A View from the Road

                                          The view in front of me the last three days

I have arrived in Beautiful Downtown Burbank! I am finally really warm. The drive into LA from Kingman was nice with temperatures in the 70's. Traffic didn't get fretful until I40 joined I15 in Barstow. From there on it was crowded with some stop and go at times.
      Yesterday and today as I drove along I40 and remembered when, as a child, my parents would drive to California on Route 66. There are sections that are marked you can get off on. They have really begun to memorialize the old Mother Road. But I would look over beside the interstate and see a section off to the side and remember driving there. We would have the windows down to try and cool the car. Some of the buildings and attractions can still be seen.  My parents didn't buy cars with radios and that was a little early for air-conditioning. So we read the burma shave signs and did our alphabet off license plates, competing to see who could get done first. And, of course, with music teacher parents we sang lots of rounds.
       The winds were gusty out across the desert as the day warmed and at a rest stop a man walking his dog asked if it was wearing on me. I said I was beginning to notice. But really it wasn't as bad as the wind around Antonito on my way to Santa Fe. The semi trucks would often shield you from the crosswind if you wanted to stay beside them.
     After I graduated from High School I rode with my friend Frank Miles on a couple of Yamaha 350cc two strokes from Boulder Colorado to Shelby Michigan and back. We were under equipped and under funded, but with the blind determination of youth off we went. Even at the time it was clear these were not road bikes! We did have some engine trouble, but we met some great people and had a good time. But the memory of that trip makes this trip so much better. To sit on this big BMW in the wind is to almost not notice it. There is no buzzing through the handgrips like those little Yamhas, but this bike even has cruise control so you don't have to grip it at all! Truly it is a pleasure to get older and experience this improving technology.
       Yesterday morning early before I left for Kingman, one of my sons called to see how it had been getting out of Salida. We talked a bit and then I mentioned that I felt out here and away and was going to spend the day getting to somewhere else I would be alone. Surrounded by people I didn't know in somewhat unfamiliar surroundings. Which was somewhat the point of the trip, to explore, and meet people. But as I rode to Kingman, if I was stopped, I would check my phone for messages and see responses about this blog. I realized that I was far from being alone. As I thought about those trips in the 50's to California and my trip today it is amazing the difference now. My wife is reading this blog in Jakarta Indonesia! And the gear today, my daughter called twice to check my process which I can answer just by saying "answer" in my helmet while I am driving and then talk to her. But by far the biggest feeling of being connected are the comments and likes from all of you that are reading here. Thank you, I feel very connected to my community, my tribe. It certainly is a different feeling than when Frank and I rode to Michigan.
     I am going two spend a few days with my daughter's family before I start up the coast. Stay tuned.
Will by the Ocean.