Day 22 - Following the Train

Day 22 - Merced to Madera.
Finally finished the blog for the first 2 weeks. It gave Doug some time to test his leg a little before we hit the road.

Uh oh.......... We have entered.bullhead sticker territory.

When there is NO water.

Another nut.....pistachios

This is what they look like right before harvest. The good ones are already splitting their shell inside that pulpy exterior. We know this because Donna's mom grows them and we have helped her process them before.

Chowchilla River

We picked up a really nice tailwind in the early afternoon again today 

This beautiful mural is at the entrance to a women's prison. A security person came by just to make sure that was all we were photographing.

The shadows made it hard to do it justice.

Donna know that Doug needed some calories when he called this an "orchard grove". It really is the first orange grove that we've come across.

The "high" point of the day. Crossing the Highway 99 "River". Freeways often act just like rivers when you are on a bike.....you have to find a bridge to get to the other side.

Our history lesson for the day. The Berenda School House is almost all that is left of this ghost town because the railroad added a branch line to get people closer to Yosemite back in the late 1800's. This favored the growth of Madera, which is where we are headed.

Just in case you have never had the pain of seeing a bullhead up close and personal, Doug collected some samples.

We are going to drop off the south end of our AAA map tomorrow. Fortunately, there was an office not far from our motel and we stocked up. Now we are set...and Doug's leg seems to be doing fine too! We just might make it after all. And it only got to 86F today. We know we are starting to get acclimated to this heat because restaurants are feeling a bit cold.