Day Nine: Baker - Shoshone

The night was hot as hell. We woke up at 5 a.m. and gasped for air like fish out of water before deciding to get out of Baker. We slathered on loads of sunscreen for the over 100-degree day ahead of us and set out toward Tecopa, a town with a large hot springs resort and campground. The ride was absolutely treacherous: the first 30 miles were flat but riddled with headwinds, and the last 30 were straight uphill. When we finally reached Tecopa and were out of water, we found out that the hot springs was actually 6 miles out of the way, so we continued on to the next town that was on our route, Shoshone. It was a beautifully quaint and tropical town with a population of 31 and a refreshing pool filled with water from the hot springs. The sole place to stay was the Shoshone Inn, which is run by a lovely old woman named Elaine. Elaine is extremely chatty, but still lovely. We ate some grub at the diner across the way, took a dip in the pool (where Slater was eaten alive by bugs), and checked in for a night full of Modern Family episodes and snacks for dinner. We love Shoshone.