California Dreaming: San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield
Friday June 13, 2008 – San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield
We rolled out of SLO and headed towards route 33 where we would be meeting up with Ed in Ojai. He was heading up from SoCal to meet us.
Taft, California was once named Moron. You could smell the oil in the air as we rolled by the creepy oilfields. It was a strange site to watch the fields of derricks as their heads went, up and down, up and down like birds pecking at the ground.
Heading south on 33 from the Taft area was fun. The road snaked along through the mountains twisting and turning. In a surreal moment we saw a fleet of about 5 or 6 “covered” cars going through what must have been a road test.
Gentleman that he is, Ed took us to the Rockstore. I guess that’s like someone wanting to visit the Empire State Building in NYC. He tried to tell us he never goes there, but not 5 minutes after we arrived we hear… “Hey, Ed..” 😆
He shuttled us around hill and dale. One of the highlights of the day was an awesome ride through Angeles Crest where we stopped for lunch at Newcomb’s Ranch.
We cruised through tiny mountain roads that wriggled along the landscape like a rattlesnake.
We stopped off to figure out where we were were, where we might want to go and how much daylight we had to work with. As we stood looking out at the mountains, the hills reminded me of the edge of a pie crust.
We swung in to Bakersfield to see a muffler man Indian and ended up staying there for the night. Not the most scenic town in the world, but our hotel was clean and cool.
Our first day of riding with Ed along was excellent. Great scenery, roads, and company.