Palo Verde to Quartzsite

This morning we said goodbye to Nancy at 8:45.  The air was chilly in the desert was silent as a grave.  We were still trying to warm up and flush out the soreness from Monday when we crossed into farmland.  The cotton fields went on and on with a few other crops mixed in. 

After 29 miles we stopped for lunch at KFC.  And since today is Valentine's Day we stopped at some other stores and bought chocolate to celebrate.

With energy from the chocolate we pressed on into Arizona, a new state and new time zone!  Then up and over the mountains into the mining town of Quartzsite for a 52.6 mile day.

We checked into the Quartzsite Yacht Club Motel, which is made of mobile homes.  Then we watched the auction down the street for a few minutes and had dinner in the diner. 

The highlight of the day was when we got an email from our children pointing us to a website.  On this website was a valentine message just for us and recorded audio interviews of each of our children and 2 of our grandchildren.   Every year they do something special for us for Valentine's Day but this year we were so far away that we were totally surprised.

The truth from Ruth:
Today was my favorite cycling day so far.  We crossed the Colorado River and it was beautiful.  As we rode into Arizona, the land spread out wide before us.  The mountains in the distance were majestic, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining.  It was a glorious day.   
We decided to stop and get off the bike at least once every hour.  This really helps with sore and stiff muscles and joints.