You Could Be Mine? Days 70-73

So, how do you top a few days like that? You don't, basically. Sometimes you just gotta get things done. It was hard to think about anything apart from the “now” in Joshua Tree as the senses were far too occupied, so trundling through the town of Yucca Valley was good in a way as it let me think about the route to LA, what we'd do there and of course...what next? I did take the time to pop in and see Stacy of the Hi-Desert Star, who wrote a great article that was to cheer me up the next day! Here's a link: http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_c1860026-b37d-11e6-b9a8-47268f2aa00e.html. The rest of the day was pretty non-descript to be honest, running down the busy Highway 62, with some impressive mountains looming in the distance that I was crossing my fingers we weren't going over (cue hasty map check at next stop – all good. Phew!) and trying to avoid getting squished by trucks on a road that I'm not sure I was meant to be on… Nads had a bit of a run in with some gas station owners (all very calm, of course) who wanted to know why she was parked there (despite having bought something from the store), which ended as the reason arrived in the form of a beardy man. We made a hasty exit and just got to the end, which was a similarly unremarkable crossroads if it wasn't for the fact that we were now at the base of said hulking rock (San Gorgonio Mountain) and surrounded by hundreds of wind turbines. A pretty unsatisfactory sleep was on the cards at a super busy truck stop 5 miles down the road, but I did get to meet the lovely Joanne, who'd don a huge USA round trip in an RV the year before, who kept bringing me refillable Dr Peppers as I wrote my last blog, so all was not lost. Keep moving Rob, not far now.

Start: Crossroads of Palomar Avenue and Yucca Trail. Finish: Jct of Highway 62 and Pierson Boulevard. 18.99 miles

Today was the second part of our day off strategy, where we split a big day's miles into two days. Nads hates this, as it isn't really a day off, but it allows me a break when needed and we'd now decided on our planned arrival into LA and well...we've just been going too fast, so we were allowed it! The short day planned turned to be a blessing in disguise as the wind was colossal. 35-40mph and of course, in my face. I didn't grumble as I've had a bit of luck with the wind, with huge tailwinds for a few days in New Mexico AND I was only doing 15 miles today. I took a bit of an off-road route through the huge wind farm in the area and it cast me back to Indian Mesa in Texas where there seemed to be understandable local opposition, due to the dominance of the oil industries and I wondered if it was different in California. I did find it intriguing that many of these farms seem to be on American Indian land, and wondered what the people who lived there thought of the visual appeal of these goliaths in the desert. I personally think that even in areas of natural beauty, they add something positive of their own and seeing as they're helping us preserve the environment and therefore the appearance of it for years to come I think they're worth the cost. I did a bit of reading about the environmental cost of turbines, including bird deaths and while the numbers are high, they're dwarfed by deaths by normal power lines, cars and worst of all by cats, who are responsible for 8 BILLION bird deaths a year in the USA. That's insane. Anyways… running. The trail was really quite fun while it lasted, with the swoosh swoosh of the turbines still audible through the Leonard Cohen and a dust storm, requiring me to wear my shades and pull my Buff over my nose and mouth, though eventually it ended near the I-10, where Nads was concerned about Jenny tipping over, such was the strength of the wind.

Our finish for the night was the Morongo Casino RV Park and I was keen to try out my roulette system that was so successful when I went to Vegas, that it only lost me $160 within 20 minutes! I passed the site of the “World's Largest Dinosaurs”, or at least I think I did, with my eyes streaming. Two huge concrete dinsoaurs, a T-Rex called Mr Rex and a Brontosaurus called Ms. Dinny that you can actually go in and featured in the Tears for Fears video “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. Tune. Apparently it's now a Creationist museum. Go figure. Dark grey clouds were rolling in as I rocked up, with the nearby mountain tops obscured, making for some fantastic light conditions for Nads to take photos. Soon, it absolutely poured down. I'd dodged it and was very smug, sitting in the warm RV as the rain bounced off the roof. It meant that despite a shuttle bus, we couldn't bring ourselves to head to the casino, which is probably for the best as I may have ended up losing my Team Panda Vest on the tables.

