Day 5: Rest Day in Blythe, CA

Day 5:
Rest Day, Miles = 0
Theme for the day: Scrub-a-dub-dub

Well today was a day to get caught up on things. I started by doing laundry at 6:00. I was up, the machine was empty and I figured there would be a long line later in the day - so I jumped at the opportunity. Now all my clothes are wearable again! Clean clothes are nothing to take for granted!

But clean clothes isn't the only order of the day. At 9:00 Carol gave us a lesson on bike cleaning. I have now found out the disadvantage to having a recumbent. When you have been in a sand storm like we were yesterday --- and you have a recumbent, you have A LOT MORE chain to clean. Everyone else had finished and I was only about 1/3rd of the way done. And boy, was there a lot of sand and grit! We use Simply Green as the solvent, but it took a lot of elbow grease too. It certainly isn't clean - clean, but it is a lot better than when I started! I worked on it for about 2 hours!

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but when I got to the top of one hill - I saw a big plow. Unlike Wisconsin however it wasn't for snow, it was to remove sand from the roads!!!!!!

When I finally finished cleaning my bike, a group of us walked down to a local restaurant and got some lunch. I have never seen a more efficient waitress before in my life. She went from one of us to the other - like no one's business and got our orders. Fast, friendly and efficient. It was a local restaurant (we definitely weren't locals!) with great food. They even had homemade bread pudding. I was tempted but refrained. I am finding that I am hungry often. I am trying to be a bit careful about what I eat as I know when this is over and I am not riding so many miles each day - I won't be able to eat as much as I need to right now. But I won't worry too much about that now!

After lunch - a few of us who have I-Pad's got our own little user group together to share tips back and forth. I was hoping to learn how to add photos to this blog, but it isn't all that easy. The techie in the group has a call into Apple, but it most likely will be a couple of days yet before I can share photos. Sorry about that!

It was good to have a rest day today. It feels funny not to be on the bike but my body was happy for a day off. Tomorrow we head out in the morning and will cross our first state line. We will be in AZ tomorrow evening. With WomanTour, every time you cross a state line, that evening you have a margarita party. So you know what we will be doing tomorrow. Being the lightweight I am, I can probably only have 1/2 a drink!
I've enjoyed getting comments or emails from many of you. It is nice to stay connected. You do get into a 'biker bubble" on the road and are a bit disconnected from the rest of the world. I am hoping that things in your world are going well. I'll give an update once we get in tomorrow - as long as I have an internet connection and the energy!