We had a long stretch of country side with cattle and wheat farms on our right and the rolling brown hills of incipient mountains on our left. Nice scenery, reminded me of scenes from Big Country, one of my all time favorite movies. And for riding we put together a kind of quasi-paceline for the next 15 or so miles. As we approached Palm Springs we had been forewarned of the severe winds in the area and as it turned out we had mostly tail winds. Believe it or not we did maybe 10 miles at speeds between 30 and 40 mph without turning a pedal...incredible experience. The entire road was lined with wind farms, giant windmills generating electricity-again, hundreds of them. We drove the middle of Palm Springs about noon and the temps there were showing 99-plenty hot enough. We stopped for a quick lunch (Susan can you believe Burger King?) and then headed out for the final push through the Palm desert. The roads were OK, we were feeling pretty good but what a barren scene. And of course, the heat just kept at us-it finally hit 104 by the time we got to Indio. We felt pretty good about the day...we had a ball the earlier part of the day with the group stuff, did well on the climbing, and for the last 10 miles actually shepherded a couple of guys who were struggling to finish. We did 85 miles in less time than yesterday, had a 15.3 avg speed and still felt like there were a few more miles in the tank. Best part of the day? With the temp at 104 we pulled into a place called Shields Date Garden just before Indio and I had my first date shake - fantastic. Tomorrow is another test...Tom and Bob meet Mojave! It's a 100 mile day and Tracy (our leader) did her best to scare the hell out of us at the nightly route rap tonight. I'm sure there will be a few stories tomorrow and all good I hope. Sorry no pics tonight-I'm ready to go to bed...