ONCE AGAIN I THANK YOU FOR YOU LOYALITY AND PATIENCE… I WILL GET THERE BOTH WITH THE PICTURES AND WITH THE RUN.

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CALIFORNIA HERE I COME.  >> PLAY

Californian Highway Patrol told me I could not run on their Interstate 10 west as in Arizona. So it was back to googlemaps which are great when they work but many times they get it very wrong.

How about this…. I am in Ehrenberg and nobody has ever heard of Juneau Ave yet its on a gps. So google directions would have had me heading off into the desert across trails. Locals laughed at these directions and said it should be north and not south on Possom Road.

Much of my morning was wasted just getting out of this small town. I ended up taking a western frontage road that ran parallel to the Interstate and going over a pedestrian bridge over the Colorado river that separates Arizona from California.
A sign states that all vehicles must stop for inspection however this just appeared to mean that they just slowed down at a toll booth and got eyeballed by an official. Another sign on the interstate read, ‘ Road Construction Next 100 Miles. ‘ Nice job if you can get it. Lots of hiding places!

Once into California the first thing that I noticed was that the pleasantly hot Arizonian arid heat has now become an unpleasant and extremely problematic issue for me. It took a big effort to run the 5 miles to Blythe. Many times I stopped under trees and by the side of shaded buildings on the way into this spread out town.

Another good hours running down Hobsonsway took me to Neighbours Road where I joined up with state route 78 south. At this junction there was a well placed gas station so ice cream and soda was the order of the day. Coffee is now almost off my menu. I now fill my thermos up with iced soda from the soda fountain. There is nothing nicer than having a drink of ice cold soda at the end of a hard, dusty day or stopping under a shady tree and having a mugful when all I got in Nirvana is warm water. The lady in this gas station told me in a couple of months time the temperature will be around 130 F! On the way out of town today I noticed it was 100 F/ 37 C. Presumably that means in the shade. I don’t know why temperature is taken in the shade? Who operates in the shade? I certainly don’t.

On I ran towards Palo Verte about a marathon away from Blythe It was getting dark as I arrived at JJ’s General Store in Ripley. Inside a very nice middle-aged lady called Monica treated me to an ice cream. She told me she came here from Yemen when she was 8 years old. Yari her daughter who also helps in the shop was born here. They show me a postcard from an Englishman who cycled through here recently. He in his eighties now. They were so delighted he took the time to mail them a card from Torquay.

The ladies refused a photo saying it’s against their religion. They locked up giving me some water on the way out as I ate at an outside table. I ran on for about another hour. It was so pleasant running at this time of day. A wonderful cool, warm breeze reinvigorated my tired body.

I had intended putting some more miles in but when I came to a large barn with hundreds of hay stacks.There were no walls or doors to the barn so I just walked in.

I lay out my sleeping bag liner and bivy bag as it was a very warm night. A mosquito or two bothered me for a while till they just seemed to move on to a more meaty victim. A couple of bats flew overhead and hung out of the tin roof.

I knew I should have started the next morning around dawn but I was too tired. By 7am it was already hot. I got going just after 8am. It was a battle all the way to Palo Verte. Ultra runners, or extreme runners as I now prefer to call athletes of our sport.. Nobody understands the expression ultra runner however people have a better idea when they hear extreme runner. We are used to pushing our bodies into uncomfortable territories. Not having much experience of hot weather running I have to learn what is ‘ normal extreme ‘ and what is the dangerous territory of heat exhaustion etc. So it is with this in mind I admit to being just a bit nervous at the moment.

On the way an Hispanic truck driver stopped and gave me 4 bottles of water. When I told him what I was doing he asked me if I had seen the movie Forest Gump.

” Sure! ”

” Well where are all the people! ”

One can never be sure how big a town is. Sometimes from signposting, size on map I am often expecting a largish place. Palo Verte was a great example of this. I arrived at the towns only business, a gas station. As I cooked a can of chicken noodles and beans in their microwave I read in the ‘ Valley Times ‘ that a second business is soon to be open, a restaurant which closed many years ago due to the owners poor health. Now the recovered owner and a partner are coming back to town to start back in a couple of weeks time.

Many other times I am just expecting a small village and I get a sprawled out town!

I bought a sombrero and ran on for about an hour and took refuse in a park. Yes I think it’s a good idea running in cooler weather. So on I ran in the cool evening covering another 29km before pitching my tent in a secluded place off the highway.

