Adventures By Guy

All old Motels have the shower at chin level or a bit lower. Were people really that much shorter in the 50’s and 60’s? An unanswered question that will burn within me…
I have come to a conclusion that there is a law in the universe that operates in the following manner… you will never catch a slow vehicle in a straight passing zone. You will always catch them at the beginning of a no passing zone and they will slow way down… then go like a shot once clear of the no passing zone.
Numerous… as in constantly on this trip I am going along on cruise control and not catching the vehicle in front of me and then somehow I am rapidly catching them after a long straight where I was not catching them at all or only slowly catching them. Then bam, at the end of the passing zone I somehow am on their bumper???? How does that work? Hey people, if I patiently wait and don’t ride your bumper but you know I came up on you please give the person you have been slowing down a chance to pass when the next passing zone comes up… don’t floor it thinking to get ahead because then that person can’t pass or it makes it more difficult and guess what??? Yeah, I’m on your bumper through the curves again because we aren’t going to play that game twice. It’s not just car people either. At the Two Rivers Café the gal who grew up there and knows the road was being slowed down by three motorcycles in the corners and then they would go like crazy on the straight. Riding close together too. I asked if they were Harleys. Yeah, how did you know? Easy, they usually ride very close together and they were slowing in the corners. Harleys don’t corner to well as they drag things if pushed a bit.😄
Up and had the breakfast of champions and out the door by about 9 am and 69 degrees! Yes!
Went west towards Lassens and stopped alongside the road to take some pictures of the big lake. Reflections of the skyline were in it as it was so still. Then wandered along hwy 89 through the burned out areas. I always wondered why they don’t log a burned area as most fires just blacken the tree but have plenty of good wood under the bark. Finally saw them logging a burned area! National Parks leave it as it is Natural. Got up to Lassens and pulled out my Lifetime NP Veteran/Gold Star Family membership card. Thanks President Trump. I think that should have been done decades ago. Walked through the visitor’s Center and then watched a 20 minute movie. Learned Lassens is one of the few places on earth that has all the types of volcanoes that there are in one small area. The only thing it doesn’t have is geysers. Lassens has erupted 3 times. In 1860’s and around 1913 to 1915. Those were big. There is one volcano that has been eroded away over time and there are remnants of it and the remnants are still mountains! The thing must have been ginormous! A beautiful curvy road goes through the park but I was going 20 mph videoing my ride through the park so others can see the beauty too. Saw some clouds bunching up and growing to the East and knew I had to get going or it was going to rain on me. Lots of happy hikers and motorcyclists going to and fro… I continued and came to a sweeping view I had to stop and video while holding still. A car pulled in behind me and through my earplugs and music I hear something. I turn my music off. It was an older gentleman from the car. He just wanted to chat with me as he had seen the bike loaded and dirty along with the GoPro. We had a nice chat as he found out that he and I were both Navy. I wanted to ask him what he did in the Navy on a hill in Nam but the conversation turned and went a different direction. Let’s just say that there are a lot of people in CA that are not happy with the current government. I don’t bring it up either. They do. We had been talking for a while and I finally said… it’s been nice but I have to get out of the park before that builds into a real 🌧 here. He said goodbye and away I went… as I left the gates of the park I had blue sky in front of me but I stopped to do something and I heard a lot of loud crashing and rumblings behind me. I turned around… sure enough it was raining over the big mountains I had just left behind 15 to 20 minutes ago. I had seen several bikes turn around and head back towards the other entrance, people on trails going to the summit of Lassens Peak. All were getting soaked now! I sped off to the NE and the storm continued to grow fast enough that it was right behind me for a while and I even got sprinkled on. Temps had been in the high 70’s all day. It was now around 2 pm and as soon as I got away from the park Temps went to 95. I was getting sleepy due to the heat! Going through nice forests though and when I got to Falls River I pulled in for gas and to figure out how I could get over towards Boise. I wanted to go through the upper corner of Nevada but there wasn’t a clear route. So I settled for going up 299 to 395 into Oregon to US 20 and take that into Boise. If I wanted to I could take US 20 all the way home. It was still 95° out so I pulled my cooling vest out and soaked it down. As I walked back to my bike I noticed that an elderly lady was still there after the cashier had to pump her gas for her. She had been there while I filled up with gas, gone in and bought some ribs and now had finished said ribs. She was trying to wash her windows and as I walked by I noticed that they seemed to be worse off than before she started. I asked her if she needed some help and if I could wash her windows for her. She hesitated as if she didn’t like asking for help.. I went over to her and she handed me the squeegee. I proceeded to do all her windows and lights. She said… you’d think that I would have learned to do this by now. Don’t worry it’s no problem. My hands are arthritic and it is difficult to hold. I said I understand because my grandfather told me long ago… getting old isn’t for sissies! She replied… isn’t that the truth!
Now while I ate then washed her windows and hydrated my cooling vest that storm was reaching out towards the town I had stopped at so I needed to skedaddle out of there. Soon the temp dropped to 91 and with my vest I was quite comfortable. I had been wanting to get to this part of the country for years just to see what it was like. I was blown away and it was nothing like I had supposed that it was. Mountains with big broad flat valleys in between. It was dry and everything green was irrigated but cattle and hay was the norm. I was totally surprised. I took video of a lot of valleys because they were so big! I stopped in a town named Alturas at NAPA Auto Parts to get some brake cleaner so that I could spray down my front brakes to ensure they keep doing a decent job. Asked about hotels and then the climate. To my surprise they said it gets cold in the winter down to minus 10 and in the hot months of summer lower 90’s to 95. Maybe 3 or 4 days it gets to 100. I was surprised at that. The guy said he was to when he moved there from Chico. Got outside and with the information provided I booked a motel room in Lakeview… but there’s no lake to view… another mystery (Goose Lake is in the distance and it isn’t as big as it shows on Google maps.) It’s clean and comfortable and a total of $93 and the AC works well. I just can’t get the TV to work but that’s no big deal.