West Coast

Krista and Apryl were nice enough to set me up with a bed and play host in LA, which was great because LA was overwhelming.  It felt a little like NYC in that there were people all over the place (most of them just happened to be in cars).  It was like a sunny warm and dry version of the city that had been squashed flat and had the effective subway removed.

Just a couple days there and I'm already missing the bakery - and I hardly got a chance to see the Bigfoot Lodge.  We saw the view from the hills, saw the hollywood sign and some stars in the concrete and ate some great food.  Arlo, the puppy that likes to pounce, and I were buddies also.  Driving in LA did not appeal to me in the least (thanks Apryl for driving) ... and a motorcycle seemed crazy.  People are driving every which way and quickly - they are also angry because there are no left turn signals.

I navigated west to the beach and then followed 101 and the 1 north: huge beaches, surfboards on beetles, volleyball in the sand etc.  The desire to get home was pretty strong and it didn't leave me until I got into the redwoods.  There is something about those huge old trees that makes rushing around seem silly.  I did manage to escape the forest before the moss started growing on me ... but only just.

Oregon decided to spend a bunch of stimulus money on fixing roads I think because there was construction everywhere.  I finally gave up on the coast and turned in to get on I-5.  Despite the construction I made some serious miles until  I got to WA.  Washington welcomed me home with darkness and rain (only real rain of the trip).  Reluctantly I gave up my dreams of being in my own bed and found a motel for the night.

And finally after a short cold ride this morning I'm home again.  The apartment is trashed from digging in the closets looking for those last couple items ... but the pjs are awesome!  I think I need one more post as an end cap - maybe tomorrow.

Wonderful Windmills

Made it to the Village Bakery in L.A. and am overjoyed to just be sitting with my americano.  I'm a little worried about the air being a general shade of gray (I pondered and didn't see any other color being better: yellow - no; brown - yuck, and blue - just weird).  Traffic was good for an adrenaline generating thrill, but before that part there was the windmills.

The windmills by Palm Springs are so cool!  Looking at them reminds me of huge flowers or a steampunk landscape.  The wind what is pushing all those blades makes for a rough ride on a motorcycle though.  Thankfully the windy part didn't last too long.

Halloween

Construction, grooved hwy, traffic and smelly cows made getting out of El Paso suck.  I had to go through a iimmigration checkpoint (not at the border).  The check consisted of them asking me if I was a citizen, I say yes, they say okay go.  There was also a cracked out dog sniffing for drugs and multiple very impressive arrays of cameras and camera like objects.  Really that dog was nuts - I think he gets to eat some of the cocaine that he finds.

I finally took the visor off my helmet: less drag, and noise.  But by the afternoon I was missing the shade.  Instead of putting it back on I choose to take a little nap on a wonderfully cool concrete table at the rest stop.  I was reminded by a sign at the stop that there are poisonous snakes and scorpions about ... spiders too I bet.  Not the best thoughts as I try to take a snooze.

I was bored on the ride so was watching the miles per gallon readout on my bike as I pulled up next to the big rigs or when I was behind them.  There seems to be a little bit of a shock wave that extends out next to the trucks that helps my mpg.  Behind the trucks is no fun because there is some serious buffeting from the left and right that make it really uncomfortable.  There was one truck, the magic truck where the experience was completely different.

After my nap I was merging back onto the road and I noticed this pocket of dead calm behind a truck hauling a chunk of a skyscrapper crane base.  It was tall and the openness of the tubes seemed to prevent buffeting - in fact it was eary how quiet it was in that pocket.  Oh, not only was it quiet and calm but I was getting a 50% gain in mpg.  The mpg boost, quiet, and the puzzle of how it worked kept me attached to the truck like a pilot fish to a shark for a while, until I decided that I wanted to get out of sun sooner vs saving the gas.

I'm too tired to find there words to do it justice but there was a sunset by Red Rock - golden and stretching all the way to the east, the super high clouds created by jets and then blown apart to look like a school of fish

Austin - El Paso

There was a small group of people traveling down Hwy 10 and with all the rest stops and gas ups we kept passing each other.  Those trucks are the tortoise to my hare like bike (a larger gas tank would help).  I really enjoyed getting in to the desert.

Some Photos

There is something beautiful and sad about the places that we have built and then left.

Under the Hill Saloon and Mark Twain guest house in Natchez on the river.

Always a fan of cool bridges.

Natchez cemetery

Austin food trucks for the brunch win today!

Cacti for the yard - do you even have to water them?

XOXO Austin I love the park by the river.

Natchez Pottery

I ended up catching part of a work shop by Yoshi Fujii which made me remember how much fun making pottery is. The town has a nice little pottery co-op space, which seems like a great way to share the cost.

Fallingwaters to Natchez

Tuscaloosa was fun once I met up with a couple people from ebay (Rebecca and Caesar). Caesar and I got talking about there is a space for us to expand and create into, which was almost a direct quote from a book that I'm currently reading. 

The pine trees are back!  Thank you Mississippi, I didn't expect this from you.  I don't understand why if you have enough money to build a huge house (I mean really huge) why would you build it next to a hwy?

Just as the sun was getting low in the sky the temp dropped down enough that I had to zip up and turn the hand warmers on again.  It was so warm this morning that I was really caught off guard.  The locals are saying that it is pretty cold for them, but heading that way.  I thought all the south was supposed to be warm - like all the time.

I'm looking forward to the change from this wet and humid to the dry of the desert.  Like St Louis Lisa said - the desert is a magic place.  Also looking forward to Austin ... My new friend here says that it is a little like NOLA.