day two was tough. . .

Last night, after a really tough day--slight uphill grade with a dust filled headwind much of the way and more miles than I intended--I got to a "camp ground" and it had no water and I was running low. I tried hitching a ride since there is no  way I could spent the night and the next day without water or bike the nine miles to the next spot that might or might not have water. This shake-down-cruise stuff is hard.   

As the sun was getting low I was thinking about where to camp and what to do. I won't go into to much detail, but out of no where two cars gave me a few bottles of water (they had no way to carry my bike) and then just as I'm working out what to do for the night a friendly cyclist from the Netherlands, Robert--he is headed west, I'm going east--stopped. We decide to look around the few park service buildings in the area and he jumps the fence and found water! I'm pretty sure I heard a choir of angels singing at that very moment. He also stripped naked on the spot and took a shower with the hose. It was pretty funny. We tented among the sand dunes which were pink against the setting sun and there were exactly one billion stars in the sky (yes, I counted them). 

Robert started in NYC and went south almost into FL, then up to Denver, across Montana, down to AZ, up to OR, down along the OR/CA coast, back to AZ, and as I met him, after almost five months and 7000 miles, he was headed (slowly) toward LA to fly home. Great guy with a big heart, wonderful stories, and good cycling advice. 

Because of a glitch with my small camera cord there will be no photos for a few days. Oh stop complaining, you'll live.