Start: Jct of Highway 62 and Pierson Boulevard. Finish: Morongo Casino RV car Park. 15.22 miles

By the morning the rain had stopped but it was still really windy and I got kitted up with a long-sleeved top, wind-stopper gilet and a light jacket, as protection, which would have been fine if that was all the weather we were going to get. The clouds waited until I was just far away enough from the RV not to want to go back and then it started. Soon I was soaked through and getting a litle cold, so my mood didn't exactly improve when I got stopped at a security barrier about 2.5 miles in telling me that this was an Indian Reservation and I couldn't come through. My protestations that I was English and on a crazy adventure fell on deaf ears and I was told I'd have to take my chances with the only road that was available to me, my old pal, the I-10, which of course I'm not meant to be on. My bacon was saved by finding a storm drain that went under the road and led to a service track on the other side. The rain was still pouring down, so the dry pass, filled with huge numbers of sheltering tumbleweeds was fine by me, until I wondered where exactly the storm water in the hills would be heading very soon! I was running along the rail tracks, dodging puddles when I had to answer the call of nature (all that running water) and found myself inexplicably dancing to Tame Impala when it came on just after, as if the rain had made me dance retrospectively – I don't dance, BTW. I'd warmed up, my mood was better and I started to enjoy the rain. Finding Nads in the town of Banning, which was probably the start of the built-up sprawl of LA afforded me the chance to get into some better gear. Nike had supplied me with their Storm Shield jacket, (I chose the XL women's one as it was red and a better colour than the blue or black men's one, for road visibility) and I checked it out for the first time, as I've just not needed it so far. I hate running with jackets generally as I get really hot, but this had underarm vents, rear vents, good pockets, a hood that doesn't blow back or block your vision and these awesome flaps on the cuffs that let you hide your hands like mittens. Seeing as I'm talking about it now, I may as well tell you that this is one of the best bits of kits I've ever had and kept me 100% dry and barely sweating all day. A happy, dry (top half) Rob is a Rob who can think straight and this burst of weather had come just at the right time, allowing me to think that I'm going to need to up my kit game for next leg and get some more gear for weather like this.

A slight lull in the urban vista took me through the San Timoteo Canyon, where I had the sad sight of seeing a recently deceased Labrador at the side of the road. He'd been neutered so someone would be missing him, but he had no collar. I spent the next half hour knocking on doors and later phoned at the vets and shelters in the area, but no-one had inquired about him :( I told Nads about him when we next met, which was following an olfactory delight of a road through orange groves and eucalyptus trees that made me feel like I was in a branch of Lush! We “acquired” a couple of windfall oranges that I've only just remembered about now (I'll let you know…) and as if by magic, the clouds cleared, revealing the San Gabriel Mountains, which take us all the way to LA. Another winter's day, another night time finish, with our truck stop stop at the Royal being regally thwarted by the owner, meaning that we had to treat ourselves to the Motel 6 next door. Suits me, sir.

Start: Morongo Casino RV car Park. Finish: Truck stop 35.64 miles

This was it now. We were in a city. I wasn't quite sure if it was LA at the time (it isn't), but it felt like the LA I recognised from Terminator 2 with me passing over huge storm channels that you could just imagine a Mack Truck chasing a kid on a bike down and we passed in the vicinity of the derelict steel plant that formed the scene for the battlefield at the start. Tomorrow I was to see a pretty decent replication of the storm drain scene, though there wasn't much chasing going on, more cleaning and a short cut being taken! With me being so close to the finish, it meant that the Guns n Roses track “You Could Be Mine” was the Tune of the Day, obviously. San Bernardino Avenue was bang straight, which should have made for easy running, but it was the start of my frustrating relationship with traffic lights and crossing roads. Hardly anyone walks anywhere in America, as car is king, so if you catch yourself at a crossing and the lights have just changed, get ready for a long wait. It's hard to build any sort of a rhythm up and when you're stood at a junction looking at a shop that you know sells fizzy drinks and donuts for two minutes straight, you know that they'll be on the agenda in the third minute. It was not long after I'd finished said snack that I heard a kid shout “Run, Forrest, Run” at me. I was wearing my BubbaGump cap and amused, called him over, but my voice sounded more shouty than I'd anticipated and he seemed a little bit scared as I approached! I pointed at the cap and he couldn't believe it. Following up with my start point in Alabama ensured he was suitably mind blown and fortunately not scared any more! This kid must have been 12, tops and it's crazy that he recognised the cap and knew the film so well, when it isn't recent or to be honest, the sort of film that I thought kids today would be interested in watching. Such is the appeal, I guess.

