June 19 2023 Day Seventen

 June 19 – Upland CA – Day 17

 

Boy how quickly things can change; I’m sitting here with a long sleeve shirt on thinking about putting on a pair of jeans because it’s downright cold here in Upland CA. The temp is only 67 and even in reverse (76) it doesn’t match the temps I was dealing with just on the other side of the mountains. It’s cold and according to Mike it’s been that way for most of the spring and may last a few more days, none of the excessive heat warnings here.

 

Today’s ride wasn’t too bad because I did get going early enough just after 9:00 and at that time the temp in AZ was only about 85, not excessive heat yet. I did check it along the way on the bike every once in a while, and it did get close to 100, but never did reach it. I also didn’t have to worry about gas either because Nan had already mapped it out and suggested I stop in AZ for gas, specifically Quartzsite which was in range for my new bike and according to her close enough to the California border that it was a good place for me to lose my freedom and done the helmet. Oh Yeah, helmet for the remainder of my West coast swing and I’ll be looking forward to heading East.

 

Ok I did hit a slow stretch when I neared Palm Springs because of some construction and the road was backed up a bit so boots down on the Interstate again. There was a guy pulling a boat that rolled down his window and told me that I could white line it and I did acknowledge that I knew that, but probably not a good idea in a construction zone so I did save myself some gas and just shut off the bike and coasted downhill until it was my turn to get thru the construction. I was back up to highway speeds pretty quick and that was about the time I notice how strong the winds had become coming off the mountains. On the East side so it was more a head wind than anything and I could sure feel it, especially when I did stop to get more gas after having stopped at Palm Springs Harley only to find them closed today, likely because of the Juneteenth holiday. I had stopped to figure out how to fix my navigation because I can load a map for each of my trips onto my bike, but for some reason if I don’t follow the directions most of the way ad pause the thing to use the Siri directions it seems to want me to do U-turn and go back to the beginning so I can get to my destination. Every time it tells me it is recalculating; I was hoping it was doing it from where I am and not where I needed to start or need to finish. Oh well, more to learn about this HD navigation. 

 

It wasn’t far after Palm Springs, and I was on the West side of the mountains and things did start getting cold. I did think about stopping and putting on a jacket, but I think I can make it before I get too cold. Oh yea, and I got to white line it a few times. Now that it wasn’t construction it was trying to figure out which lane is better to white line, but after another biker went past, I got what I was doing, any line can be white lined, and I noticed you don’t have to wait for people to move because as soon as you get close to them, they’ll move. What a rush hitting it hard while the rest of traffic is watching out for me speeding by, I just don’t need someone making a lane change when I’m not expecting it. 

 

Made it in good time to my cousin Mike and his wife Jane’s place and my first thing to do after unpacking the bike is getting the shower in to feel human again. Not too bad today since it wasn’t as long a ride as others and less dirty as all the other southern states I’ve been in, but dirty enough. Jane isn’t home so it was just Mike and I and he took me to the local place with coupon for an early dinner, at least earlier than I have been eating lately and a pretty good meal with a large drink. Hopefully it was ok with Jane that I got to use the coupon with Mike instead of her since Mike said they usually wait for the coupon to come out so they can make a trip to eat. Good food and it definitely hit the spot. Tomorrow, I am going to make an attempt to see some of the Wells Fargo employees whose system I was supporting for the last 8-year contract that I was on at WF. Now I might be able to put a face to the voice.