Meeting the desert again: Heading towards Mount Whitney

The next morning was different from every one before: It was the first day I would have been able to reach the coast within less than a day and finish up the coast-to-coast part of my bike tour. But to everyone who might have thought I would have been done yet I have to say sorry:) There was no point for me of going to the sea before San Francisco because this would be my final goal and I also wanted to save this part for my arrival in 25 days, so I could still look forward reaching the other coastal line (I sometimes like to challenge myself as well and this is easier if I can still look forward to finish the crossing).

My place that night

Like the approximately 40 days before it was a pitch perfect day with nothing but sunshine and it finally cooled down by 7°C/13°F so it was JUST 35°C/96°F this day, what a pleasure! The route for this day promised to become the first whole-day-cycling through a city since the very first day in New York. 90km/56mi to the home of Amy good and her family (the sister of Kathryn and William and daughter of Marion who I visited back in Cleveland). 90km of continuous city cycling and pretty much straight the whole way till downtown. I could even feel the size of the city before entering it, just looking on the map made me gasp what was coming up. It's not like that it would be hard cycling here but from my earlier experience in New York I can tell that 90km of city can take as much time as 140km in the desert! (traffic lights, stop and go, cheap food and drinks everywhere --> slows you down more than you would expect!:)

But L.A. definitely surprised me in a positive way compared to New York. Sure there's stop and go along the way but for a third of the way google Maps put me on a few nice bike trails where just bikes and pedestrians were allowed, normal for bike trails but definitely not usual for a big american city:)
As quick as it went with all the traffic lights I made it to Amy's house quite soon by 5pm just had to take a brake for talking with the radio, no further resting needed that day - had to stop all the time anyway. Now that I finished that stage I was even more impressed by the size of that, I mean when I would have went south from there the biggest part would still be ahead! Super impressive how to manage it to maintain supply with any kind of food or water during the drought for that many people!

Bike trail through L.A.

Cindy Sherman, a topic we had in arts class in school for too long!

On Sunset Boulevard: You can see the smoke of the massive fire in the back

L.A.-River - if you look carefully you can see it:)

But, whatever. I made it there now and could take the first shower since three and a half weeks (no worries I have been swimming in some lakes and rivers in between;) Amy, her husband John and her two kids Zaz and Xerxes are actually related to me the same way as here sister Kathy and brother William are, who I met back in Cleveland. They were super welcoming and I kinda felt like knowing them for years although I just met them. This is something I experienced all the times before when I visited the other relatives and friends, feeling not like a stranger at all. I sometimes feel kinda sorry that I don't carry any gifts with me considering everything they do for me including food, shower, trips etc. All I can give back are my stories:)
Just after I arrived we drove all together up to the Griffith Observatory from were you can overlook the whole city! Unfortunately thousands of other people seemed to have the same idea going there by sunset to there was a massive traffic jam on the narrow road but somehow we got a parking spot almost next to the observatory!
Cause it took us so long getting up there the sun was long set but the view at night was simply amazing. As far as you can see the city goes on and on and on until the lights disappear somewhere in the dusty air in the distance. That led me to the question why they even built a observatory up here. This must be probably one of the worst places for watching the nights sky directly above one of the most light polluting cities of the continent. The usual fog or smog makes it even harder to see even any kind of stars even up here at the observatory but whatever, they must know what they do so even if its not a proper observatory it's a proper tourist attraction for sure:) I got some really nice long exposure shots of downtown LA. and the whole city around!

Waterloo Street

Front porch of Amy's home

Sunset view from the house:)

Hollywood from Griffith Observatory

Endless L.A. (Downtown on the left)

Downtown L.A.

After having done 7400km so far, the next day was perfect for taking a brake and exploring the city (by bike for sure;) Although I really hate it to do the stuff sightseeing-tourist used to do I decided to go to Hollywood and Beverly Hills, just for having seen it but and least I wasn't sitting in one of these roofless buses where people wear headphones from which they get the information of things and places they're to lazy to walk to by themselves! One time, I have to admit, one time did I do that in Washington D.C. last year and it was one of the worst experiences ever in my life, being the most mainstream tourist you could be, so embarrassing I couldn't forget it for days!

One of many Scientology "churches" (don't think about going there!)

People stepping on Donald Trumps start on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

But on a bike the whole thing is totally different and you can later tell the story that this picture in front of the Hollywood-sign or in Beverly Hills was taken after climbing up 200m/700ft of super steep narrow roads instead of being carried up there in one of these buses like a *********** (this would probably insult some people I know so it has been crossed out, but you have to know that that I really detest this kind of tourism. If your're not old ore disabled then there's no excuse not to walk, cycle or even take your own car to explore individually! But enough with that, otherwise it'll get worse:D (sorry to everyone who likes to use these buses usually, no worries we can still be friends:DD

Hollywood Boulevard

Official way to the Hollywood sign, climbing up steep rods in Hollywood Hills

Watch out for falling glasses!

Looking down from Hollywood Hills

Me in front of Hollywood sign

Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard

Every stone signed!

Don't think about it!

Hollywood Boulevard from the other end

Entering Beverly Hills

On the way back I wanted to see if I could find the first real bakery on my trip, as I thought there might be a good chance here and Amy also told me there would be something like a bakery close to there home. Soon after I really spotted a "bakery" sign and went in but unfortunately they just had three different kinds of bread, filled with spinach (mad me almost throw up, but I was strict with myself and finished it up, it was 4 dollars! I still can't really believe that they care so less about the quality of bread and I truly believe that you could overrun the US market with a chain of bakeries with real European quality cause I guess most people just don't know what kind of quality is possible with bread and I'm not talking about the sweet stuff, sure you can get some of this here, I'm talking about simple bread with the basic ingredients!
So after this disappointment I gave up immediately and went back just in time for dinner. Man, this was so much better than the bakery stuff and self made, soooo good:)

A bakery!

