Greetings punctual blog readers!

Today I am in the town of Mojave resting up for the last push before the Sierras. The last section was pretty rough with lots of sand travel and not much water, but it has been blissfully cool which has made it much easier. I'm not carrying a thermometer so I'm not exactly sure how hot it was, but I doubt that I hiked in anything over 95 degrees in the last 100 miles.

I'm still having fun, but I'm definitely ready to be done with the desert and excited about entering the Sierras at mile 702 (I'm at mile 566 right now).

A few highlights and/or interesting information: first, on Monday and Tuesday I hiked a total of 52 miles (that's a LONG WAY for those of you who have never tried it). I was sore but impressed that my body was able to carry me that far in such a short amount of time.

Second, I was pretty close to where the space shuttle landed and I heard the sonic boom. It sounded like God was using a 12 gauge, and the boom echoed for almost 20 seconds. I didn't know what it was at the time, and only later found out that it was the space shuttle coming back into the atmosphere. Apparently they try to land it in Florida but use the California desert as a backup when the weather in Florida isn't cooperating.

Third, my pants are now a good two inches too big. They still stay on, but if I lose any more weight I will probably have to buy new pants.

Fourth, I found that mixing Gatorade powder into my water bottle was kind of a pain so I've taken to just dumping the powder directly into my mouth. It's surprisingly good. Remember Pixie Stix? It's a lot like that.

That's all for now. The next few resupply locations don't have internet access, so if I don't post for a while that's why.

Thanks,
Joel