Day 30 July 23

We are half way into our trip (or are we?)

Heat ! Heat coming from the sky. Heat coming from the asphalt. Heat blowing in our faces.

Leaving Fort Bragg, the ocean cooled temperature was in the 50's. By the end of the day, it topped out over 100. We left in leather, but soon stripped to one shirt. After huge acreage of irrigated farmland, the terrain changed to rolling hills of brown dotted with a few dark green shrubs.

We travelled out route 20, East to visit our nephew on the other side of the state. We were looking forward to Clear Lake for lunch and it was cooler under the trees, but the lake has a blue algae bloom and the heat makes it noxious. Overlooking all that, we still enjoyed our lunch with each other.

Garberville, a small town along the way, was a throwback to the 70's, replete with lost children in dreadlocks pan-handling on the streets. Humboldt County is a Mecca of sorts because of the loose pot regulations and great numbers of growers.

On the highway, the wind dried our sweat, but in the towns with traffic lights and other obstacles, the heat rose. With no respite, we were at the mercy of the elements. We roared across the state and ended in Grass Valley. Air conditioning never felt so good.

The snowy mountains of the Cascades have spoiled us. We forgot how to do heat. I believe there is very little of the Southwest that is appealing to a biker in the summer, so the next thirty (or forty) days will be spent shunning deserts and seeking mountains.