Then on the way to Glamis I came to what I thought was road construction with all the prepare to stop signage. When I got closer I realized it was the Border Patrol checkpoint as I am not far from the Mexican border.

They were a friendly crew. I told one of the guards I am from Ireland and running around the world. He just said. ” Well don’t let me stop you! ”

They had a nice and shady canopy so I asked if I could stop there for my lunch. I noticed the had several trailers full of generators, power cords, car jacks and no shortage of tools to perform their checks including a sniffer dog. I used the porta-loo before leaving and was very surprised to see a lot of disgusting anti-Mexican graffiti, presumably posted by some American visitors on the way through.

In Glambis which is the start of the sand dunes I went to the one store which was closed. A phone number on the door said to call them if you needed supplies.

So I did and a live in shopkeeper opened up. The cost of everything was outrageous, example tin of beans $3.50 and just about double the cost of other convenience stores.

For the first time on the journey I bought water. $5 for a gallon bottle. Last night in Ripley Monica was selling it from a vending machine for 25 cents. The unfriendly shopkeeper wouldn’t let me fill up my bottles from the sink.

Shouting from behind the counter where he sat with his two feet stuck up on a chair he replied.

” You are in the desert now. You got to pay for water, we all pay… ”

I got almost nothing for my $20 a day budget but did notice there was enough lukewarm coffee in his burco to fill up my thermos. I was surprised he didn’t charge for this as next morning he charged $2 for a very small cup of fresh coffee. I also bought chocolate! This is always an eyeopener for people when the see me buying chocolate for the road in hot weather. ” You better eat that quickly. ” Is usually the reply.

” No rush I will eat it later or tomorrow! ”

The chocolate bar is usually flops over softly in my hand soon after purchase but I just put in in my tupperware dish in the bottom of Nirvana. Or leave it out in the cool desert night. I may remember it at 2am or even in the morning when it has reconstituted itself. I haven’t stuck a bar in my thermos yet but figure where there is a will there is a way The store front had a large outdoor covered seating area so I decided to spend the night there. I would just roll out my sleeping bag on one of the park bench tables. I also decided to replace some broken spokes in Nirvana’s wheels. Talk about opening a pandora’s box! As soon as I let the air out of the inner tubes and took off the tyres I noticed the blue stop leak gu I got in Nebraska didn’t work anymore. I had gotten this gu because of problems I was having with some cluster thorns. These thorns are so sharp that I even felt a stinging pain as they punctured my running shoes. The gu has worked incredibly well since. But now I had about 6 small holes with the blue gu oozing out. A problem I have found with thorns is that when I remove them from the tire that I can never be sure they have been fully removed as there is often still a small thorn particle embedded inside the tyre which I suspect only reemerges when the inner tube is inflated or pressure from rolling down the highway.

The inflated stop leak gu inner tube is fairly heavy and many people don’t like using it because it slows them down. I say getting endless thorn punctures slows you down more!

So I put in a new inner tube and got a flat halfway to Brawley next day before I noticed I got a flat. It was a lovely day, not too hot. I was running through sand dune territory now where many people were zooming up and down the dunes on their dirt bikes, atv’s and sand dune buggies. I also ran by an area used by the US army as a bombing training ground.

As I was checking out my puncture a friendly local pulled up and told me he used to have the gu in his house but lost everything when his house burnt down recently. He told me to stop at one of the gas stations or tyre places there.

” What you mean there is more than one store there? ”

” Sure Brawley is a town of 1,500 people. ”

I just pumped up my tyre and ran on. Now the fields are a lush green as there is a man made canal running parallel to the highway. I was running along it for over an hour and just thinking of the $5 I wasted on water last night. Here was fresh clear water from the Colorado river being pumped along the highway. Trucks barrelled by carrying loads of onions. The first time one went by me I thought it smelled like a soup kitchen. Onions like the ones the mean old shopkeeper was selling for a dollar a piece last night were scattered along the hard shoulder.

This is what I mean about not being sure of a places size unless asking locals. I had a bit of an energy crisis today. I wondered if it was because of the lack of substantial food I purchased from the Glamis  convenience store.

NIRVANA, MY SHIP OF THE DESERT!

