Utah: Milford to California: Long Beach

We snagged breakfast in Milford at Penny’s Diner. It’s an actual diner and the motel just east of town was pretty sweet.

We headed south on 129 then took the right at 130 to head towards Ceder City. The road and area was pretty flat and you can see for miles.

Getting on 15 S again sped up the trip and the run down the passes in Arizona was as expected. Pretty fast and of course with people camped in the left lane. At a couple of places, I did the wave at the bonehead crossing the center line. Always have to pay attention to the folks oblivious to traffic.

In Mesquite we stopped for gas again.

From there it was a straight run to California. We passed through Las Vegas checking out the big buildings. We’ve both been here before so it wasn’t new but considering the political climate, we did point at the Trump building ๐Ÿ™‚

I’d planned on stopping in Primm and thought I was there when I pulled in but found I was in Jean instead. The place was packed with cars of course and humorously one woman was stuck at a pump. She’d locked her keys inside her car so was just sitting there waiting for a tow truck. I was able to slide the bike into the space and fill up.

There was some goon from Oregon in an SUV just hauling through traffic, cutting people off and in a big hurry. It was funny because I was basically hanging in the right lane with an occasional shift to the left and back for a truck. I wasn’t watching but saw that I wasn’t more than 10 or so car lengths behind him. And then, traffic stopped. Being in California, I knew I could lane split so sure enough, splitting is what I did.

My own ideas from reading posts here and the other place is you only split in very slow or stopped traffic and I did it basically when I stuck in 1st gear and it was slow enough that folks are unlikely to change lanes.

Much of the stopped or slowed traffic were cars stopped on the shoulder, maybe overheated but with blankets over the open door and people sitting in the car. A few places had others, like a tow truck or cop, with the stopped car. Towards the front of the jam, miles from the end, was someone stuck over on other side and blocking the right lane with a guy standing on the asphalt trying to direct traffic. Once that was passed, traffic picked up again.

Temps were in the mid to upper 90’s until California and the Mohave where it reached 102F. Jeanne is particularly impacted by the heat. I did have the Camelbak Rogue with water so we stayed hydrated and as long as we moved, we had some degree of coolness but it was still fricking hot.

Man, 109 when we got on 10. Freaking hot.

We got off at rosemead for gas and a check where we were and no entrance back to 10 west. We wandered about, 60 to 710 to 10 to alameda east. A check then and 10 east to 5 to 710 south to 405 to cherry to my brother’s.

And he doesn’t have AC!

He comments that it was a lot nicer before we arrived ๐Ÿ™‚

We had dinner at the local place (Nine Noodles? Something) which was good.

We started checking out the next stop. Merced was an option but I wanted to get closer t Yosemite. Unfortunately we had to go pretty far afield to find a place. Pretty much anything will do at this point, even getting a room and crashing on the floor ๐Ÿ™‚

Now we’re just hanging about and will bail around 10. North to Yosemite.

I do want to note that the ‘busa wouldn’t have made it. I think the fan’s out or heat sensor. It would have overheated so I need to check it.

I Don’t think I would have gone if I just had the ‘busa. My right knee swelled last Wed, don’t know why and was a bit sensitive but better Sat morning. I took the Connie out as a test and it was okay.

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