Although I didn't ride Sunday either, I did go to the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park that had a nice collection of cars and old motorcycles.

Here is a nice BMW with sidecar from the late 60s.

The highlight is  Louie Mattar's 1947 Cadillac  that he drove non-stop from Anchorage, Alaska to Mexico City, Mexico...yes non-stop.

Tomorrow I am riding. I will off to Joshua Tree National Park and then Phoenix, AZ.

Sunday - no riding - I am shocked by the tent cities in San Diego.

This is not the America I grew up in. This is the burnt out end product of neo-liberal political theory. Ideas have consequences. In spite of what Margret Thatcher once said, humans are not social atoms. Society exists.

वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम - The whole world is one single family.
Upanishads.

Human beings are not tradeable commodities. We bare the costs of others who cannot bear them because that is what being humane means. We have values that are deeper and broader than soul destroying economic efficiency. Humanity is one single family...forgive me...the photos of Salgado and the recent events in my home town of Charlottesville, VA still linger on my mind.

I'm so liberal, I drink this.

A society that exploits the weakest is not a society I want to live in. The essence of morality is that the strong protect the weak. Ethics is meaningless without this core insight...that in a nutshell is what liberals fight for.


 

Saturday and Sunday are to be spent relaxing and sightseeing in San Diego and not riding at all because my son will be 'chauffeuring' me around in his car.

Saturday, after he shows me his home and his new business office, we head to Balboa Park to visit the Sebastião Salgado exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts.

If you don't know who Sebastião Salgado is, you need to learn. Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand...Salgado. Everyone knows who Michelangelo is. But there are great artists making great art now. Salgado is one of those people.

 Salgado

An interview with Salgado can be found here: http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/interviews/salgado_genesis.do

My son buying a book in the gift shop. Later we enjoy some sushi.

Thursday morning I depart early so I can drive through Death Valley National Park and Panamint Valley on my way to San Diego. When I pass by Indian Springs I notice drones doing touch and go practice at Creech Air Force Base. I am using a wide angle lens, but you should be able make out the drone coming in low in the center of the photo. The pilot could very well be sitting in a simulator cockpit in South Dakota which is where they sit when they are hunting down terrorists to kill.

This is the view from my cockpit. The autopilot is on, so I kick back and take a couple of pictures.

Death Valley is 112 degrees. I stop to take some pictures. Here are some of Zabriskie Point.

I pull into the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to have my passport cancelled.

The sign advises visitors not to hike after 10AM due to the extreme heat.

Much of Death Valley is just dirt.

The sand dunes in Death Valley.

I stop at Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station for another passport cancellation. Furnace Creek was at -190 feet below sea level. Stovepipe Wells is at sea level.

The next valley over is  Panamint Valley. It is every bit as desolate, but is cooler at a nippy 102 degrees. The valley is just dirt, sand and salt. Sand often drifts over the road which, just like snow, road crews have to remove.

Remembering a line from Dante - "If you always see the road ahead of you it’s not always worth the trip." - I take the road least traveled from here to San Diego.

Temperatures don't break until I am almost in San Diego. It is a pleasant 72 degrees when I roll into San Diego at 6PM to stay at the La Quinta in the Mission District where I meet my son.

My son treats me to a meal at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Steakhouse in the gaslight district.

Nothing like a couple of Stone Delicious IPAs after a hard day's ride...



...and all the meat you care to eat. You have a circular disk on your table and you start with the green side up which indicates that you are eating from the hors devours buffet and are not ready for meat.

You could actually make a meal from the hors devours buffet which also includes cold meats.

 

When you flip the disk over to expose the other side, servers descend on you offering dozens of different types of hot freshly grilled meats that are carved at your table.

Tasty.

I stayed at the Orient Land Trust until Thursday morning when I left to make my way to San Diego. I crossed the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass. The temperature when I crossed was around 50 degrees. Although Monarch Pass is over 11,000 feet, this is still a bit chilly for August.

You can see the bike fully loaded. The saddle bags, or panniers, hold things I want to get to quickly. The grey bag on the passenger seat holds clothes, etc. The roll above that is my tent wrapped in the foam padding I use to sleep on. Behind that is a sleeping bag. The gray bag hanging off the back holds water, food and an extra visor for my helmet - I have a tinted one for day and a clear one for night. Long ago I quickly learned that trash bags are your friend. Even though my bags are water resistant, they are not water proof. When driving through prolonged heavy rain, some water will seep through the zippers and stitching. Everything I do not want to get wet is placed inside a trash bag. This has worked very well for me. I also wear a rain suit when I anticipate heavy rain.

The item in front of the seat sitting atop the gas tank is called a 'tank bag'. It holds glasses, maps, cell phone, etc, i.e. anything I want to access easily.

I am headed to Las Vegas for the night. Passing Gunnison, Co, I take a picture of the Dillon Pinnacles.

Just outside of Montrose, Co, I stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to have my passport stamped. I have been here before, so I don't spend much time sightseeing. I have a long way to go to get to Las Vegas.

My route takes my across Utah. I have visited all the National Parks in Utah, but have never driven I-70 so I stop to take a few pictures. This is Eagle Canyon west of Green River, Utah.

Utah has incredible scenery and if I stopped for every photo op I'd never make it to Vegas in a reasonable amount of time. I didn't stay at the strip, but stayed just outside of Vegas at a place with a laundry so I can do some clothes.

Tempus Fugit

It's Saturday, Day 7 already and I'm in San Diego, California. Time flies when you're having fun.

I left Colorado Springs early Tuesday to clearing skies although still chilly. My route took me up Route 50 to Salida. My drive from Colorado Springs roughly begins at Cheyenne Mountain.

If you remember correctly, Cheyenne Mountain is the home of NORAD.

Route 50 is fun to drive on a motorcycle with its many curves as it follows the Arkansas River which is muddy from all the recent rain.

Salida is a balmy 65 and sunny when I arrive. I take Highway 285 southbound and cross Poncha Pass into the San Luis Valley.

When I arrive at the Orient Land Trust, the sky is clouding up and there are storms across the valley heading towards me.

I set up my tent before the rain arrives.

Fortunately, all that arrived was a brief shower. The view of the valley from my tent is nice as the sky begins to clear later that day.

A local showed up to check out the newcomer.

In addition to deer, the possible wildlife include bears ( one ran around my tent back in 2011 - you can read about that on an earlier blog post ), bats, bobcats, mountain lions, golden eagles, gophers, and rabbits. Later that evening I made the hike to the old Orient Land Trust iron mine to watch the Mexican free-tailed bats bats leave for their evening feeding.

Other campers make the hike as well and we all stand around waiting for the show.

Here they come. Over 250,000 bats begin to leave their cave at around 7:45PM. They will consume over 3 millions pounds of insects during the night.

 They stream out for about 15 minutes and head out across the San Luis Valley.

Later that evening, we make a fire in the pavilion and toast marshmallows.

 Am astronomer from Salida showed up and treated us to some star gazing using the permanently installed 16" telescope housed in this shed which is rolled back on wheels.

When we use the telescope, it is dark so I can only get a silhouette of it as the full moon rises behind the telescope.

It was beginning to cloud up again, but I did get to see Jupiter and it's moons, Saturn's rings and a few space objects the names of which escape me.