It's April in California and Not Supposed to Rain

This morning found me in Pasadena where it was threatening to rain. Since I was riding my motorcycle and absolutely had to be back in Pacifica before 8:00 AM Monday, I decided to cut my visiting a half an hour shorter than planned and hit the road on my two wheels.

I made it almost all of the way to I-5 before it started to rain, which led to the composition of this twoem:

It spit a bit on 210 just before I-5.
Traffic slowed. Thought to split but chose to stay alive.
Wet rain gear, dry me.

For you non-motorcycle riders, California allows motorcycles to lane split so we don't have to stop with the cars and trucks and over heat.

After fairly steady drizzle over Grapevine, the sun finally got to full heat. Eventually I was able to stop for gas and do something about it, namely take off some of the unneeded gear I was wearing. Fifty miles after making those adjustments, I had the unfortunate inspiration to compose another twoem:

When I stopped for gas in the sun,
Thought need for rain gear surely done.
Wrong, wet, and grouchy!

Yes, it started to rain and continued to rain until it was time to get more gas, another 80 miles, and I put back on my rain pants. Unfortunately, it continued to rain. One stretch was particularly heavy, which led to a rather disappointing discovery: my rain pants aren't waterproof. It appears that in times of heavy rain, my motorcycle saddle and I form a catch basin that works exceedingly well at forming a pond right between my legs. With waterproof pants on, the pond would have simply drained away the next time I stopped. But no, my gear was much too efficient to wait for that. It passed the water through to my jeans so my jeans could wick it away, after becoming suitably warmed by my now wet and freezing body.

Thank goodness for a heated jacket and gloves. With all of the lower extremity water I was still cold but at least my chest and hands were kept above freezing.

The rain did have some benefits. It definitely took care of the dust. It also took care of some rather nasty smells I noticed on the ride down to Pasadena. I didn't know that a cattle feed lot could smell like hog s**t.

I did notice an interesting license plate on a rather large Class A RV, a bus-like RV: "Y RUFET"

Even though I did a far better than normal job lashing my backpack onto the back seat of my motorcycle, the constant wind managed to shift it to one side enough that two people made an effort to let me know it had shifted. Nothing fell off and while damp, nothing is ruined. I'm even using the laptop I carried through all that rain now. Of course I had the foresight to put a plastic bag over it in addition to its padded case.

Still, I'm looking forward to my next, hopefully dryer, ride.