Tom Joad - Day Three, mile 997.8...

I awoke this morning in my hotel room in Sacramento, CA, to the sound of heavy rain falling outside. I glanced out my hotel window to see my motorcycle being drenched by the downfall. Good, I thought. The rain will wash away all of the road grime which had accumulated over the past few days. Then the thought struck me, Oh Jeez, am I going to have to ride in this all day? Once again the weather gods smiled, and the clouds and rain had passed farther east at 8am to allow some broken blue sky and sunshine. Counting my blessings again, I loaded up the machine for my push southward to Los Angeles and a few days off of the bike to electronically beg for work with a few Los Angeles based engineering firms.

The first hour or so out of Sacramento was beautiful. Dry pavement and 48 degrees. But as I headed south down I-5, I noticed a lot of dark clouds drifting eastward from the coast, and knew my luck was about to change.

It did. I rode the 300+ miles through the San Joaquin Valley with sun, wind, rain, hail, and anything else Mother Nature could throw at me. Once again, the Gore-Tex suit and heated clothing saved me from a very miserable eight hour ride. I rode through the Grapevine, the 4,200 ft. mountain pass of I-5 north of Los Angeles, through chilly 38 degree temperatures, but quickly warmed up to the high 40's once I descended down closer to sea level.

I joined the Friday night crawl on the Santa Monica Frwy about 5pm, and took over an hour to go roughly 18 miles to arrive at my brother Matt's house. I arrived tired and frustrated, but relieved of getting off of the bike for the night. My plan is to spend the next few days fishing for new job contacts while in L.A., meet a few potential employers, and patiently wait for job opportunities to avail themselves within the next month or so. I hope. I'll spend nearly a week here in L.A. fishing for jobs, then onward farther west to Arizona and Texas. Of course I will post here any breaking events which occur during my rest stops.

Once again, many thanks to Matt and Colleen for lodging this wayward scooter bum. They put me up last year twice last year for my Baja trip, and this visit was very short notice. I hope I can repay their kindness someday. They both are rich in the Karma Bank.