Time For Bed...Hold On Tight!

It's windy on the coast right now. I just drove down from the mountains outside of Santa Cruz following a dude on a motorcycle the entire way. The road is very narrow, winding and sketchy on a good day. Tonight this poor guy was navigating an obstacle course of downed trees, limbs, bark, small branches and rocks while being pummeled by 35 mph winds with gusts near 60 mph (and it's dark and wet).  I was cheering him on for nearly 10 miles like we were on the same team or something. I wanted to give him plenty of space but when I would lose sight of him in the sharp curves I worried that he might be in the road when I came around the bend...making an already bad night much more dramatic.  He road calm and steady like a champ from my perspective but I'm sure it was hard to let go of the handlebars when he got home.

Sitting here now listening to the wind got me thinking about some of the windiest places that I've been. Strangely, the spot that was the windiest in the last year or so happened to be the hottest and the coldest as well (It rained a little too but nothing will beat Oregon for that in my book).

The weather in the hills west of Bishop, California was all over the place while I was there. Over a couple of weeks it was dry and very hot during some days and it snowed a couple of nights. Winds in the canyon gusted to 80 mph on more than a few days and nights. Clouds poured over the nearby mountain peaks so quickly that I felt like I was watching a nature movie on fast forward. For the most part it was really awesome but heavy wind gusts do make it hard to get a good nights sleep. It's like being on a boat in choppy seas... and tonight I'm back at sea on the U.S.S. TeleTrekker.