Some days the road doesn’t count. What counts is that you are going…
San Francisco was too much fun, but the point of this trip is to get to South America right? Like a long gone ex girlfriend that creeps in your thoughts when you’re riding for too long without music, this city will do the same. Did I miss something there, should I have stayed or there is more beiond that bridge? Well, unlike the ex, a place takes you back without too much begging.
After a little bit too much freeway, we are back on the one. Freeways in big cities are fun, as long as you don’t have a bunch of people trying to follow you. Four, five lanes, heavy traffic, I can’t help but imagine that I’m like a little speck Of dust or a blood cell, getting carried away into something bigger. In our case, it’s probably an oil spill in a river…
After some foggy, moist riding we get to see the sun once again, just before it sets. We’re in Big Sur. Pretty place, slightly overrated if you ask me. Perhaps I got spoiled from all the amazing places we’ve encountered so far. However, the campsite charged us 60$ US for the night and just because of that, I’d choose to never return. It’s ridiculous, but at the time it was our only option. We met some interesting characters and ended up staring the remains of the super moon by the river, wasn’t so bad after all. 12$ for a bundle of wood by the way. No fire that night…
What counts you cannot see, you can only imagine. Some dreams can make you bleed a little bit.
The day after was grand. Early start, sunny, warm and more HWY 1! The only problem were the cars that drove too slow on the curves (double solid line) and then blast out full throttle on the straights, making it impossible to overtake. I was just getting upset about it, when my bike started handling funny. Yeah, the rear was flat. The tube couldn’t choose a better place to give up. It was right before a beautiful view, close enough to a service station so Dane could go and pick up some sandwiches while I was taking the tire off. Black trash bag, put the tire in and have a sandwich while enjoying the view. Then the tire gets off like a charm. While I was putting on the tire and Dane was exploring around a van passed by, with a guy sticking his head out. Sure enough they are back in a minute. It was Josh and Ashley. A really nice couple on a road trip with their kick ass van that Joshua put together himself. They fed us, gave us water, help and we exchanged stories and our info. The World is small and round, I’m sure we’ll meet again. Sadly I forgot to take a picture…
Finished the day in Morro Bay, had way too much chinese food and went to sleep. Next day was about to change the sccenery quite drastically.
After seeing Elephant seals and zebras bunched each on their side of the road we take the 166 heading East. It got cold very quick as we gained a bunch of elevation in short time, the landscape became more arid, after some time I start hallucinating. Ennio Morricone in the background and tumbleweed. Lots of it…
Well, the tumbleweed was real. Pretty cool sight, so we stop to have some fun before heading further up, past Bitter creek on the 95. Very cool ride, both Literally and figuratively. Most probably our coldest day in California.
More fun roads, some trails and we end up in Victorville. A big town in the middle of the desert I guess. We got there when it was quite dark already.
It was one of those days the next day, the plan was something, we did something else. We were aiming for Yuma, we ended up staying in Joshua tree NP. As we entered in the park we stop on the side of the road, flip the coin, “yeah, we stay”.
Very busy park and I soon understood why. It is a very special place, huge boulders surrounding Joshua trees, which are basically Yuccas on steroids. Yucca is something more like a palm tree, that in Slovenia grows indoors. As a decorative plant. Here they grow into big ass trees. Every housewife dream.
As we’re doing a beer run, we meet Claire. A biker lady on her way from Alaska. We soon agree that we’ll stick together for beers and campfire. It was like meeting myself, a couple of years younger in a female version. Are we bikers really all the same? Might be.
Let the good times roll! We’re out, direction unknown.