I'd left Nads to head to the RV park and did a big final stint of 15 miles, which ended in a delightful mile long uphill and a proper uphill at that. At least I had something good to look forward to at the top, as there was an amazing view across the lake and we'd been joined by our good mate Alex, who'd made a trip from the UK combining a visit with a conference on neuromuscular disease, as you do. We reassured him that this view and the high quality of the park was not necessarily the norm on the trip and that when later in the night, we saw two skunks attacking our bin that hung around for a photo opportunity that live mammalian wildlife was not on the standard agenda either! We headed into town after a slap up Jenny dinner and were expertly advised on the local craft brews by Marvin. Somehow I ended up drinking a Flying Dog Double IPA which clocked in at 11.5%. Oh well, it's all calories and I'd need them for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we head to the BIG city. Surely nothing could go wrong now?

Start: Royal Truck Stop. Finish: East Shore RV Park, Pomona. 30.89 miles

Total: 2178.19 miles

Before You Say It, I Know They Didn't Take The Album Cover There. Days 68-69

After spending the first five minutes getting sand out of all my trainers, I was ready. Despite it not being mega early, the frequency of me needing to start the day wearing a long sleeved top when the sun was already up is starting to hint at chilly times to come. The most important thing to have gotten ready was to have The Joshua Tree lined up and to have my finger hover above “Play”. I'd waited for this moment since the start of the run and the excitement over something sounding so silly to many had been off the hook for the last couple of days. I started up the hill, then remembered I'd forgotten my GoPro (Calling my first “faff-out” of the day) and started again. As I got the park boundary...organ playing the atmospheric notes of Where The Streets Have No Name acting as a stage for Edge's delay pedal guitar...slowly building...Adam Clayton's bass slide and BOOM. All in euphoria. It was hard to stifle screaming “Yesssssss!!!!” at loud, but my face would have said it all. This is the first song of what I reckon is the best three song opening of any album, ever, with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and With or Without You up to bat next. The rest of the album isn't too shabby at all and would be in many people's top 10. This album has been called Bono's love letter to America and I was feeling the love – you may have guessed this by now. As I was still climbing effortlessly with aural assistance, I chanced upon two students from LA, Rick and Sam who'd driven 2 hours to Joshua Tree to camp out overnight and they'd been taking photos of the Milky Way all night. Sounds like this place has got everyone wrapped around its little finger. The uphill continued, as we were ably informed by a park ranger before a descent into the Pinto Basin gave the feeling of being in a huge coliseum and I was able to see Jenny from about 4 miles away, before we started the climb up the walls of said coliseum. It is amazing how much being in a good frame of mind helps when attempting something tough like this and the miles were flying by as I bumped into an interesting chap called Craig from Pittsburgh, PA, a peace activist in the 60's and 70's, who was travelling around with his wife and was today wearing a fetching Trilby with a badge bearing the phrase One Love. I told him a lot about Peace Direct and he already knew the WWF well, so he was very pleased to hear about the run, certainly more so than he was with the recent political events, for sure. I left him to plough on towards the Cholla garden. Hang on...aren't they the evil cacti from Teddy Bear Mountain? Yes. Thousands upon thousands of them, I didn't know if I was hyperventilating due to a flashback or the increasing altitude as we left the Colorado desert and entered the cooler, higher, Mojave desert. Once I'd convinced myself that I didn't have to wade through them this time though, I was grand.

