California!

---

O.K. Sorry for the LONG delay, i know that I'm about 5 weeks behind, so I will try to get caught up as best I can. So, to keep it interesting, I will continue to drink beer as I write, so maybe it will get funnier as it goes on!



We left Las vegas (cue Sheryl Crow) on a windy afternoon heading North then West to Death Valley. The wind was pretty strong and gusty varying from head-on to straight across the highway. This made the ride take a little longer than anticipated.

We got into the park and quickly began to decend to over a hundred feet below sea level. We Drove around the park and found a field of sand dunes and decided that it was time for a nice break. We took our water bottles and headed out for a hike. The dunes were great, but a little crowded, no solice to be found, but you could get far enough from the other people to have a dune or two to your self. On the way back to the bikes we decided that it was time to be juvenile and roll down the hill. I wanted to do cartwheels, but I had a severly sprained ankle and couldn't handle the impact. Dan did a high-kneed sprind and I opted for the barrel roll.

It was getting late and we had to get a move on to find a camping spot. The road leading out of the park went from about 100 feet below sea level to nearly 5000 feet above before the pass into the next valley! At the far end of the next valley was a gas station- restaurant- campground, so we pitched the tent and headed over for a bite to eat. The place was privately owned, but still on park grounds, so it had a homely feeling to it. the bartender was really personable and good for a chat, and we had to ask what it is like to live in a place that gets to over 110 f (44C) regularly. She just said it was only during the peak of the day that was bad because it always cooled off at night.

We were getting packed up in the morning, but Dan had a steak with him from Vegas that he was planning on cooking over the camp fire the night before, so he roasted it up for a late breakfast after i had eaten the buffet at the restaurant. Freshly grilled steak over wild mesquite- sounds tasty, even to a fin n' feathers kinda guy like me. We got on the road and started heading toward Santa Barbara. It was cold that morning, about as cold as it got for us in Alaska! We were getting battered by the wind a storm was rolling in and eventually the sky was completely cloudy. We made our way to the interstate and looked for a more interesting way to get from where we were to Santa Barabara, and the map indicated a road that went over the Los Padres National Forest and we asked a chick working at a gas station where we stopped to warm up- the temperature was about 34F. We noticed that it looked like thare was snow falling on the mountain, but the girl swore that it wasn't sticking to the road yet and that it is a good ride and it would take about an hour to get to Santa Barbara.

The road kept climbing up the hill, until we entered the cloud line. It was very peculiar, because we never got rained on, it just began snowing on us when we went up into the cloud line. The snow wasn't very strong, and wasn't sticking to the road. But the road kept going up... The snow got heavier- in and out of white out conditions. After a few miles there was a hint of snow gathered on the edge of the road. The snow was cloging the air by now and had covered the road way- and we were still going up! By the time we reached the pass the snow was about two inches deep on the road and the snow was freezing to my helmet vizor. Dan was in his half-helmet (peanut shell) and he had his yellow glasses on, slid down his nose to block the incoming snow that had caked on his glasses, able to squint above the rim to continue forward. We had to continue, the snow was falling at about two inches per hour and if we delayed we would get stuck. I was riding with my vizor open one notchso my breath wouldn't freeze to the inside and the snow kept freezing to the outside. We were driving about 20 MPH (about 10 around curves), slow enough not to slip and fast enough to get out of the storm. Finally as the sun was setting, and about two hours later we came down from the cloudline, and like the other side, no rain!

I began to get confused when we met up with the highway. I thought we were supposed to turn left, but the sign said that the highway we wanted to go to was to the right. So we headed up the highway to there we turned onto another highway that headed out towards the ocean. We stopped into a small store on the side of the road and asked how much farther to Santa Barabara. They told us that we were still two hours away! Frozen, tired and about to pass out from exhaustion from the extra stress that riding in advere conditions brings on, we looked at a map ant we had missed a turn on the road in the moutains that would have taken us to Ventura, about 30 minutes from Santa Barbara! Instead we were about four hours behind schedule and we missed dinner at Emilio and Oura's. Emilio is an old friend of mint that I hve known for 20 years. He was an exchange student in my house in Boise for two consecutive summers and we keep visiting each other all arou nd the world. he is now married to his beautiful wife Oura, who he met at UCSB.



The air got a little warmer on the coast, but it was pitch black out and we both suffered a bit of night blindness with the headlights of the oncoming traffic. That slowed us down a bit more and we didn't get to Santa Barbara until after 9 P.M. We pulled up to the apartment where Emilio's parents were visiting and his dad had cooked an amazing egggplant penne for dinner and had two dishes saved for us. That meal with a glass of vine warmed us right up. It suddenly donned on us that we had ridden through Alaska, the Yukon and all over B.C. and had not been snowed on once. But now that we were in Southern (Central to some) California we finally got snowed on!



We had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant and from there Dan and I split off to explore. We took our bikes up the winding road that goes up to the very top of the mountain that provides the picturesque backdrop for the charming city of Santa Barbara. We wandered about the city, going down to the pier area and into a microbrewery that had about 25 TVs with College Football on each one. We were looking for a quick snack and looked for a fast food place, but there aren't any in central Santa Barabra! It's nice, I guess not having gaudy national chains clogging the view and blocking local competition, but when you want some chicken nuggets you want something mass-produced, quick and convenient! We found a McDonald's a few miles away from the city center and they had a deal on that day 50 chicken McNuggets for only $10! Such a thrifty idea at the time and such a painful regret afterwards. We met up with Emilio's parents and one of their friends and went out for Indian food. When we got there Emilio met this guy up frot and was deeply ingaged in conversation and I went to the table to sit woth everybody else. The guy happened to be Jay Freeman, AKA Saurik, the guy that unlocked the iPhone allowing people all over the world to use the phone with their local service.

We had a great meal and we were all stuffed. We headed back to Emilio and Oura's for a few before heading out on the town. One of their friends went with us, but Oura stayed behind suffering from a cold. We went to a bar that featured habanero margaritas and we got a good buzz on before heading over to a club that was hopping. It was crazy, all the ladies were decked out, while the guys were all wearing board shorts, t-shirts and flip flops! We stayed there for a couple hours and then headed back to crash.

The next morning we all went to a great restaurant about halfway between S.B. and Ventura for brunch. There we said our good byes and headed onto L.A. We got a bit of a late start and took a detour to Ojai, where the Indian philosopher Krishnamurti lived and hosted retreats and seminars. That took a couple of etra hours, but well worth it! One of the most beautiful places in al of California. We didn't get much further before we had to stop for the night. We stopped off at a motel and got some good rest before braving the chaos of L.A.

---