Wake up today was at 4:30, and we were out of the Quechan Casino Resort by 5:20am - just before sunrise. It was pretty dark out so we put on our flashing tail lights for safety. We were feeling very good (it wasn't very hot yet - only 89 degrees, the shoulder was really nice, and the road was pretty flat), but that ended about 15 miles down the road when we got pulled over for DOI (driving on the Interstate). The cop car came up behind us slowly with it's lights off, and the officer yelled "stop right there," over the megaphone. This pretty much scared our pants off! He explained that we would need to get onto the frontage road at the next exit. He asked us if we had enough water, given that there wouldn't be opportunities to get water for about 30 miles. We thanked him for his concern and told him we did. The frontage road was pretty beat up, and the pot holes were giving us a bumpy/ unpleasant ride (see pic of the road below). The road eventually smoothed out, and the temperature rose to make sure we didn't get too comfortable. We took a lot of water breaks, but the heat and poor road conditions took their toll. We were pretty tired when we pulled into Ocotillo. There is one motel in Ocotillo, the Ocotillo Motel and RV Park. The rooms are pretty worn down, but there is AC and running water... so its kind of like the Ritz Carlton. Ocotillo is located at the foot of a chain of mountains with a 5000 foot elevation and a road that goes up for 17 miles with a 6 degree grade. While we don't know what that means, it sounds intimidating, but its the only way to get to Ocean Beach in San Diego. One of the reasons we decided to go cross country east to west (versus west to east) was to avoid needing to go over these mountains in the first few days - we would not have been in good enough shape. That may still be the case, but we will give it our best shot. We hope to go to sleep soon.
Shout out to my good friend Jason W... get better soon! See you next week.
Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Check out our route at the link below:
Winterhaven, CA- Ocotillo, CA
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