November 10, 2015
Joshua Tree -> Joshua Tree National Park: 13 miles

Somehow it's so hot when we wake up. With the sun beating down on the tent. Yet still managed to be cold while riding through Joshua Tree National Forest. I was not feeling too great though. We rode 14 miles to the campsite that Chris & Jill said they would share with us. It was the coolest campsite! Surrounded by boulders and basically in the middle of a ton of climbs. Every which way you look there would be a person on the top of a huge rock.

We scurried up one next to our campsite and it was awesome watching people lead climb on the next wall over. Had a great view from the top and apparently that was the only place anyone could get service around haha

In the next campsite there was a sprinter van that we were told we had to go checkout. Joe was very intrigued since we might want to get one in the future. It was awesome...you could tell they put a lot of time into it. Joe and I ended up hanging out by their fire after dinner and Chris & Jill came over too. Everyone was so generous with their food! Joe and I ended up getting a second dinner :)

saw this guy crossing the road! 

We were debating setting up camp in this rock. It was so cool! Would have been too cold though 

Me, Joe, Jill, & Chris

campsite for the night :)

November 9, 2015
Staying put in Joshua Tree

Woke up to the sun shining on our tent. I wanted to get up and make some coffee before Joe woke up. It was finally not freezing! For the past month it has been pretty cold. Cold enough to where Joe and I don't want to hangout outside the tent after the sun goes down and where we want to sleep in to wait for it to get warmer. I was happy to get up early this morning :) After talking to my mom on the phone (& getting exciting about seeing her in 2 weeks) I made some coffee and oatmeal with raisins and granola. My mom is coming to visit me in San Diego!! Joe's mom AND my mom are going to meet us in San Diego in 2 weeks when we arrive. We're all going to spend Thanksgiving together. I CANNOT wait!

Like I said before, Joe and I have some time to kill. We're going to the Glamis sand dunes for a fun week with ATV's, flying paramotors, and hanging out with close friends. That starts November 16 and we're only about 170 miles away from Glamis. We could get there with 3 easy days of riding...and we have 6 days from today.

Our day consisted of wandering around town, hanging out at the library, and getting coffee. Joe and I decided we would bike into the national park tomorrow instead of today. The wind was cranking and it would be at our faces if we tried going to the park. We planned on camping at The Pit again. The other campsite in town got shut down so that was kind of our only option.

We stopped by a store to stock up on 2 days worth of water and met Chris. Him and his wife Jill are camping in the park and offered their campsite for us to camp in! Which is awesome because that saves us $20. We said we will see them tomorrow when we head that way!

The night was fun. We had bourbon and coke in our aluminum mugs. Played a card game then made some spaghetti dinner. We were sitting behind a mound of sand so that we were blocked by the chilly wind.

I slept pretty well until about 1:30am when Joe said "hey can I use your camera? I can't sleep so I'm going to try and take a Milky Way shot". So of course I get up too and it's actually not freezing outside like I thought it would be. Joe had been studying what settings are best for starry night pictures. With little help from me he got a really awesome picture...I was impressed.

November 7, 2015
Barstow -> Lucerne Valley, CA: 38 miles

We said our goodbyes to Becky and Chris as they head North to San Francisco. It was so much fun biking with them, sharing stories, and creating new stories :) Joe and I were heading South to warmer weather!! Hopefully warmer weather. One of the first places we stopped at was a cafe that had an off roading event for the weekend. There was a ton of people there! We ordered some burgers and headed up the never ending hill.

The rest of the day was pretty boring. I could see our turn in the distance and it didn't look too far away, but took an hour or 2 to get to. I was very happy to get into town. We went to the gas station to stock up on water then headed out of town to find a place to camp. There was a fire station about a minute down the road. We stopped and asked them how safe town was, where we could set up our tent, etc. They said we could camp in the back and they would turn the sprinklers off for us :P

It ended up being a COLD night for us. Joe's sleeping pad deflated about 4 times during the night and we could hear the air leaking out of it. He was sleeping on the cold ground half of the night.

Joe calls this the creeper hill. It doesn't look like much, but it was definitely a climb.

November 8, 2015
Lucerne Valley -> Joshua Tree, CA: 53 miles

Early and chilly start to the day. We wanted to leave the fire station early so we didn't feel like we were imposing...even though we were camping out back. Spent our morning in Cafe 247 and had a very delicious breakfast! After that we headed towards Joshua Tree. The miles were going by very slowly. Long roads of sand and no landmarks. We passed by a cool spot with huge boulders and even debated on camping there because time was passing by so slowly. We kept on pedaling. At one point Joe said "With any luck we'll have a 5 mile downhill into town". That's exactly what we had! It was great coasting into Joshua Tree.