After lunch, I'd sent Nads ahead to check campsite availability as a thing called Thanksgiving was happening apparently in a day or so and even though it's meant to be a time to sit around the family table and have arguments over a turkey, it transpired that many people had decided to come and thwart our Milky Way viewing. As I'd reached the end of the fifth playback of The Joshua Tree and the end of the day's running, Nads confirmed the worst and after getting a LOT of photos of our first actual Joshua Trees as well as some of the interesting rock formations in the area, we descended in darkness and sadness to a nice enough RV park, but you know...it wasn't the night in God's Country we'd expected. It was still one of, if not the best days of running I've had so far.

Start: South entrance, Joshua Tree National Park. Finish: White Tank Car Park. 32.79 miles

As a result of not getting the result we'd hoped for yesterday, my plan of running in darkness through the dawn was somewhat scuppered. Nads must have been feeling similarly as well, as it was a unanimous decision with no arguments to get up early to be where we finished last night for first light, despite Nads' understandable dislike of driving in the dark in something as big as a cruise liner. Amazingly, our organisation was superb and no faff-outs were called, leading to us being comfortably back at White Tank to see an amazing sunrise. I'll give Thanks for that.

I didn't want today to be only about running and wanted to take a bit of time to actually see some of the Park at a slower pace and as a result it led to a bit of a staccato feel to the day. I had 7 miles up first and lined up play number 6 of TJT, and got ready for day 2 of Joshua Tree frenzy. Joshua trees are really quite remarkable organisms. They replace the Saguaro cactus as the dominant large plant in this area – indeed I haven't seen a single Saguaro since leaving Arizona. They grow up to about 40 feet and can live for up to 500 years and were described by William Collins O' Kane (Good Irish name!) as an “adventurous yucca that has embarked on an endeavour to find out in how many directions it can grow”. In many instances they give out the impression of a man throwing his arms to the heavens, with that fact leading to a resemblance in some eyes to an Old Testament prophet. Obviously Joshua must have been a bit of a shaggy mess and subsequently had his name appropriated! After seeing only two, by the time we'd stopped the previous night I was in for another of the many treats I've had so far on the run, as I selected an off-road route to save a couple of miles. I ignored that this route ended up being deep sand, uphill into a headwind and concentrated on the sheer number of these contorted wonders that were growing either side of me. "Joshua Trees, on the 'ill sir. Thousands of 'em". I didn't take a map, but felt that if I kept the sun at my back and the wind in my face, I'd have a decent chance of popping out on the road at the right place. Despite not knowing what way the wind was meant to be blowing that day, it worked out alright in the end! As well as the plant life I have no trouble encountering I was lucky enough to see a couple of long-eared jackrabbits and a ground squirrel. Nads had even seen a coyote the previous night, and had called for me to come and see, but I actually heard her (apparently) whistle and shout and thought it was in fact, a coyote in the distance and didn't think there was any point in getting up to check. That my friends, is irony, right there.

