Day 33 - September 7 The Missing Piece

It not clear whether it's the heat or the anticipation of the comfort of our own beds, but we all seem to be ready to ride earlier than usual.  This morning we were saddled up and headed out at 7am. Torrey came in from the balcony patio and said, "I don't think it ever cooled off last night."  It was already 77 degrees.  Today is the day that we got get that southwestern most HD store and complete Torrey's goal of reaching all 4 corner HD's of the continental United States.

With the intent of taking CA371 to CA79 we plugged Warner Springs into the GPS and pressed go.  The garmin thought better of our decision and took us south on CA86 back towards the Salton See and Salton City.  Shannon was able to capture a pic of the date trees and how they go about protecting their harvests.

Once there we turned west onto CA78 which led us to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. CA- S22 gave us a tour through the place and.  It felt like we were in the middle of no where.  That said, if deserts are your thing, this one is sure to please.  It did make me think that this was California's version of the Badlands in a few places.

We cruised along CA- S22 until it took us to CA- S2 which landed us in Warner Springs.  Here it intersects with CA79 which was a winding fun road to ride.  We all took notice of the homemade pie store in Julian as we rolled through.  From there is was CA67 into Ramona and south down to I-8 and into El Cajon, CA. 

From there is was just a short distance to Sweetwater HD in National City where we accomplished what Torrey had set out to do in his dream ride.  By making it here, the group had now hit all 4 "corner" HD stores.  As excited as we were about this accomplishment and the more than 12,000 miles it took to get here, it was a bit anti-climatic to be honest.  The store didn't have any dealer pins or patches (both of which Torrey has collected from each of the other corners), nor did they have a shirt that marked all the corners.  We did find shirts that stated they were the southwestern most dealer and the nice gal working in motorclothes agreed to contact us when their next shipment of pins and patches arrived. 

Next up on the agenda was lunch.  Nobody was too keen on hanging around in this area very long due to the traffic.  We didn't get caught in it like we typically do, but we also didn't want to wait around to give it a chance to either.  Everyone liked CA67 and there was that pie shop in Julian.  Thus we opted to go back to the "mountains", as Tim called them, for lunch.

The ride back up was as fun as the ride down.  The road had twisties, climbs and a few dips in it too.  Strangely, it was warming up as we went back up the hill.  It's strange because usually elevation drops temperature, but in this case it wasn't that much elevation and we were moving away from the water and the humidity.  By the time we hit Julian it was 80 degrees.  Lunch was at the Apple
Country Restaurant.  The food was good and the pie was too. 

For our return trip to Indio, we decided to take the route we meant to take this morning.  So when we reached Warner Springs we stayed on CA79 north which then meant that we took CA 371 to CA111. As we were so close, we decided to drop in on the Palm Springs HD on our way home. 

We returned to our lodging via I-10.  By then it was over 100 degrees in Palm Springs and the pool and hot tubs were refreshing after that heat.  

Total mileage today: 350.8 miles;
Time to travel that distance: 9.5 hours
Total Cumulative Miles: 12,203.8
Tomorrow: Utah is close to home