Day 11–We arrived in California…Yea!

We made it to California and except for a flat tire, rain, snow, sleet, cold, heat, leaking shock, and a GPS cradle failure, it’s been a challenge that I relished. I’m still surprised that Lori choose to go with me on this adventure but she is not one to be left behind. I’m sure sometime in the future when I’m dead an gone, she will be telling stories about this trip to all her friends and laughing about what a silly man I was to drive a motorcycle from coast to coast. I have a saying that I live by mainly because of my Dad who never got to do all the things that were on his bucket list and it goes like this, “Live life as to leave no regrets”. So with that said it gives me the eternal power not to fear the things that would stop most in their tracks and I hope my 2 boys both do as I did and not do because their Dad wished he did. I loved my Dad but it always pained me that he did not follow his dreams.

 

We woke up this morning to a bright warm sun and by 8am, our normal departure time, it was 80 degrees forecasting close to a 100. I took this opportunity to dress in only Under Armor tee-shirt and shorts and then put on the riding gear. I told Lori to do the same, but Princess would not have it. Well we didn’t get far and I got the request to stop so she could make some adjustments. I knew it was going to be hot and I knew the desert still lay between us an San Diego. So with both dressed to fight the heat and geared for safety, off we went crossing into California and into the long hot straight drive across a desert of no name. It lays between Lake Havasu City and Panama Springs but for the life of me I cannot find it. I think Mojava, but not sure. We saw a few funny things crossing like and sign giving directions to all points of the compass. Then a abandon gas station and a fence row of hundreds of tennis shoes tied to them. It looked like some club thing happening there, but what it meant was a mystery to me. We also went through a vegetable or plant check point and I thought we were going to have give up our Hampton Inn apple that we took for a snack, but they let it pass. Then we went through a border patrol looking for aliens. Aliens?? We looked like aliens in our suits and we are from Virginia, so are we like in trouble? Nah! Let the old people through….Lori will read this soon and I will catch grief, but it funny trying to hide it here.

Going through Palm Springs and feeling how hot it was, it made me wonder why Bob Hope loved it so much. To me, the only thing that was interesting was the 1000’s of windmills they had installed to generate power. The wind in this area was a little disturbing at times when it hit you hard broad side and your moving at 70 mph. Nothing dangerous, but alarming at times. I guess Bob loved this place because he could play golf year around.

I do not know what the highest temperature was along our route today but it was hot. I loved it but I do not think Lori was to keen on it. Then we made a dramatic climb out of the Barrago Desert from 700 to 4700 feet in short order. As we dropped into the San Diego area the temps dropped by 20 to 25 degrees by just crossing the ridge. It dropped fast enough we had to stop and put a liner into our jackets. Then we cutoff on a road named East Grade road and it was incredible twist-o-thon of a road that made a great ending of the day compared to hot straights that we had ridden this day. I do not know why, but I’m really surprised at how green it is here. I really was expecting it to be brown all over California but it’s not.

Tomorrow will be a none travel day for us but it will be a day full of motion in a different way. Lori will be taking care of the laundry, and I know what all the women out there are thinking, but I got change the oil, wash the bike, and try to find a Gerbing heat cord duty tomorrow. Yes, I’m changing the oil myself, I brought my tools. So I will end this blog here, because I have to plan my route tomorrow to get all this done.

Todays run was 445 miles, and our total is now 4480.

Click here for todays pictures:

The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.