Day 4: The "Town" of Amboy

After waking up in desert earlier than usual we headed out to make it to 29 Palms the nearest town outside of Joshua Tree.  The last 12 miles of Joshua Tree were amazing as we cruise downhill as the sun rose over the desert.  We geared up at the parks north entrance were we spoke with a ranger who guided to our next stop in Amboy.  He told us their is a store in Amboy and that was really all, but if it was closed we would be in deep trouble because there was nothing else for miles.  So prevent disaster we bought 2 extra gallons of water at the gas station and headed into the desert.  About a mile down the road Jody's trailer got a flat which we were unsure of how to fix because the trailers had tubeless tires, so we returned to the same gas station where we were able to find some never flat tire fixer and we pumped the tire full of gunk and it seemed to solve the problem.  Thankfully we were once again provided for and headed out into the flat expansive desert.  We knew that we had to make it over sheeps pass which was our only obstacle before coasting into Amboy.  The mountain proved to be quite and obstacle which took us over an hour to traverse.  Cresting the hill we flew down into the desert as the temperature began to rise as we descended. None of us really knew what to expect when we reached Amboy but one thing was for sure we really hoped the store would be open.  We leveled out into the salt flat which although beautiful were some of the most barren depressing things I have ever seen.  With the heat rising we passed an abandoned Salt Company in the bottom of the desert.  Terrified that this was the town we flagged down a car who assured us the town was only 5 miles away and the store was open.  Finally Finally we rolled into Amboy where we immediately ran into the store to seek some cold beverages and food.  Our plan was to hang out for the rest of the afternoon and gear up for a long night ride to propel us out of the desert.  Amboy had once been a post War War boom town located on Route 66 but has since died away with the advent of I-40.  All that remains is a small gas station and post office.  We spent the afternoon chatting with Mike the store about life in the desert, here we also met Woombeom Lee a student from South Korea who was riding across the country solo in an effort to raise awareness about the atrocities occuring in North Korea.  We ate a meal of raw ramen noodles and went to sleep in an abandoned airplane hanger where we tried to sleep with a strong wind banging on the tin roof all night.