A quick drive to the freaky Skull Rock proved a big old break for a mere three mile run to our next sight, but this was a slightly more taxing affair, with a 3 mile round trek up and down the 5,457 foot Ryan Mountain, which gave an unbelievable panorama of the Park and distant mountains. Ominously, one of them – San Gorgino had a good amount of snow on top of it. I think I deal with heat a lot better than cold and it put a shiver (no pun intended) down my spine, once the initial excitement had subsided. Two more runs awaited after the descent and I wish I could have had ten. I knew that the Park boundary was approaching and concentrated on keeping my head up and absorbing everything around me as you never know if you'll come back to a place, even one as special as this. A queue of cars at a barrier was the sign that this all-too-brief chapter of the run was at an end and on the 8th play, a track that you may not have heard called Exit comes on. This is a song that I wish would go on longer and get bigger and bigger, but I think U2 realised that if it did, the world would probably explode, so they put a lid on it. It was still long and beefy enough for me to get very excited and I decided to put the hammer down increasingly to see what fast felt like again. 7:00, 6:30, 6:00, 5:45 and finally 5:30 min/mile came up on my watch and I held it there for half a mile or so, slowing as Exit exited and was surprised to see I didn't feel tired. That was nice to see and also fortunate as I still had another 7 miles or so to go and it was going to be another finish in the dark, with me foolishly not wearing white or carrying lights. It sort of felt right though for me to have a genuine reason not to like my first run out of one of my new favourite places and we were brought down to normality with a bump when we arrived to a Walmart carpark where we were staying overnight to see it was absolutely packed at 6pm on Thanksgiving Thursday, or so we thought. Despite our phones and watches confirming that it was, still indeed Thursday, we were informed by a store attendant that it was Black Friday and the aisles were clogged with queues of people who'd decided to abandon family time to come and get $10 off a teddy bear and have a fight over a plasma screen. The last part was obviously true due to the heavy security and POLICE (!) presence in the store. When asked if we had any electronics by a staff member as we left I replied “No sorry, we're a bit weird. We just came in to buy some food.”

TAKE ME BACK.

Start: White Tank Car Park. Finish: Crossroads of Palomar Avenue and Yucca Trail. 34.33 miles. Total: 2,077.45 miles

Enter Sand, Man. Days 64-67

I'm sure Beer was enjoying a bit of schadenfreude, following my rubbing in of that downhill as I got going at 7am after a 2am end to last night's festivities. 20 miles to the border. My fraught relationship with the I-10 and its varying quality of semi-parallel roads would be ongoing that day, but my first 6 miles were great. Tarmac, great views, lovely weather and a record four-strong welcoming party at the end of the run. Whilst Jamie and my wearing of our Liverpool tops couldn't inspire a victory away at Southampton, it did make us look pretty smart for our photos by another sign offering a choice between Phoenix and LA. One way traffic only here, mate. Pretty much as soon as we set off we realised we were about to enter the exit ramp of the interstate so we backtracked to find that we were off-road and heading for the hills. These were like nothing we've had before with gradients of 20% or more in places and I “eased Jamie in” by happily walking them! All the best ultrarunners have walked hills before. That's what I told J, anyway. We had a great catch up over many subjects as we finished our tough, but fun run and this continued on an almost instant third run, where J rode a very fetching green cruiser which caused great amusement on a few occasions where it refused to go through deep sand, like an old dog turning down a walk in the rain. More walking? Suits me fine as any excuse where I don't feel guilty is lapped up. An advantage of wheeled company came in the form of someone carrying my water for me and a sound system, with J's generally great music taste on showcase. The culmination of this run was the biggie however – our final state line before the ocean. I was filming a facebook live, GoPro-ing the forward approach and Nads had the camcorder out in our homage to Silicon Valley. Arizona was done on schedule. I then informed Beer that we were done for the day and he jokingly replied that he never got any half days. Maybe he was only half-joking! My emotions were a little mixed as I crossed, to be honest, Arizona had been good to us and California just seems so...near an ending, of sorts. This feeling will probably dominate the next couple of weeks – it has to. This is where we'll organise ourselves for the next part of the adventure, whatever form it takes. I will however make sure that this is still part of this fantastic adventure and resolve to enjoy every minute. Even the bits that are as big a pain in the ass as a Teddy Bear Cholla would be.

We were pretty tired to be honest after last night and after a quick lunch and a final beer with Beer we headed back to the RV park for a nap, by the banks of the Colorado River (Which still has water in at this point!). Jamie wasn't feeling too great after lunch at all but managed to just about pull through until dinner, when he came round a bit and after a spell in the super toasty hot tub (The luxury!) he was back in the game, but at this point an early bed was on the cards for all of us and we now had new residents of the “Beer Cave”. We were glad to have them. It was with genuine sadness that we said goodbye to Beer as he'd made the transition from a visitor to a real member of the team and we shared many an adventure having run 610 miles cumulatively together during his stay. He can be my wingman, any time.

