The Native Iowan

Tuesday morning, my time. I am tooling down highway 5 through central California. It is fitting I end this road-trip by road. I was thinking of flying out of Sacramento. Looked at a couple of options. But grabbing a rental and driving to LA is what I decided to do.

Pulled out of Manteca about 8am. It was almost too easy to get on the road, on 4 wheels.

One thing I think of quite a bit is the fact that I wore ‘leathers” for 5 days straight. I shall describe my leathers in-depth in another posting but the gear weighs quite a bit and, though comfortable, is restrictive. The pants don’t zip down but do “open up” a bit so pumping the bilges in the leathers is less than easy.

I sit at a “Denny’s” about 100 miles out of Bakersfield. LA 200 miles away.

I know most people on this wonderous planet think all coffee is either instant or created by a large, noisy machine. One thing I like about the USofA is what I call – an honest cup of coffee. Choose the right franchise and you get a good cup of honest coffee refilled as many times as you wish. No froth or fluff. Just a nice dark and bitter cup of joe.

Driving through CAL is OK. Traffic is thick in most all places. The roads are not that great. Lots of commerce and business in this central valley so the roads are bizzy, bizzy.

California… what a place. Very cool and very weird. I always contend that CAL is not part of the USA. But rather a country unto itself. I need to do some research and write a bit on this wild and urbanised place. Bankrupted by Arnold, abused by generations, CAL is a golden land that shall forever be contested.

More later…