Earlier we spoke to a few people about where to stay. There was a Warm Showers couple that said we could camp in their yard, but their house was 5 miles out of the way. 5 miles isn't too far out of the way, but their house was also 5 miles up a steep hill so we decided not to do that. Joe talked to another guy that couldn't host us because he was out of town, but he gave us many camping options. One of them was The Pit, a plot of land that a guy owns and just lets people camp there. This was the more social option. With Joshua Tree being a big attraction for climbers there was usually other people camping there. We were the only ones there for the night, but it was still a cool spot. Great view of the town and we were smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood, but literally in a sand pit. You couldn't see the camp spot from the road or nearby houses.

It was so nice to have a fire for once. Joe got a fire started just as it was getting cold outside. I was able to cook dinner and not have to rush because I was cold. We had pasta with broccoli, cheese, and carrots. As I was cooking dinner Joe was gluing his sleeping pad so he didn't have another night of sleeping on the ground. 

Found this beer at a local grocery store. It was actually very good & perfect amount of spicy

November 4, 2015

Jean, NV -> Primm: 14 miles

We had a very productive day! Being in a group doesn't get us very far :P After waiting out the storm in Denny's we headed towards the snowy mountains. Didn't make it too far until we had to take a break again to wait out another tiny storm cell. The quick break turned into us staying there for the night. None of us wanted to bike over the mountain with snow and we don't have a schedule. Buffalo Bills it was! Its easy to travel with 4 people...it was only $10 each to stay there. It was also a Casino and I'm sure it was so cheap because they assume we are going to gamble. 

there was a rollercoaster around the hotel

November 5, 2015

Primm, NV -> Baker, California: 52 miles

We made it to Cali! Buffalo Bills was only about a mile from the border. We were so close! The morning was very chilly and Joe said this was the coldest that he has been riding for our whole trip. For the past week or so the 4 of us have been riding on highway 15 so we are ready to get out of traffic! As we were riding Joe said "Paramotor! Ryan's car! Dude that was Ryan!". The car stopped a little bit up the road, it was Ryan! Ryan and his wife Jess lived in Charleston and recently moved to San Diego. We will be staying with them for a little bit after Thanksgiving. It was CRAZY that he drove past us! 

Baker is where we ended up for the day. Becky shipped some stuff at the post office and talked to the lady there about camping. She made a few calls and said that we could camp in the park, but that we might not want to camp on the grass because the sprinklers come on at midnight. With that being said we set up camp in the playground :)

these mountains and the roads were covered in snow the day before 

November 6, 2015
Baker, CA -> Barstow: 65 miles

Busy highway all day and heavy traffic. A cross country race passed us...all super nice cars. For the afternoon we were riding on Route 66! Pulled into Barstow and we decided to get a hotel because they are so cheap. Also because it was getting dark & we all wanted to go out to dinner together and hangout since we were parting ways in the morning. We went to a local Italian spot that was delicious! A really nice couple bought us drinks because they loved what we're doing. That was very sweet of them! After dinner we went back to the hotel and made some funny videos and had a good last night together. 

Joe shaking out the tent

the only store around was closed

(Oh by the way my camera got fixed about a week ago! YAY!! Joe somehow convinced the Best Buy people to exchange my lens for free!) 

November 3, 2015
Las Vegas -> Jean: 30 miles

The 4 of us left on Tuesday morning, stopped by the Las Vegas sign that we hadn't seen yet, and made our way towards Jean, NV. There was a headwind all day and considering we didn't start biking until after lunch we didn't make it too far. Jean is only 30 miles outside of Las Vegas and thats where we stayed for the night. Before we set up camp we stopped by the gas station in town. People were insanely nice and asked us all about our trip. One guy handed Becky money out of nowhere. We met a sheriff at the gas station that said we could camp anywhere in town. We went down a dirt road and found a spot. We could see a casino from camp :P

saying bye to Wyatt

the dogs didn't want us to leave :)

view from our campsite

November 4, 2015

Still in Jean, NV

Woke up in a panic. It was super windy so I woke joe up and asked him to check the radar. There was a huge storm coming and we all started packing up as fast as we could.  Denny's in the distance sounds way better than waiting in the tent in a storm. Becky and Chris packed up faster than us and started heading towards Denny's. Chris realized he had a flat tire as he was leaving! With his new tires. All of us rushed to Denny's and somehow made it without getting wet. We've been at Denny's waiting out the storm, but we're about to start biking in about 30 minutes. I would love some warm weather already!! 

Denny's is in the casino haha

we're not in a rush...no reason to bike in that