We had a scintillating night at the Bull Shed yesterday as our farewell to Bakersfield. The high spot had to be watching just about the only other person in the bar. He sat at the end nursing a small glass of beer and adjusting his baseball cap. Initially it was peak front, then peak at the back and finally he took it off. That seemed to be his idea of a good night out. Mark had to be restrained from accosting him and shouting – “It’s a hat. The peak goes at the front. Read the instructions!”
We then got talking to a disgruntled music industry A&R man who had stopped off en route between San Francisco and LA where he was “nursemaiding” some bands. He gave us his take on the San Joaquim Valley – “The Abyss” – and Bakersfield – “380000 people and 360000 of them are idiots on account of the inbreeding”. He also scared the bejasus out of us with tales of gangs and highway piracy around Barstow, which we were about to pass through the next day.
Alarmingly we discovered that out bar bill was $71 of which only $24 was food. We put this down to the excessive price of soft drinks over here.
Anyway, the day dawned fine and sunny (I may get sick of typing those words). We set off down Route 58 and were soon climbing out of the valley into some spectacular mountain scenery. Once down the other side we were in the Mojave Desert. It’s flat and arid country but something of a novelty after the last few days.
We passed the huge Edwards AFB, watching the contrails of fighter jets frolicking in the clear sky above us and big transport jets lumbering in to land.
Stopping soon after for a much-needed rehydration we noticed signs at the rest area warning about rattlesnakes! It seems their preference is for dogs and small children but we did wonder if they could get their fangs through a motorcycle boot.
The riding was much easier today with a variety of roads from three-lane interstate to narrow two-lane highways to break the monotony. Despite the extreme heat we covered a respectable 182 miles and arrived in Redlands by 2pm having only got slightly lost looking for our hotel. After discovering the nearest bar is about 1.5 miles away we leapt into the small but blissfully cool swimming pool. The high here today has been about 40C (105F). It was fine when we were moving but almost unbearable when we were stopped in traffic.
No pine trees today but we did see Joshua trees in the desert.
Over the Hill and Far Away.......... 
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