Yermo – Boron - 75km
Breakfast consisted of a sandwich and coffee, after which we pedalled
onwards. Like the previous day, there wasn’t much apart from miles
and miles of nothingness, low shrubs, and Joshua trees. Even the
settlements on the map were nothing but a few abandoned buildings.
Strangely, it became a good day. The weather was comfortably warm,
with just a slight breeze, and I was grateful for small mercies. I got
into a sort of rhythm: the wheels spun smoothly, making a soft,
whirring sound upon the tarmac and the kilometres flew by.
In the afternoon, a campsite at Boron lured us in as it was
inexpensive and more comfortable than camping wild. A nearby
supermarket provided ingredients, and Ernest concocted hamburgers
accompanied by a salad; we were, after all, in the land of the
hamburger.
Boron – Mojave - 55km
Villages along the way can, at times, be tiny treasures. Boron was
one of them and was known for the nearby Borax mine and The 20-
Mule Team Museum, which covered the mine’s history, including the
mules that had to transport the rocks over the mountains to
Bakersfield.
Next door, the aerospace museum was equally informative and
offered items and pictures relating to the nearby Edwards Air Force
Base. On display was the old computer used in the early development
of the space shuttle. These IBM computers initially, and surprisingly,
only had about 35 kilobytes of magnetic core memory each. They had
no hard disk drive and loaded software from magnetic tape
cartridges.