So as it was around 6pm when I arrived there that Sunday evening. On the way I had to deal with a fierce sand storm. I went to McDonald’s for their wifi and stayed there till it was closing. The very nice girl that worked there filled my thermos before I left. I was not sure where I would stay that night and was not too concerned as I headed out the door at midnight. I walked for about 5 minutes and spotted a very secluded plaza. In the corner it was dark with roof shelter and just far enough away from Main Street so as not to be spotted by the cops or others. I would obviously have to get up early in the morning though, no problem McDonald’s open at 5am. I pulled out my sleeping bag and settled down for the night. I didn’t sleep much because of heavy traffic. Then at 3am a car pulled up and the owner of the store I was outside to go inside for some merchandise! He did not seem to be in the least surprised to see an Irish world runner camped on his doorstep. I just told him I was no danger, where I was from, what I was doing and I would be gone in a couple of hours. He was a Mexican and just said no problem. After he left I wondered would he call the cops but he never did, he just returned to pick up more stuff as I was packing my bags up at 4.50am with less than 2 hours sleep.

So more emails and wifi down at McD and your notorious late starting world runner moved to a new low by not hitting the road till 10.00am and then made more long stops 7 miles down the road in Westmoreland where I got my slow puncture patched up by Dave in the Napa garage. Thanks Dave.

US 78 west that I am on joined up with 86 north for a couple of hours. It was a great road. Someone told me it was formerly a freeway. Nice big shoulders so for a change and to give my left foot a rest from running on the left sided camber I ran on the right with the traffic at my back. At the junction where 86 went straight ahead and I turned left there was another US Border Guard checkpoint. These guys were not as talkative as the previous guys. One just asked me what my ‘ game plan ‘ was.

” Only to run around the world! ”

As soon as I turned off 86 the wind hit me like a hammer making decent running impossible. I struggled on for another couple of hours and camped behind a sheltered sand dune. A border patrol vehicle drove by to check me out but didn’t bother me. I am sure they are all aware of my trip.

I had felt strong today unlike yesterday. I wonder if it was from loading up on all those double cheeseburgers, apple pies, fudge sundaes and ice cream? Not the greatest quality food I know but I was stuffed to the hilt with a huge amount of calories.Today is the first of two days in the mountains. It was not too bad today, just gradual climbing, niice and steady even if a bit slow. As you will know I do not care too much about speed. Running around the world is not a race. In fact I have banned myself from using a stopwatch as it is unnecessary!

A couple of hours down the road I come to a restaurant called the Blue-Vu. It is closed as they only operate for a few hours a day for four days a week. I decide not to wait till Thursday for breakfast. Closed restaurants, shops and gas stations are a problem I have had in remote areas since Newfoundland. in the off season it is often not economically viable for them to open. I usually have enough food with me but still love to sit down and have a nice nutritious meal after a long slog on the road. In many ways such locations are an oasis for me.

There is an outside socket so I plug in my netbook and phone to charge them up. I sit down at a table on the patio and notice the blank screen of the netbook makes a half decent mirror so have a much needed shave. Many of the places I go to don’t have mirrors, perhaps they don’t like vagabonds washing up on their premises.

The outside water tap is turned off and the knob is removed. I need water for the road. There is nowhere else around so I turn the tap back on with my vice grips. The water gushes out. I fill up my water bottles. I decide to have a body wash as there is nobody about.

Suddenly a car pulls up into the dusty parking lot. I go back around to the other side of the restaurant to keep an eye on my baggage. It’s only a park ranger called Dave. His car has a problem. He has his bonnet up he is trying to fix it without proper tools. I give him my vice grips and screwdrivers. He tells me he doesn’t have a phone as the park service took it off him as it was too expensive. I give him mine so as he can call a workmate.

Dave laughs when I return asking for my vice grips as I need it to wash my feet.

He has gotten his car going again just as his friend arrives. Dave gives me some crisps and a much appreciated Pepsi. Further on down the road three dirt bikers stop to see if I was ok. They are from LA and spending a couple of days riding their cross bikes around the sand dunes. A couple of hours later I arrive at The Ironwork RV park. They have a store but once again it’s closed. The manager lives on the site as there is also a hotel resort here. I track down the manager and get him to open up his store. He is a very nice obliging man and is not in the least bit put out. Just as I have selected a Mexican convenience meal, a burrito, pint of ice cream, crisps and am about to cook the food in the microwave and pour my fountain soda there is a power outage! I get about three drops of coke when the machine grinds to a halt nor can I cook my food. The owner tells me that is the very first power outage he has all year but not top worry as he has a backup generator.  He cranks up the noisy generator and I am soon sitting down by the swimming pool enjoying my meal. He was a decent guy, not like the ignorant one in Glamis. Here he gave me my stuff for only $10 which was almost half his sticker prices.