Start: Pilot Travel Centre, Quartzsite. Finish: Just after the Arizona/California State Line, Blythe. 19.53 miles

Just as we're starting to deal with Beer's departure, it was also time for our hard-working Californian duo to return to Temecula and leave us all alone. This was not before we were showered with myriad gifts including PG Tips, McVities Digestives, the contents of their beer cooler, blister plasters and a bottle of champers, which I hope they'll be able to have some of, at Santa Monica. Coupled with them treating us to lunch and dinner, we felt very lucky and humbled. I know they're our pals and all that, but this really was a gesture that went above the norm and was appreciated more than you can blurt out in a few words. Me and Jamie had a small matter of 11 miles to get done after a welcome lie-in, slightly curtailed by my body clock still being on Mountain Time. This was all on good roads, and even going through Blythe, we weren't really bothered by traffic and I gave J his first real introduction to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Strap yourself in and make sure you're seated comfortably Jamie – I've just changed your life for the better! P.S. For those of you wondering how you too can embark on this wondrous journey, I'd say start with The Boatman's Call, Henry's Dream and Push the Sky Away for a fairly wide brush approach, with a Greatest Hits thrown in after you've got the general idea. Then move onto the new album, Skeleton Tree, which is something else. If you manage to do this (hold off on Skeleton Tree) by December 1st 2016, go to your cinema to see the film One More Time With Feeling (Showing Dec 1st only!), THEN listen to Skeleton Tree. It's pretty moving stuff.

After the guys had left, the RV felt very empty and I'm sure it was worse for Nads as I headed out for 80-90 miles over the next three days, off road or on dirt tracks, due to the lack of other alternative routes that would take me in a rough straight line to the southern edge of the Joshua Tree National Park. I'd spent the previous evening fretting about this as even with the aid of satellite images, you just can't tell what these are going to be like and I was resigned to a slog. I'd lightened up a bit overnight and reminded myself that I'd dug deep before and I could do so again. I was just worried that my achilles tendon, which I've always had an ongoing fraught relationship with and which had become upset with the recent 40+ miles days and the last 48h of hills and soft irregular ground, was really going to hate this. A freshly re-taped tendon stepped onto the battlefield, or desert, as most people call it. After meandering a bit to start with, I ran under some power lines, which often have some sort of track by them. In this case it started off pretty OK, though eventually became so sandy that I was on and off it, testing out the surrounding ground, before realising that it was no better or worse and contained far more holes, a couple of which I disappeared into. God knows what lived in them, but I'm pretty sure I didn't tread on anything organic and it was probably best, given the nature of the reptile population in this area. One sign indicated that there may even be tortoises in the area, which would have been amazing if I'd caught a glimpse, but alas. This hare turning into a tortoise over the weeks was plain out of luck. Running through often quite deep and soft sand was such a drain, but I did get to the RV in pretty decent order though, and we're well placed for tomorrow after a good dinner and lots of time sat on my bum. Let the desert trip continue.
Start: Just after the Arizona/California State Line, Blythe. Finish: In the Colorado desert, just off I-10 Jct 217. 26.96 miles

