Boron
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What a couple of days.
We had a lovely rest day at Red Rock canyon. Spent the morning looking around the canyons at the amazing rock formations.
Hid from the sun in the afternoon doing odd jobs including laundry, a few sewing repairs and fixing a puncture that had appeared on the back wheel. We also got rid of a few items that we were carrying that were not essential such as a fleece of mine as I don't expect to need one for the next few months. Very good to have the time to catch up on these things.
On the campsite were Patrick, his daughter, Saffron and nephew Mondo who we had met at the roadside shop on the way to Red Rock canyon. They had kindly charged up a battery power bank for us and when we went to collect it they invited us over for a beer. We sat round a toasty campfire and drank a couple of beers and had fantastic conversations. We were very grateful for their beer and really enjoyed getting to know them. Such lovely kind hearted folk.
We had planned to get up early to beat the heat. However a strong wind got up in the night and disturbed our sleep so at about 4am we decided to turn the alarm off and sleep as long as we could. As it happened we still woke early and decided to just get up and go. The wind was very strong and plenty of tents were being flattened as we rode away.
The wind was from the side for the first part of the day so hard to keep in a straight line and were glad to turn onto a smaller road. This has seemingly endless solar panels on each side all rotating to face the sun.
Into California City. Despite its name, it is not very grand. Well at least not on a Sunday morning. We had spotted a park on Google maps and headed for it to make our coffee and have a snack. Realised that we had another puncture at the same time. Rolled into the park and has coffee and fixed the tyre. Unbeknownst to us, the bit of the park we were in was a scout base and the leaders had been in the building. As they left, they locked the gate as they had not spotted us at a picnic table in the shade.
Thankfully there was a gap in the fence which we could sneak out of. Only got 500m before realising we had another flat. Walked back to the park to fix it in the shade. Very frustrated. Particularly as it felt as though it undid all the good that had been gained by our early start.
Headwinds for the afternoon until we turned eastwards on the 58 when it became a tailwind. Cruised past Edwards Air Force Base and into Boron. Despite the punctures we had arrived at just after 2, no doubt due to the afternoon's tailwind. We needed to stay in Boron as it was the only place nearby with a motel and there was no camping opportunities in the area (and the wind did not make camping an enticing prospect anyway).
We did not have high expectations of the town but we are super glad to have found ourselves here.
It is home to:
The largest open mine in California where they mine Borax salts,
The Twenty Mule Team museum (so called because the original Borax mine used twenty mules to haul the ore from the mine to Mojave)
And the Boron aerospace museum.
Both open for free on a Sunday afternoon and both fascinating.
We decided that we would treat ourselves to a meal out at the local Mexican restaurant. When we entered there was a group eating who heard our accent and asked us why we were in Boron and all about our trip. We had delicious food (burrito for me and omlete for Rachel). When we came to pay we discovered that one of the group, Jaylene, had paid for our food. We were speechless. Once again we find ourselves overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of strangers.
All in all, a very eventful day.
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