When 2 become 1

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Desert, sand, punctures.  There, you are now fully up to date with the last 2 days.  Yesterday was longish at 60 miles but the weather gods finally let us down and served up a stonking headwind that was either on their noses or gusting strongly from the side.  It was one of those days when all you can do is grip the bars tight and dig a little deeper.

Today we crossed our last state line, into Arizona.  Shrewdly I filled up with gas at $6.29 before leaving California....it is $4.50 here.  Bugger.  Other than the price of gas there is little to distinguish the California desert from the Arizona desert.  It isn't exactly 'pretty' but it is more interesting than you might imagine.

Our destination today was Salome...a stop I have been dreading.  Salome is a 1 horse town where the horse is ready for the knackers yard.  We need 17 motel rooms and this requires virtually every available room in the 3 places that offer them.  These places being:

1/ A rather weird bohemian hippy retreat

2/ A motel that would have looked shabby to a cowboy riding into town in 1850

3/ A place that looks ok at first glance but gets shocking reviews.

My hopes weren't high.  As it turns out the hippy place is actually good, the cowboy place has quite nice rooms (but zero kerb appeal) and the shit hole has changed hands and the new owners have made some improvements (including eradicating the cockroaches judging by the older reviews). None of the places are special but they wouldn't make my '100 crappiest hotels' list.

The song title?  I have mentioned that there are 3 teams cycling to Phoenix and Salome is the spot where Team Utah and Team West Coast merge.  We welcome 5 new riders (in any merger the bigger company prevails) so we will have 30 on the road tomorrow.  Tonight we have a group dinner across the street where Karaoke is threatened.  Based on my team's performance a few days ago I won't rush out and buy a trophy cabinet.

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