Road Kill! How does a group of three "healthy" riders get to the point where they are lying on a very black road, with no street lights, no cars within site, and a beautiful sky? We started around 10:40 A.M. We had marked the spot with yellow paint. Danny is very careful about not missing an inch on this 3,000 mile trek. We rode about an hour, mostly down hill, and what do we see in front of us, in the middle of nowhere? A Dairy Queen! There was nothing in site, and we saw no signs as we paralleled I 40 on the bumpy route 66. Charles enjoyed some salty pretzels, and Danny and Roman swallowed some candy bars. We all re-watered. That was our first 20 miles. A few minutes later we caught a very long train, and when we mounted back up Danny’s rear derailer would not shift. To the best of our poor mechanical experience, his front handle bar shifter was broken. It would not index. It would move, but no clicks. Of course, it was no surprise that he would not ride another one of your bikes. Roman and Danny have the same pedals, Charles has a different set. So as we approached a hill, we all call them mountains, we would dismount (a great deal of effort) after awhile, open the fanny pack, and take out the tools. One would hold the bike with the right hand and pull or slacken the cable with the left. The other would loosen and tighten the allen screw and move the derailer. It took several tries to set it correctly. After nearly 2 hours we finally got to Amboy; total population 14, elevation 1700 feet, founded in 1849. The only open facility is Roy’s restaurant. Judging from the pictures on the wall this was a hot spot when Route 66 was well traveled. We even sat next to Elvis. Danny has him on tape. We took a picture of him, but it did not come out on the film? Roy’s menu had three items. A burger, two ways, a tuna sandwich , and an egg sandwich. They were out of eggs so Charles and Danny had the tuna, Danny had two, and Roman enjoyed a burger with cheese… no French fries. Roy had only bagged chips. Oh yes, we had one coke and two waters. The bill was 30 bucks! The Native American at Roy’s told us water was available at Essex, only 15 miles away. What he didn’t tell us was it was up several mountains. After what seemed like hours, we reached Essex at 6:15 - after 70 miles. And the (best water in Essex) water was the best? As you can see from the run down building, the only one in Essex, that wonderful water came from a hose. The man without the shirt was filling up 30 gallon jugs in his pick up to take to home, 8 miles away. He is retired, and for fun he goes around the desert looking for junk. We managed to make another 27 miles before we ran out of light and out of legs. In the road kill shot we are lying on the warm road, waiting and hopping to flag down a vehicle that can take us to the nearest town, Needles. We figured it to be about 30 miles away. We are out of water again, for the third time today. Finally, after several cars stopped, we engaged one that could carry us and our bikes. We get to the town of Needles, but we had no credit cards between the three of us. We had spare tubes, saltines, Fig Newton’s, and lots of other items, but we had no cards! We needed a hotel. We wanted was to leave our bikes as collateral and present a credit card when the motor home arrived. Fortunately, the Days Inn gave us a complementary room. The motor home did not get into Needles until 3:30 am – ROAD KILLS!