Today was an easy day for us. Mark had arranged to meet Ian, his son, who had only yesterday flown into El Centro Naval base to train on new helicopters. Ian is with the British Army Air Corps and his trade is to maintain helicopters.
It was all going so well until just as we pulled away my bike nosedived straight onto the floor leaving me thrashing around trying to lift it – daft sod that I am – I forgot to take off the disc lock from the front wheel ! Checked for damage but the brake calliper looked OK and the bike ran smoothly enough afterwards except for a very small brake judder when front braking but not enough of a problem to stop the ride.
El Centro is only 65 miles from Yuma and even with a late start we still arrived at our motel just after midday but we were rewarded with an available room overlooking the inviting clear water of the pool.
We took the opportunity to do some washing and we ”hung” it out to dry draped over the bikes. My trousers took no more that fifteen minutes to dry, the heat of the day sapping out any moisture that dared to show its face.
It wasn’t long before we were in the pool, the water cooling us off in what was now 97 degrees of hot sun and cloudless blue sky topped off with palm trees. It was tempting to stay in the refreshing water but it was getting too hot to even stand on the concrete patio so we headed indoors to avoid getting sunburn.
WiFi connection at this motel was hopeless so a nearby Macdonalds had to serve as Tech headquarters which is a bit of a pain when you don’t really want to eat cardboard burgers and drink weak coffee. Mark emailed Ian to set up a rendezvous at our motel and Ian turned up at around 4 in the afternoon and we went off in search of a bar and restaurant which we found in the form of a Filipino establishment which was a first for me especially as everything in the area is Hispanic with El Centro sat directly on the Mexican border.
The time soon rolled by and it was time for Ian to return to base but we said that we would take a ride up to see him tomorrow morning around 11am.
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| Mark and son, Ian at the Naval Air Base in El Centro |
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