Road Trip Day 3

Sunday morning an early start out of Orange County and through Los Angeles. Early in the morning it was not as busy as the previous evening, but there is not time when the freeways in LA are quiet. Driving for over an hour at freeway speeds (in excess actually, everyone breaks the speed limit here) and you are still in the greater LA area – it is huge.

I decided to take the back way up to Sacramento – over to Mojave and up the East side of the Sierras on Highway 395 and over to Tahoe and down 50 to Sacramento.

In the Antelope Valley there were great displays of California Poppies, then on in the high desert around Mojave there were still some flowers left (the record amount of rain this year has delivered a remarkable display of flowers in the desert – they are past their best now, but there was still some nice colorful displays in places).

Things got a little tricky around Mammoth and Mono Lake with some really high winds. It was a little difficult keeping the bike on track – a motorcycle is a lot more susceptible to winds than a car. It all got so bad around Mono Lake when I was literally driven off the road by a squall of dust, tumbleweeds, and other debris. Shortly after that I arrived upon the scene of an accident – a semi truck had been driven across the road by the wind and had flipped over. I waited while the two guys in the cab scrambled out of their cab – they seemed to be shaken but otherwise no real damage. I bet you get fired as a driver when that happens.

I got out of the wind when I crossed over into California on the Kingsbury Grade, but then it started to rain. That’s not what I wanted for my drive over Echo Summit. So with a great deal of timidity I crept up the hill and sneaked over the summit in a light drizzle. I thought I was home free but just 60 miles from Sacramento the rain turned into a downpour and I was stuck in the middle of it – the visibility was terrible. I stopped at a coffee shop in Placerville until it subsided a little. Not to worry, the electric vest did its job and kept me nice and toasty, and of course the BMW comes with heated hand grips.

I finally arrived home a little soggy but safe and sound after a 1200 mile round trip. It was a great experience and it took in some of the best parts of California. I do feel that I am a much more experienced rider because of it. My top three lessons learned are:

1. Don’t ride in busy LA freeways if you can at all avoid it.
2. When there are extreme winds, it is not nice - try and avoid them.
3. If it rains really hard, stop, drink coffee and eat pie until it stops.