Saturday, July 17, 2010

Return to Major Civilization

It was cool and peaceful when I headed out of Jordan Utah. I could have put on chaps, and a sweatshirt under my jacket, but didn’t. The ride across the Salt Desert was interesting. The road goes through the salt. The ground on either side is white.



A few salt tolerant plants grow along the road but mostly it’s just salt. At Wendover the road leaves the salt flats and climbs up to 5000 or so feet. High desert country. That by the time I was approaching Reno the temperature was almost 100.

Several most welcome raindrops and a flash or two of lightning welcomed me back to the Sierra Nevada. As the traffic slowed for the road construction at the border, the radio sounded a defcon 4 warning for flash floods and all sorts of impending doom to the south of me. I do not ride in rain!
No defcon 5 warning for traffic did I hear so when all stop occurred I thought about how unpleasant it is to be stopped on the high way in triple digit heat. I tried parade mode but my instruments were going red. Red lights I had never seen before were appearing. I thought this is not good. As I wondered what to do, a hairy man on a softail with ape hangers went right by me splitting the lane. Before I could move out the Gold winger a few stopped cars ahead did. We went through almost 10 miles of stopped cars, picked up one other rider along the way. Peppermint would not have liked that ride.

More stopped traffic on either side of Sacramento, and again at the Bay Bridge. The City welcomed me back with cool fog, and more stopped traffic.
After paying the toll Zumo trickster gps wanted to go on 101. I wanted to go 280. We had a conflict. I took a shortcut through The City. As we cruised by the north side of Golden Gate Park groups of coddled youth were singing songs and carrying signs, supporting such un amerikan things as Universal Health Care, and Stop the Endless War.

Zumo trickster gps had stopped speaking to me? So I stopped for some coffee and some more layers of riding gear. After the break in perfect English zumo said we had to make two turns, we did and were right on 208 headed south.

Not a bad day of riding from Salt Lake City to San Francisco.


Maple Surple

1 comment:

  1. You're right, I would not have liked the lane splitting. Glad you're back safe and sound, my friend. I'm outta here tomorrow a.m. See you at home soon.

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