Russian River

     A beautiful day for a leisurely ride along the Russian River. This bridge is called the Wohler bridge, it was completed in 1922.

     July in Sonoma County is a great time of year. People flock to the river to swim, canoe and escape the heat of places farther inland.

        The Russian River has multiple personalities depending on the season. Weather in Northern California is dictated by the Pacific Ocean. Many years Northern California is dry. Little or no rain falls but sometimes weather conditions on the Pacific Ocean line up to drench the northern part of the state. This duality certainly gives the news agencies something to talk about, it's either the "killer storm" or the "killer drought" that is on its way. 

     These signs on Wohler Rd are not on the Russian River itself, but on a tributary called Mark West Creek. The following two photos show the height of flood levels during "wet" winters. 

     Imagine how much higher Mark West Creek would have to rise to be two to four feet over the guard rail of the roadway. 

     Imagine the lake that would cover the vineyard if the flood gauge was at two to four ft.

     During summer when people come to the river, it appears deceptively tranquil. Every year multiple people drown while swimming or wading in the Russian River. This year I am aware of three deaths. Two deaths were during this Fourth of July holiday.

   The Russian River dangerous at times, yet compellingly beautiful. Nature as nature is.

Eclipse 2024 - The Trip Home

 

It's over, that celestial clockwork has moved on. Now it was time for me to ride home. There was now no reason to hurry. No need to be anywhere at any certain time.

However there were several reasons not to tarry. First, the speed limits in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are quite high and largely ignored as though gas mileage was not important. If you are traveling at 70 mph, you are going to be holding up traffic.

Next, there's really not that much to see. Due to the vastness of the scenery, there is plenty of time see it all as you drone along at 80 - 90 mph.

Lastly, it is still 2000 miles to my driveway and that is going to take a few days in the saddle.

After leaving the comfort of Comfort, Texas, I rode to El Paso and got a nice hotel. The hotel had a bar with food. Very relaxing, especially in light of the fact that I had no time crunch.

Every employee at the hotel was Mexican. Not surprising as El Paso is only miles from Mexico. The bartender told me that she was working on her English. She also said that she prefers to live in Mexico but had moved to El Paso because her Daughter had just graduated from med school and would be working in Texas. She showed me photos of her other daughters, one an engineer and the other an accountant. 

Next day I arrived at my Brother's in Apachee Junction, Arizona. We spent the day lounging around the pool and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.

After leaving Apachee Junction I stayed on Hwy 10 into California. As I approached the Indio/Palm Springs area I remembered the two mountains from my childhood. On the left is Mt. San Jacinto and on the right Mt. San Gorgonio. 
Both mountains are over 10,000 feet tall, and I've been to the top of both. 

When I arrived in San Bernardino, I took Hwy 15 over the Cajon Pass and then cut off to Lancaster. Just north of Lancaster is a state route 138. 138 goes to Gorman through the California Poppy Reserve. 

Because of the amount of rain California has had this winter, I expected to see a poppy super bloom. The poppy bloom had started and was beautiful, but hadn't filled the valley as it had the last time I saw it. (See, California Poppies of the Western Mojave, Tuesday, May 13, 2014)

The trip had been a fairly hard one. Cold, bad weather and long days in the saddle made the trip a lot less fun, yet every trip is an adventure, and every trip teaches lessons for the next trip. It was good to be home and Marie was happy that I got home safe.

Eclipse Trip 2024

The total eclipse was to occur on April 8, 2024. I decided that I was not going to miss this eclipse.

Yet, traveling by motorcycle in early April can be iffy. Remember April Showers...so as I went south on Hwy 5, I had to pass through one rain cell after another. I even got a little hail, which sounds a lot different on the helmet than rain. 

 

  

     By the time I went through Tehachapi, there had been a few flakes of snow. There was snow on the hills and some snow on the ground and on some cars. And it was cold.

My Triumph, a modern motorcycle, gives me all kinds of information that my Harley Sportster does not. I knew that the Triumph tells the temperature, but I had no idea that it would warn about possible ice on the roadway.

 I have good cold weather gear. I was wearing my First Gear jacket with the liner over my electrically heated jacket. I had insulated jeans under waterproof First Gear riding pants. My very old gauntlet gloves, with the heated grips turned up kept my hands warn and aside from my feet, which were a little cold, I was fairly warn and comfortable.

After a little over 600 miles and 10 or so hours, I got a room in Laughlin, Nevada. Next morning I rode to Apache Junction and stopped for a couple of hours at my brother's home. The weather was pretty cold barely getting into the low 60's and I was beginning to think that maybe seeing the full eclipse wasn't really such a great plan. My brother convinced me that in only fourteen or fifteen hours, I would be in San Antonio. A call to my wife further motivated me to get tougher, so I was off again. 

I passed Las Cruses in the dark and pushed on to El Paso, where, exhausted, I got a room. A 650 mile day.

 

On the morning of the third day, I headed to San Antonio, Texas, only 550 miles away. San Antonio is just outside the area of total eclipse. I had a plan to leave early and head west about 60 miles to the center of the total eclipse.

There was a slight hitch, the San Antonio freeway system seemed to me to be a confusing maze and news reports speculated on massive congestion due to the normal commute mixed with eclipse watcher traffic. So I left my overpriced hotel before dawn and headed west. After about sixty miles on Highway 10, I saw and exit for the town of Comfort, Texas. That seemed like a natural, how could I resist. I stopped at the McDonald's and tried to stay awake over a cup of coffee.

On the map above, Comfort is located between San Antonio and Kerrville. I had intended to go closer to Kerrville but as I left the McDonald's, I saw that the roadside would be a good place to watch the eclipse. The roadside was grassy and the field beyond covered in wildflowers. I set up my camp chair and settled in to watch the show.

As time passed more people began to stop. The day was more overcast than I would have preferred. Still I could see the sun,

Then at about 12:15 it began, the total eclipse of April 8, 2024.

I knew it would get dark during the eclipse, but I was surprised just how dark it got.

Then almost suddenly the clockwork that caused the eclipse, moved on.