Right after that they invited me for a tour on the new observatory level of the US Bank Tower in downtown LA. With 310m/1010ft it is the highest building in L.A and on the West Coast of the US! The view from up there was simply amazing, being that high made it possible to overlook nearly the whole 80km of city in the south and of course you could see the Hollywood Hills and almost the coastline from there. Usually you can see these coast easily but there was a lot of dust/smoke in the air because of a huuuge fire north of L.A. which made everything kinda foggy, which gave us wonderful colors when the sun was about to set. It's hard to tell which photos were nicer but it was definitely amazing to be able taking pictures from the city at night, simply perfect from up here!
It was pretty much as much as I could do in L.A. that day and definitely worth it the extra day, thanks for that!

Going downtown:)

US Bank Tower

Light animation inside the tower

Great view from the top

Hollywood buildings sticking out of the smog:)

Downtown impressions at night:)

Amy and family:)

The next morning I started early but already knew that it would become a slow start cause I really had to look for a bike shop before getting on the road again. My shifting showed some serious problems as it increased double shifting since I got the new chain on. Although I tried I couldn't really fix it myself and so I went into the next bike shop on the way. After working nearly 40min on my bike the man in the shop got it finally fixed (whatever caused the problems) and remembering Vegas I already feared to loose my last savings now but surprise: He didn't ask for anything,...anything!!! Such a cool shop, I'm gonna give them a five-star plus rating if I can find them on Facebook.
Now I could finally move on north towards the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, where the highest mountain of the Lower 48, Mount Whitney, was on my list. Cycling northwards also meant cycling towards the big fire burning just 20km north of the city. The highway report didn't say anything about road closures at that point and because every other route would have meant at least a 200km/125mi detour, I didn't really have a choice and just went on. Well... I made it exactly 30 more kilometers up the pass next to Santa Clarita before I was suddenly forced to stop. On the left side the road lead into the Interstate which I wasn't allowed to take for sure and on the right side there was a road barrier with a police car in front. When I asked the police officer he told me that the fire expanded further along the road and just open for emergency vehicles, police cars and firefighters. Damn! Cause I didn't want to ride a 200km detour I had just one choice: trying to hitchhike via the Interstate to the other side of the pass. But before I even really thought about that the police officer was faster, jumped out of the car and started to stop pickups, asking them if they would have space for a crosscountry cyclist:) I didn't asked him at all, he just went out and stopped cars for me, what a cool guy, who would expect something like that from a policeman, I couldn't really believe it!:DD The fact that he was an officer made the hitchhiking thing 99% easier cause everyone stopped for him and the third pickup was going the right direction and problem solved - Glad to know that the police can be a real friend and helper!:)

Back in the desert, by car:)

Place for the night:)

The guy in the car was also really nice and we had some nice talks about rattle snakes, bushfires, California etc. When we got over the top of the pass the bushes slowly disasappeared and gave way to the wide and dry desert again. Ok, it wasn't like I wasn't expecting that but cause my plan was going up the eastern side of the Sierra along the very edge of the Mojave on an elevation of about 1000m/3300ft most of the way, I could hope for some cooler temperatures and around 45°C like before, I mean how likely would it be to catch the hottest day of the year...right?

...The next day became the hottest day of the year...

Well, you can call it bad luck or whatever that the following day became the hottest one in the Mojave Desert during this summer so far... Shortly after passing the small town Mojave it got super hot again and around noon the temperatures hit the 40℃/104℉ again. I think I can call myself lucky that shortly after I gained about 400m in elevation, which was a super exhausting climb in this heat but probably saved me from even hotter temperatures behind me. During the afternoon the peak was around 44℃/111℉ (on an elevation of 1000m!) When I checked the weather forecast for Death Valley that day it predicted 52℃/125℉ which is insane! What made it even worse where I was, was that during the hottest part of the day no gas station or any chance of services appeared at the horizon for about 60km.

Never leave an used pot on the ground while sleeping! Hundreds of aunts conquering my dishes!:)

Endless nothingness again:)

Looks familiar:)

I thought it was because of the heat then, when I suddenly spotted a water bottle on the shoulder of the highway. When I grabbed it, it was icy-cold and almost half of the water inside was frozen! Ahhh... then I remembered the "watch for ice"-sign before and then it made sense to me, now I finally know what they mean by that:)
No, I'm kidding, but I ensure that the ice inside the bottle was real so that meant it couldn't have stand there on the street in 44℃, probably over 50℃ in the sun, for longer than two or three minutes! The only explanation was that someone saw me, lulled over and left the bottle there, so I had no concerns, grabbed it and enjoyed my wonderful refreshment:) Thanks so much to the one who did that, those little things are what makes me super happy, even if I don't know who exactly did that:)

Watch for ice!!

Found it!!:D

Almost personal record:)

The rest of the day went pretty casual. Nothing more than a ghost town and another radio call and after doing 150km that day I followed a small side road and just chose any place between some tiny bushes for the night.
Right before I went to bed I saw something really strange. In the first moment I thought about shooting stars but that couldn't be. About 15-20 burning objects where falling down from the night sky, all different sizes and way to slow to be meteorites or shooting stars. I was able to watch them for about 20 seconds and could even see the flames of the larger pieces very clear. That could only some kind of plane crash, maybe an accident or maybe on purpose, I had to find out.