Welcome to paradise

Miles: 5.5 + 0.8 side trail
Start time: 10:50am
End time: 1:17pm
High / Avg / Low temp: 54.2F / 51.4F / 49.2F
Relative Humidity Avg: 77.5%
Injuries: none to report

After we hunkered down for the night last night we expected it to get cold, and it dropped to 37F (2.8C) in the tent by 11pm and didn't get much better until sunup. 

Which was fine, our sleeping bags are rated to much coder, but it does give you a chilly experience as you are breathing that temp all night long, and if you move too much till get a rush of cold air into your bag, fun times, we did expect the colder temps in the desert though, balanced by hotter days, but today it just didn't get hot again, I'm told tomorrow will be warmer though, so it looks like our low water needs days are coming to an end, will be nice to not divert on breaks for sure

So it was also raining this morning, we knew we only had five miles to get to paradise cafe, who we know now greet you with, welcome to paradise, when you wander in, which given how nice of was compared to outside was quite the truthful statement.  So with a short day we started late, I an attempt to wait out the rain and poor weather, being cold is one thing, being cold, and wet, with near freezing winds is another thing all together.  We have a need to replace our rain gear, during our gear test it failed, so we applied, following the instructions carefully, new waterproofing agent, still not sufficient to stay dry, so we'll be acquiring something else soon methinks

Our five miles today were mostly uphill, and foggy, so we couldn't see much, but we did see a lot of different plant life and pretty flowers, the desert is certainly drinking in the recent moisture with glee

So paradise cafe, our destination was a lovely stop, we ordered our food and guzzled a bunch liquids, I had lemonade, and later some water, my lovely wife had a water, a beer, a coffee, and a coke, all at once, I love this woman, makes me proud er'ry day

After our meal we decided to flee out of the cold and wet, and head to idyllwild. So we did what all walking homeless want when they want to go somewhere, stuck our thumb out..

And ten minutes later a couple pulled over and offered us a ride, the lady in the car was super sweet and a real life actress from LA  who retired to the little town we wanted to go to, I looked her up after the ride and she has been in a load of movies and TV shows, including episodes in House and star trek next generation, she also insisted on giving us a tour of the town before dropping us off at our accommodations, the kindness of strangers is a constant source of amazement and a constant reminder of the value of gratitude