Same thing happened last year. It's hard to switch gears so suddenly after several days of fun and freedom. After seeing everything that I was blessed enough to be given a look at since Sunday, it's hard to deal with the dreary man-made madness of L.A. The air smells, everything looks dirty and everyone south of
has been seriously crowding me. (Much respeck to anyone who gets that reference even after clicking the link.
I'm trying to dwell on the positives. Instead of moping about my road trip being over, I'm trying to savor the memories from the last few days and reflect on how truly blessed we were with this opportunity. At a time when people are still trying to dig the corpses of people who were important to them out of the rubble of an earthquake of Old-Testament proportions, I shouldn't take for granted the fact that I just spent 80 hours playing throttle-jockey with a couple of my jackass friends. When so many are starving because their meager wages can't keep up with the sudden sharp spike in the cost of rice and wheat or because the military regime that runs their cyclone-ravaged country refuses to allow the outside world to lend a hand, my biggest concern was whether the next place we stopped to eat would have something on the menu that didn't have meat.
Alright, that's enough of the philosophizing. I'll start with an observation from our room at Motel 6...
...They don't leave you the simple things like a coffee maker or even a freakin' bottle of shampoo, but they are considerate enough to include an ashtray that remindes you NOT TO SMOKE!
Chew on that one awhile.
We dined on massive pancakes at a local diner before hitting the road, which was a constantly changing landscape. Coastal cities turned to farmland which turned into hilly valleys before spitting you back out onto the coast north of Santa Barbara.
Lompoc, our only stop of the day, featured this old run-down drive-in. Not quite the same thing as an old movie theater, but SUPPORT YOUR REP HOUSE anyway, dammit!
The drive-in's neglect and disrepair left me a little sad, but I'm all about being positive and blowing sunshine at all of you so I won't go into it.
We blew through the familiar roads along the the 101 in Santa Barbara County before cutting off at Carpenteria for one last blast before calling it a trip. The roads around Lake Casitas are quite familiar and one of my favorite local rides. Lots of twists and turns, often little traveled during the week and many gorgeous views of the make made it a great end to a few days I'll look back upon with much fondness. (No pics; Took all my concentration to keep up with Damian and keep my bike rubber on the road.)
The hardest part besides coping with my utter disdain for the Southland has been slowing down to cope with all the congestion. I'd grown used to life at high-velocity the past several days. I've become addicted to the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you grab a handful of throttle and take off from a dead stop at breakneck speed. The landscape is even prettier when it's a little blurry. In the hours since I've been back, I've had to change my riding style from "Go Like Hell" with a side order of "Enjoy the View" to "Search and Destroy" spiked with "Watch Your Ass." Y'know, typical L.A. driving.
I know, I know...I'm not moping. I plan on drowning my sorrow in movies the next few nights, a couple at the New Bev and maybe one at the Silent Movie Theater. Replace one addiction with another, y'know?
Thanks to my mates for several days of high-throttle fun, laughs and mindboggling sights. I'm already at work on planning the '09 trip...
PLAYLIST
AC/DC - Highway to Hell, Back In Black
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Social Distortion - Prison Bound, Social Distortion
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto
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