May 12, 2018 - Day 5 to CA

Today we finish the ride to Ontario going thru the Mojave Desert.  We got up early to minimize the time to ride in all the heat.  It was 74 when we left Needles.  This is great!!!  AND NO WIND....  Temps never went above 74 all the way to Ontario.  This was really nice.

There were only 4 bikes on this last leg.  It was still a little hazy but got a few good pics.

For those that do not ride a motorcycle, here is the view from my seat.

Catfish 

 

Dadbo

One of the gas stops on day 1 from Ontario is in Ludlow.  This also has a DQ.  It looks like an oasis from a distance.

 Check this out, it is a 76 gas station.  Being from Cincinnati, not sure I have seen one of these in a long time.

 Our first year riding with Ken and Jenny, we were told no matter time of the day, we stop for ice  cream. So about 9:00AM we were eating ice cream. It was so good.  The last 3 years it was very refreshing because it was in the 90s.  But today, we lucked out and got thru the desert and the high about 74.  It even went down to 65 at one point.

 Back on the road again.  Ken and Jenny take the lead.

 Dadbo gave us some information about the white object out in the middle of nowhere.  It is called a VFR beacon.

Help from Google:
VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules and IFR means Instrument Flight Rules. Depending on the weather conditions a pilot may opt for one set of rules or the other. There are a number of other factors that influence the decision but for simplicity's sake it's the weather that make you fly VFR or IFR. 
The basic VFR weather minimums (14 CFR 91.155) are specific to types of airspace and altitudes. ... The rationale for greater visibility and more distance from clouds when flying above 10,000 MSL is to give VFR pilots more time to see and avoid faster aircraft that are popping in and out of clouds.

Still used today, but GPS is becoming  more common.

Flat, flat flat....

As we get closer  to Ontario, the Artimas signs say "Caution low visibility in the canyon".  For someone coming from the mid-west , I was not sure what that meant.  Dadbo lived in CA for 20+ years and helped us out with this. It is called a "marine layer".

Help From Google:
A marine layer is an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on the surface layer of an otherwise warm air mass.

It was like a huge cloud that hung the full length of the mountains.

As we got thru this there is so much moisture, that our windshield and the shields on our helmets looked like it was raining.  The temps also dropped about 10 degrees.  Larry looked and it was 56.  Brrrr.!!!!  I needed another layer.  As we came out of the valley, the temps came back up.

YEAH!!  we arrived around noon to our hotel.  2270 miles.  The rest of the day we relaxed a little and went to the host hotel ( just a block away).  Not too many people here yet.  Most will arrive Sunday and Monday.

Thanks to all those keeping us in your prayers for a safe journey.  Half way there.  Lots of people still traveling. Next few days will be reuniting with all the RFTW family we have met over the years.  

Miles = 240

Weather = 56 to 74

Route = I-40 to I-15 to I-10

Stopped in Ontario