My morning thoroughfare was he awesomely named Chuckwalla Valley Road, which was a road, in a valley, that should be full of chuckwallas – large iguana like lizards that are out and about during the day. The disappointments began immediately. First of all, it technically wasn't a thoroughfare as I soon encountered a newly closed road. Secondly, to put you out of your suspense, I didn't see a chuckwalla all day. I can only imagine that was because they'd seen the sign saying road closed that I decided to ignore and decided to be good citizens and seek an alternative route. The good thing about closed roads, however are no cars, which means you can switch off and just listen to music. This was all good until I got the fright of my life as a utility truck sped past my right shoulder on its way to a bridge repair site. As I approached said site, I ran past the now demolished town of Hell, which got razed to make way for the I-10. To be fair, a town called Hell was never going to take off really, was it? Location, location, location...and don't call your town Hell. I couldn't call this the Highway to Hell though, as under foot was a mix of tarmac, interspersed with rough trail and sand, which had a nice habit of forming smooth surfaces over a hole that would try to push your ankles in places they didn't want to go. Backroad to Hell at best. When you're on rough trails too, you're constantly looking down at your feet so a sharp stone doesn't hurt your feet or even worse, a bigger one doesn't cause you to trip, or roll your ankle. As a result, sight-seeing wasn't really on the agenda. Today was planned to be a bit of a short day, to allow us to enter Joshua Tree first thing of a morning, whilst spreading the miles between two days and the original stopping point was a semi-ghost town, called Desert Centre, which had an abandoned gas station, a temporarily (or more likely indefinitely) closed cafe, which was a great shame and the only signs of life were a post office and a couple of RV parks, alongside the large number of trucks that were turning up for the night. As a result I decided to take up the luxury of three miles of good tarmac to the next junction on the interstate – with Eagle Mountain Road. If ever there was a road to make me feel like Bilbo Baggins on an Unexpected Journey, it was this and we parked for the night at the site of one of general Patton's regiments' old field hospitals from WWII (The only sign of which was a monument), facing down the seemingly infinitely long and straight road towards the eastern mountains of Joshua Tree, with a good amount of miles done. Perfect. So perfect in fact, that a roadwork crew turned up to work on the slip road in close proximity, just as we were going to bed. Would you like some rain for that parade, sir?

Start: In the Colorado desert, just off I-10 Jct 217 Finish: Jct 189 I-10. 29.52 miles

A good thing about those extra three miles and sleeping at the noisy 217, was that the miles didn't need to be done today and we could take things pretty easily. It's great when you've got a definite goal to stop at in a few days and you make it ahead of schedule, as it forces you to have an easy day, something that I struggle to do, unless forced in some way. In fact today we only had to do about 23 miles, which if we run to our usual routine we would do by lunch. Our start got delayed a little when we received a video from Jessica Taloney, the breakfast news anchor at WKRG, Mobile, with a video of the story they did when I was in Mobile that I still hadn't seen and much excitement ensued, of course. It was absolutely brilliant and we watched it a few times. It was very strange seeing myself and how I looked at the start, compared to the bearded sunbaked traveller I appear now. This added a frisson of excitement to the day as this was also the day where we would pass the 2,000 mile mark. This happened on the second run of the day and after 15 miles of more sand, dirt and hills, I saw Nads in the distance, holding a sign that she'd made celebrating the fact. Now I don't know how to feel at moments like this to be honest, having had lots of peaks recently and also with some more to come in the very near future and while, I'm still able to enjoy the moment, I'm just focussed on moving on and getting to the ocean. Maybe this is one of those “it will sink in afterwards” things, I guess. Not knowing where my endpoint will be, whether it is 2,200 miles, 3,000 or five times that amount is also a natural dampener, but getting ahead of myself has led to issues earlier in the run that I'm quite happy to avoid now.

The lack of a marching band coming out of my ears doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves though and we decided to “do lunch” after this run, as we were by the last local services we'd see for about 60 miles and one that probably did for Desert Centre, at Chiraco Summit, and we stuffed ourselves silly at the lovely little cafe including pumpkin and cherry pies afterwards. A quirky little incident happened as I was starting my final run where just outside the museum to General Patton, the feted American desert tank commander who had a bit of a friendly rivalry with our good old Monty, a trailer pulled up with a Land Rover with UK plates on, on the way to be refurbished and it was pulled by another Landy with stickers from Devon on the side windows! Yeah! Take that, George! Spurred on by this minor show of British revivalism, I set off not along the shorter main road, but to the base of the Joshua Tree mountains to hug the Park boundary as the sun began its slow, slow, quick descent in the West and as if it knew, One Tree hill, from the Joshua Tree, by U2 came on shuffle. With the amount of music I have on my phone, there was about a 1% chance of this happening for the duration of my run, so it must have been some sort of telekinetic excitement that caused it, or maybe Bono is all powerful after all.

Start: Jct 189 I-10. Finish: South entrance, Joshua Tree National Park. 22.82 miles

Total: 2010.45