He tells me the US Navy Seals use his place to stay when they are training for riding dirt bikes, sand dune buggies and ATV’s. He also offers me the opportunity of a shower on the outside shower by the pool. Because I had the decent body wash earlier, it’s chilly and too problematic changing outside and drying off and besides I want to get more miles in as I am having a slow day I decline.

A little further on down the road a white pickup pulls up. It’s a young couple. Manuel tells me he is 100% Mexican even though he was born in California. He asks me if I am pushing a baby, if I am from Italy or am hungry! I tell him third time lucky, I am always hungry! So I go over to them and they give me two cheeseburgers and juice. His girlfriend, Erika gives me $20 for a meal. We start talking about my trip and they ask me do I ever take rides in vehicles. I say never only when someone offers me a place to stay and can return me to my finishing point. Manuel then offers me a bed for the night. I make a note of my mile marker 86 on San Diego route 78.

Manuel is a welder and Erika a student nurse. Back in Manuel’s place I do some laundry and avail of my third opportunity for a wash/shower that day!

Next day was rough, dog rough! In fact the hardest and most mentally demanding of the run so far. All day long it was up and up and up. There was a fierce non stop head wind all day to make matters more difficult. Even though you know you are running uphill it can still be downheartening. You are running and looking ahead so much that a strange phenomenon happens to the mind. IO remember this from my cycling days too. You look ahead and even though you are going up hill the road looks like it is going downhill. The runner (or even cyclist) can after a while be brainwashed forgetting they are running against a resistance and start doubting their fitness and ability why is this so hard, am I overdoing it, am I really up to this? are all thoughts that go through the athletes mind. That is till the reach the top and fly down the other side!

But I tell you that no matter which direction you climb up a hill I bet most runners and cyclists always say the downhill is ALWAYS shorter than the climb!

So on I climbed and crawled against the mountains and wind all day long. I got to a store that was as usual closed. A lady told me the town of Julian which was 8 miles away had a supermarket and restaurants which were open till 8 or 9pm! Going back to what I mentioned before about not knowing what regular towns have for services or how big they are, someone told me Julian had a grocery store and a hardware store. When I got to the summit and ran over the top for the last half hour I discovered that Julian had also a Rabbobank branch, tattoo parlour, library amongst all the services of a small town. So you just never know or can trust people!

I stopped in a service station for some snacks. It had been cold the last couple of hours and threatened to rain. I had put away my gloves in the bottom of Nirvana and to be honest couldn’t be bothered stopping to pull them out. My hands were so numb with the cold it took me ages to get my money out. Thank goodness the Julian Cafe was open as I think I would have died otherwise!

There were two very nice girls in there serving me. I ordered a huge steak dinner and a delicious tortilla soup. It was my first decent meal in a week, other than the convenience meals I cooked in store microwaves. One of the girls called Hope was giving away coffee as though she was on a commission! The other girls name was Diane.

They gave me a good tip about where to camp. So I wandered down to the Jess Martin Park. After a quick scout around I noticed the football field had two shelters for the subs and coaches. That will do nicely. Sheltered out of the wind I lay my sleeping bag out on the bench and was nice and toasty in bed by 9pm.

I was awake by 5.30am and started some blogging which I continued over breakfast, hence my noon departure from Julian.

Only 3 days to the Pacific. Today I am aiming for Ramona, tomorrow El Cajon and Saturday Ocean Beach! It was very easy, effortless running today and mostly downhill from the two previous days climbing. It seems the start of the west coast congestion has started. In this part of California only a couple of days from the coast whereas on the east coast it was still congested a month after I started heading east from Maine.

All the 35km the road was busy. For most of it there was little or no shoulder, it was hairy at times, so much so that I expected the cops to pull me off. I ran towards the traffic around very tight bends with branches and other obstacles obstructing my view. It must be surprising for a motorist coming around a bend to be confronted by me. I have to concentrate very carefully as often it’s the second or third vehicle in a convoy that has little or no notice of my approach.

During this journey who knows how many vehicles will pass me. I would say easily over a million. It only takes one bad decision by a driver and my world run is over. Will the driver be so startled that they keep their eyes on me and keep driving towards me, or will they all retain composure and control?

On the way I saw a pretty blonde  woman >> PLAY  doing her gardening. She looked up and smiled. Though I knew full well I asked her how far it was to Ramona.

” Ten miles and you got quiet a ways to go! ”

” Yeah.. I know and around the world! ”

 I just love when people say the next town is very far away!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 20th, 2011 at 4:01 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.