Earth, Wind, and... Motorcycles

I got through the entire weekend without updating my blog. Mostly visiting with family, which while blog worthy, didn't give me a whole lot to write about. But not to worry, I'm going to cover it all in this episode call Earth, Wind, and... Motorcycles. Buckle up boys and girls, it's going to be epic!

Let's continue where we left off last week.

Got up crazy early Friday morning, I'm pretty sure it was like 3:00 in the morning. But then again I was in bed sleeping by 8:30. I really don't want to mess up my sleep schedule to go home just to fix it. I didn't want to leave because I had this awesome room and I was in Vegas, which from the view out my window it was still happening. Noticed exhibit A -

EXHIBIT A

After dropping a couple bucks in the slot machines I packed up and headed out. First stop Hover Dam. I had been here a million times when I was kid from visiting in summers and don't remember it being so close to Vegas, but then again I wasn't driving either. My grandma likes to take road trips quite a bit and sometimes the route would be over the dam.

Fun Fact: The Hover Dam name was changed to Boulder Dam at one time. The people of Boulder didn't want to give Hover the credit of having built the dam (or something like that). It was huge financial burden and people died in the building of it. Eventually it was changed back. (please no fact checking)

Boulder / Hover Dam

The dam has changed A LOT since I was last here. You used to be able to drive over and it and keep on going. Now they have the highway going over the dam and the other side closed. I drove down and over to the other side, snapped this photo, then was back on my way.

Things started warming up quite quickly at that point. I think by the time I rolled into my aunts house a couple hours later it was in the 100's. Luckily it wasn't to far. Here is a couple shot of the grounds around the house.

And last but not least, two of the finest people in the world - Terri and Steve.

I got there about 12:30 and by 10:00 that night, 2 bottles of wine and a few beer, we never left the table chatting. It was a great day! The next morning I was off again! 

I had intended on going to the Grand Canyon on this trip, but the dust bowl heat was starting to get to me. I headed straight to Phoenix to visit my cousin about 7 that morning, hoping to miss most of the heat. While I'm sure that was true for the most part, it was well into the 100's by the time I got to Phoenix. It was worth the trip, I had lunch with my cousin and his wife, who again are two more of the finest people in the world. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were to busy talking about our summers together growing up and other family members. There is always plenty to talk about in our family. Here is Mike and I.

I fell a sleep that night right before 8 and was back at it at 5:00 the next morning. I had to miss the heat, it's brutal and you can't escape it. It was already in the 80's (or maybe it was never cooler) and I hoped on the interstate heading to Las Angeles. I would as a rule try to avoid any interstates, but this was an emergency to get out of the dust bowl. I did snap this awesome picture of the sun coming up in my mirror.

Welcome to California sign

The wind farm in Palm Springs

This is where things started to get crazy. The wind was beating me up and would not let up. It kicked my ass all the way to LA. There were some small things to help distract me from the madness, like knowing I was on Ventura Highway and putting on the song "Ventura Highway" by American and listening to it. I wasn't by the ocean to long after I got through LA, but I was able to snap this shot. Pretty sure it was my first view of the ocean this entire trip. Only look 4,000 miles + to get me here.

The magician -

I made it a couple hundred more miles and traffic started getting bad. I'm not sure if people were heading into San Francisco and this was the norm or what, but there was a few times when the traffic was at a dead stop. Luckily for me it wasn't burning up outside, in fact I think it was in the 80's. However, I did want to get into San Francisco so I could enjoy it while the sun was still up. After about 20 minutes of weaving my way through traffic trying to figure out which lane would be the best to stay in, I saw a guy in my peripheral vision trying to talk to me. In most situations I might have just ignored him since I had ear plugs in and takes a lot of effort to hold a conversation, but this situation felt different. I waited for him to pull up next to me so I could understand him. The truck looked like something you would see in Kentucky and he was smiling real big. There was a lady sitting next to him smiling just as big and looking agreeable to whatever he was trying to tell me. I pulled my helmet front up and asked him to repeat himself. 

He was yelling "SPLIT HE LANE". I didn't understand. I replied with "I'm sorry?", looking confused. "SPLIT THE LANE DUDE!!! YOU'RE IN CALI, YOU CAN RIDE DOWN THE MIDDLE". It took me a minute to grasp what he was saying and all of a sudden something magical happened. Time slowed down and looked at the traffic in front of me and back at him. His voice echoed this time and with an even bigger smile he yelled "SPLIT THE LANE". I felt my foot my pop the bike into first great with a hard thump and I revved the bike with the clutch still pulled in. This feeling of entitlement came over me.... no no no.... not entitlement, SUPER POWER!!! With that first rev of the bike a whole new road opened up right in the middle of the cars and it was laid out with pretty white stripes. I glanced over at my new friend (aka the magician who gave my bike super powers) and give him a big thumbs up. I felt like the girl in the passenger seat was applauding for me, I'm sure she wasn't but it felt like it. 

I took off in between all the cars with a little scream like someone had just jumped out behind a wall and scared me. And then people started moving out of my way! This is when the feeling of entitlement took over and I owned the road. I might as well of had a police escort. After that traffic was no longer an issue, ever.

I did make it into San Francisco with plenty of time to mess around, but I'll have to get to that tomorrow. I need to get on the road and to a winery by 8 tonight. I leave you with a picture of me having over indulged in wine and spirits last night.