REMEMBER ONLY YOU CAN HELP COMBAT OVARIAN CANCER
CHECKS TO:
GAIL PURTAN FUND KARMANOS CANCER INSTITUTE 4100 JOHN R DETROIT, MI  48201
1-800-527-6266
"IN MEMORY OF MARY LOGSDON" - IN NOTE SECTION OF CHECK

JULY 20, 2006 - LET'S GO SURFING NOW, EVERYBODY'S LEARNING HOW, COME ON A SURFARI WITH ME…

As I was preparing the bike for travel this morning at the hotel, I noticed tons of kids being dropped off by "Soccer Mom's". Now, I have to say that there wasn't a soccer ball in sight, but the vehicles are the same, the actions are the same and the kids are the same, except for one thing: THESE KIDS HAD GEAR THEY COULD BARELY HAUL THEMSELVES.

This hotel is also a day camp for golf, tennis, badminton, swimming and other sporting endeavors.  So, the mom drops the kid off to spend the day with various "drill instructors" and they can go off and do stuff without having to deal with the little street urchins. I saw on lady with four kids she dropped off. She put the badminton racket bag around the shoulder, put the tennis racket bag around the neck and slung the golf bag around the other shoulder. Some of the littler tykes were staggering under the awkward load of all this gear. It was sad, and funny. No, seriously, it was more funny than it was sad. I wish I could have risked a photograph.

I left after the entertainment value of the morning ritual subsided. I went to the ocean, and turned right. I was headed for Los Angelis. I ran up Hwy 101 along the beach for a while, then switched to I 5 because it was closer to the beach, then back to 101 again, and so on. I was in Oceanside and San Clemente and other very pretty towns. San Clemente was the home town of Richard - I AM NOT A CROOK - Nixon. He was also known as "Tricky Dicky". Boy was he ever. I stopped for gas somewhere along the route and struck up a conversation with Juanita. She was the clerk at the gas station who admonished me to quit sighing. NO SIGHING ALLOWEED HERE, SIR. She was pretty funny. Rob, a Los Angelis Police Officer pulled up on his motorcycle and we ended up talking bikes for a bit. Pretty soon, we both were off and headed north on the freeway.
I don't know what happened to the drivers out here since I was last here with Mary, but I have to say this: I suffered through completely unexplainable traffic stops. There was not one reason for any of them to occur except something like;

"Oh look, a finch shit on a guard rail, I better slow down." Then all the other lanes slow down - the stop - because they saw THAT first driver's head look to the left.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH……  It was maddening. I have to say though that even with the extreme stop and go conditions, the bike ran very cool today.

Earlier in the trip, I received a message from one of the readers of the blog, telling me that they thought I was amazing. I remember writing about that. I responded with what I thought about "who was amazing and who wasn't". I met her today, up near where  she and her family lives. See photo in new submission. She purchased my lunch telling me that my money was no good out here. We parted company with the promise that each of us would keep keeping on with what we are doing. She is going to keep on battling OC and I am going to keep on riding.

Tonight I am Norm Morin's home. Norm and I used to work together. He has a small house in Glendale squire near the freeway. We went out to dinner ar a local Mexican restaurant. The food was very very good. Don Cuco's is the name of the place. We have been laughing about some old high jinks for most of the evening. Norm is in a similar situation as me. He lost his wife a year after I lost Mary. I think we are both on the mend, though. After dinner this evening we walked around Glendale and looked into windows. There was a  small club that had a wonderful jazz band playing. I looked to see if it was my student on drums, but it wasn't. He's out here somewhere, I know it.

I am really crapped out from the driving today. It was very tense with the stop and go and stop and go conditions. When traffic reporters talk about traffic in Detroit, you hear something like; "WESTBOUND I 94, BETWEEN CONNOR AND OUTER DRIVE IS BACKED UP. NORTHNBOUND I 75 IS BUMPER TO BUMPER BETWEEN I 375 AND M - 59". In California, the traffic people talk like this: "DRIVING THE I 5 WILL REQUIRE YOU TO TRAVEL AT 10 MILES PER HOUR OR SLOWER. THE I 15 IS ONLY MOVING AT 5 MILES PER HOUR. THE 101 IS STOP AND GO FOR NO APPARENT REASON, EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT A PIGEON FARTED ON THE GUARDRAIL EAST OF THE MULHOLLAND DRIVE."

The roads are referred to being THE so and so. It just sounds foreign to me, I guess. Photos from today will be posted under separate cover