July 4 - Part 3 - Crossing the Mojave at night.

We hung around that Denny's for a long time.  We had another fantastic waitress named Carrie.  We had a meal, then drank coffees and sodas for hours while talking to the locals about how best to make it across the desert.  We finally left the Denny's at about 9 PM.  We had a couple and their kids give us a fun send off.  It was great to get to know them a little bit in the Denny's but even more fun to have them come to the bikes with us.  

At about 10 or 11 PM we were stopping at the last gas stop for about 160 miles.  We met a park ranger named Celsie who was just getting off work.  Cooper was doing his pee patrol when he went to meet her.  We talked for a long time.  She gave us advice too, and she gave us food and made sure we had plenty of water.  We have met so many good people who we would love to get to know better.  I'm glad Cooper's cards have my email address on them.  This way people can keep in touch if they want.

We finally started traveling across the desert.  We just kept going until we got to the other side.  We stayed steady between 60 and 65 mph so Jesse's bike wouldn't overheat again.  It was too dark to see anything.  The temp was in the 90*s the whole way.  We got gas again and rode until about 3 AM until we got too tired to travel any more.  We stopped at a comfort inn and FELL into bed.  Even Cooper was exhausted.  He was so happy to stop.  He rolled all over the bed, glad to get his harness off.  I only brought in my change of clothes and shower bag.  I didn't want to carry anything else in.  BED WAS CALLING ME!

Our total miles by 3 AM was 354.6 miles.  And we were glad they were done!