Fuck You Los Angeles and Fuck You harder Palm Springs

I have never liked LA. Ever. It is just a jumble of 6 lane highways with asshats going 90 and weaving through traffic.  I woke up in my RV heaven this am and decided that I couldn't take another day of it.  I decided to go out and ride towards my next destination (Joshua Tree NP) until I got tired and then get a motel room.  The ride wasn't too bad, just boring big freeways, and whenever the turn for my highway came it was always on the opposite side of where I was and I had to cross lanes of fast traffic and crazy drivers and Harleys with dudes wearing T-shirts going much faster than I. So I left Solvang at around 7 and stopped at the REI to buy some stuff, have lunch and then settled into the run to LA. I ran along the north and kept meaning to stop, but I felt ok and kept going.  It took a lot of concentration, but I knew what I was getting into with LA.  Not so with Palm Springs..

I figured Palm springs is where I would stop. And I did.  I could've gone further was in not for the FUCKING WIND TRYING TO KILL ME. I had been through here before in cars and noticed how great the wind farms were.  On a bike, if you see wind farms it's not a good sign.  I came in in the afternoon so I had a tail wind going down I-10. That's all well and good, but as soon as you turn North or South, the wind tries to murder you.

From my motel 6

As I was coming off the highway, I went from due east to due north. I went from about 70mph to 50 and then it hit me and almost did me in. I had a Mac Truck behind me who luckily saw what was going on and he slowed with me,  I tried to fight it but it was so strong, I was weaving all over my lane and I had to go down to about 30 and then I pulled into the emergency lane and stopped.  So did the truck.  Then he pulled next to me and by sign language and shouting (I wear ear plugs on the highway), we figured out that he would be to my left and act as a windshield for me for the next mile until we hit the town.  Must be a rider.  The wind was so strong that even at a stop I had to fight from being blown over.

I tend to be an introverted, antisocial type person when I'm by myself, but so far I have met some great people.  In my RV heaven I met a family from England who are traveling around the world with their kids.  He downloaded 200 pirated books to my kindle.  In Goleta, I met a couple from Canada and we drank shitty Canadian Whisky and talked all night around a fire. I wish I could thank this truck driver for helping me out, but he just shuttled on with a toot toot as we hit town.  I feel I will meet a lot of remarkable people on this journey. Hopefully some hot womens too.

Oh and right about Rancho Cucamongo my clutch cable decided to snap and I couldn't shift gears.  I had a spare though!  Ten minutes and back on the road.  Who's your daddy!

Peace out, and Fuck LA and Palm Springs, the asshole and grundle of the USA!