rod mclaughlin

Bike Touring in the Central Valley in Winter (08 jan 09)

The Central Valley of California's winter is not too bad.

The only problem is fog.

Last night I stayed in a downtown motel in Stockton.

This is the roughest place I've ever been in the US. I didn't realize there was that much urban poverty in the Central Valley.

Tonight I'm in Turlock - an unpretentiously bland place. The bloke running the place is a Fijian. His boss is Indian, and the boss's wife is English.

While bike touring, you meet people you wouldn't meet if you were flying past them on a freeway at 70 mph.. A Mexican running a cafe watching a documentary about French football in French with Spanish subtitles. A black dude from Oakland who knew which maps to buy to navigate throught the Valley on a bike avoiding freeways (Compass Maps and the Thomas Guide California Road Atlas). A lady in a gas station who knew a motel which was good, cheap and nearby when it was getting dark (5pm).

The next day I met a Yemeni in a small town called Firebaugh. Just as it was getting dark the following day I got  to the freeway service stations of Selma and found a motel.

I've realized that, at home, I go around hating everyone. On bike tours, I see the best in everyone. The Central Valley looks like my stereotype - it's one of the most boring places on earth outside the Rub al Khali - but the people are completely different. Maybe I'm seeing the new America which has emerged from under the redneck crust in the last decade, the new America which has given us president Obama, and which one day might give us something good. In a nutshell, it's to do with non-white immigrants' children growing up.

Having continual trouble fixing my thermarest sleeping pad - good thing I'm staying in hotels not camping on the frozen ground. Need to buy a new sleeping pad tomorrow in Bakersfield (tonight, 12 Jan, I'm in Delano). Then I'll take a day off, write a few new Ruby on Rails applications, then get ready for the long climb up the Tehachapi pass (4000 ft.). At  least the weather is sunny up there. I have the directions from maps.google.com. You choose 'Mojave, CA' then 'directions to' then choose 'Bakersfield, CA'  then choose 'walking' and it tells you the route avoiding the freeway. It is illegal to ride a bike on a freeway in California.

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