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I officially began the USA Four Corners today. After obtaining the necessary gas receipt for the
SCMA (which proves address location, time, & date for
verification purposes) at the Chevron in San Ysidro, I headed for the Post Office down the street. I
handed the postal clerk my envelope with all the paperwork as well as my “official” photo of my bike in
front of the PO sign (yes, the gargantuan Polaroid camera actually worked). My official photo looks
like this:
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Hopefully USPS can deliver my envelope to the SCMA in a more timely fashion than FedEx delivered a package
to me prior to leaving Phoenix! Anyway, as I expected the postal employees are very familiar with
this USA Four Corners ride; when I walked inside the clerk said as I was approaching her station, “so I
guess you need that hand canceled, huh?” then “how many more corners do you need?” When I went back
outside to my bike I saw a man blowing freshly cut grass off the sidewalk. He came over to my bike
and said “so what number corner is this for you?” then asked me questions about my Suzuki V-Strom saying
he'd not seen such a bike before. “James” was a delight to meet! Said he has done the 4
Corners himself but in his motor home. He is quite the traveler and certainly knew some of the best
back roads in AZ. I said “good for you for getting out and seeing places” and his response was the
perfect start to my trip.. he said he was 1 of 9 kids and when his father died he saw the look of regret
on his face and then vowed to live with no regrets. He encouraged me to do the same and I assured
him he was, as they say in the South (my birthplace), “preachin' to the choir, brother!” We shook
hands, wished each other safe travels, and off I went. If I hadn't just submitted the official SCMA
envelope I would have had the picture of James beside my bike be the official photo of my first corner:
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Reset the GPS for the journey:
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My goal for today was to make it to Redding and do so at a reasonable hour. Having arrived before
7pm tonight I can say that I made extraordinarily good time given I navigated some of the worst traffic
areas in our country; extensive experience lane-splitting definitely paid off today. I took I-5
the entire way... Exit #1 to start the day, Exit #677 to end it. Since I waited for the Post
Office to open then talked with James a bit I didn't have any morning rush hour issues, just
congestion. I zipped through San Diego and roared past Camp Pendelton (USMC). Riding along
side the ocean made for wonderfully pleasant weather, almost a nip in the air which was most welcome
after yesterday's ride from Phoenix (it was 107 degrees when I left) as well as the searing heat I knew
I'd hit later in today's ride. LA vicinity traffic was, well, LA traffic. Bogged down near Anaheim,
West Hollywood, and Glendale, but I still kept a surprisingly strong pace even by my own standards. Once
I got out of the LA area and headed up the Angeles National Forest the temperature also rose. I
noticed on the ascent that the other side seemed incredibly smoky; once at the peak, to no surprise, there
was some type of forest fire burning. It was like riding thru a campfire - - smelled like it and the
smoke burned my eyes. As I was trying to mark in my GPS exactly where this fire was located I came
upon an exit sign noting the road to be, and I kid you not, “Smokey The Bear Rd.” Once I cleared the
smoke I stopped for gas and to flush my eyes out with saline; last thing I needed was to have eye fatigue
that early in the day. During the short break I also lubed the bike's chain.
Despite the heat and traffic the other issue was exploding tires, thankfully not belonging to me. I saw
3 different rigs throw large gator strips and I actually averted a close call from a tri-axle toy hauler that
was directly in front of me which had lost most of an outside tire but was unaware. Suffice to say
between my Stebel air horn and the ability to lane-split I got out of a potentially bad situation.
After “the 5” splits going to Bakersfield it's all agriculture country. The central valley of CA is
nothing but farmland... fruits, vegetables, cattle, you name it and it's probably grown there in regular
and organic flavors. Problem with riding in such an area is, well, trucks have to haul the stuff
away which means on the road you are never far from a truck that, say, has a overflowing load of tomatoes
and when said truck hits the slightest bump in the road then out come the tomatoes. I think I dodged
several dozen tomatoes! I also approached another convoy of open bed type rigs that appeared to be
hauling cotton since I could see small pieces of white stuff flying everywhere. The closer I got
the smell answered my question... onions.
The heat again today was searing. I'm soooo ready for cooler temps. At one point today after
hearing it was over 100 I passed a sign that said “Man lived 500,000 years without air conditioning...
aren't you lucky?” Geez, that certainly wasn't intended for motorcyclists.
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I didn't intend to take any pictures today since it was just a blaze up I-5 day but there was one sign
that said “Scenic Vista" so I exited to see “the view.” This was it: |
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Strange what Cal-Trans calls scenic, huh? |
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Tomorrow I head into Oregon and hope to ride a pair of Scenic Byways. If all goes well during this
journey, today should be the first and last day of blazing, both in miles and temperature.
Over & Out,
AGirl
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