March 27th, 2008 | categorizilation: all categories,USA (California)
Today’s distance / ???????: 33 miles / 53km
Average speed / ????: 8.1mph / 13km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 03m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 3967mi plus 280mi (?) / 6384km plus 450km (?)
Ascent / ??: n/a
Descent / ??: n/a
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N33° 55′ 16.14″, W116° 39′ 48.84″
Great morning, but shattered by the end of the day.
I got away from the motel at about 7:30am, and spent the rest of the morning skating through what can only be described as a botanical garden.
The towns of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Thousand Palms, and all the other little towns in between along HWY111 are clipped to perfection. Reminded me of Micheal Grifka’s comment about cookie cutter town development. Also made me realise where all the palms were going from the palm plantations coming into Indio.
Once again I had done well in the morning. 25 miles on the clock. Then the wind began. Copy and paste the following text into Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps), zoom in, and select the satellite function.
+33.899125, -116.624294
Sand from the dry riverbed visible in the satellite image was being whipped up by the strong wind into my face. I was only moving at 5mph at times. Just faster than walking pace. What kept me going? Knowing that I didn’t have enough water to camp then and there. I had to make it to the rest stop at Whitewater on the freeway, about five miles away. Patience Rob. You’ll get there eventually.
I got to where I thought I was directly south from the rest area, and started walking cross-country. It was a short walk from where I stopped skating, and I was glad to be at the rest area, fresh drinking water available. I set up my tent and promptly went to sleep; it was only 4pm.
I was woken at 5pm by a horrendous noise. Water was being sprayed at my tent at high velocity. What the?!
Sprinklers. There is a reason why the rest area grass is greener than anywhere else around. Once I figured out what the commotion was about, and was satisfied that my tent was indeed waterproof, I went back to sleep.
Got woken up again at about 9pm by voices outside my tent.
“Is someone sleeping in there?” the voice said.
I said nothing.
“Do you think someone is sleeping in there?” the voice said to some other chattering voices.
“Is someone sleeping in there?!” the voice inquired.
What the heck do you think?! I thought. “Trying to,” I replied.
The voices, apparently satisfied, left.
I slept.
Funny man. I just did the "American accent" impersonation to my wife. 
Both LOL
Hey, I had the same once when I was sleeping in a small park in Euston on the Murray River, Australia. A drunken couple came and started a conversational fight just a meter or two beside my tent – I always have some difficulties dealing with drunken people.
And also the sprinklers … in every little village in Australia they have them. But I got plenty of rain in Australia anyway, probably you've heard about the floodings.
Greetings!
That Google map thing is amazing.
