It only took a few days of hanging out in The City and I purchased some furniture. Specifically, a chair on a North Bound Boeing 737. It was time to head for home, and maybe get a couple of days of summer in Alaska.
But before I could get out of town my traveling compadre rang me
up. She was done in SoCal and wanted to stop in before heading to points
unknown. Sure, I said, I could use with a little ride, and I will meet up with
you out on the Airline Highway, in Coalinga. Okay, she said, where is that and
how do I get there from here? This is where it might have gotten iffy, but for over a month I had
been using the motor company app to program Ohms GPS, and then sending it to her
via text message, that she could open in her motor-company app, and then
send to her GPS. Simple, eh?
Navigation with the app didn’t start out as simple, first my phone
wouldn’t run it. My old phone just
didn’t have enough of whatever it takes to run the thing. Then I had to learn
to use the new phone, as it has plenty of whatever it takes to run it, but it
was all in a different place from my old model.
Then I
couldn’t find any instructions on how to use the app to program a route with
multiple stops and on specific highways, to avoid the interstates, and to get
to the obscure attractions we were going to get rewarded with trinkets from the
motor company.
I experimented with creating GPX files on the computer but getting them loaded into the bike proved difficult and they never seemed to work anyway. Finally, one evening and just by accident I moved the circle thing on to the road I wanted to ride on, clicked the + symbol and the app relined the route to exactly the roads we wanted to travel on. It was a true Eureka Moment.
After
that it was simple to create rides and share them. So all I had to do was create a route from where she was south of Bakersfield and get her to Coalinga.
Running down the Airline Highway is a great ride. It keeps you off
101, and the dreaded Interstate 5, but if you are short on time its not the way
to go. We had no issues with time today,
and so I started my compadres route just south of I-5’s junction with 166. At Maricopa she had to turn
right onto 33, and that was the last critical maneuver for her.
Me I had to get out of the city, Run on 280 through San Jose then 85 to 101. It’s a piece of cake after that, south through Gilroy then exit 101 at its junction with 25 The Airline Highway. That got its name from back in the old days before reliable radio communications, and pilots used the road for navigation.
Once you get through Hollister, I have pretty much always had the
road to myself, and this morning is no exception.
To my right over the hills and several miles away is highway 101, and to my left over the
hills several miles away is Interstate 5. Here it is just quiet and country side that is extremely dry. The few creeks that usually
have some water in them are just dust and rocks. This land is parched by climate change. I don’t have any idea what the few
cows out there are drinking, but someone must be bringing them some water. Cresting one hill I come across a huge field
of sunflowers.
At the entrance to Pinnacles National Park I stop to check the message I just received from my compadre. She in on the right road and heading north. I text back “heading to Coalinga” Looks like this just might work out.
The rest of the way is familiar territory and I’m enjoying the morning. As the highway turns more inland the temperature rises and reaches almost triple digits. As I near our meeting place I get trapped behind a semi, and two large pickups with trailers.
Another text comes in. My pal is waiting in Coalinga. I try to
call from Ohms that I am just a short distance away, but the signal is poor
here and possibly blocked by the slow-moving parade that I am stuck behind. Oh well I spot my pal in the shade just up
ahead, pull up and say let’s go to the filling station as I don’t have enough fuel
to return. I get to the station, but my compadre has gone another way and I am
almost done filling up by the time she arrives. Almost lost her again.
It’s a short break then we head north bound on the way I just came. Its a great ride but I got
to pack I’m out of here in the morning…
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