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.
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