Oh Say Can You see....

This is the beginning of the end of this adventure. We have arrived in Barstow, CA after 330 miles of interstate riding from Cedar City, Utah in temperatures varying from 115F according to my thermometer, to a low of 99F. This kind of a day is pretty joyless even for those determined to find the beauty in everything. I had almost convinced myself that I could be one of those people today but the best that can be said of our trek through the Nevada desert is that it is over and we are here in one piece. Two, actually, if you count H___. We have come close to the 3,400 mile mark and spent nearly two weeks on the road and the thing that has impressed itself most on me, other than the sheer vastness of this land, is the insanity of Americans.I have seen examples of this over and over again. Let's face it folks. Las Vegas was an insane idea that should never have worked in the first place.It thrives, lush in its hectic hedonism despite the arid, hostile environment that spawned it. People not only live there, they come to visit in droves. They arrive from everywhere in their cars travelling along I 15, especially on a Friday afternoon of a long 4th of July weekend cutting off unsuspecting and overly heated motorcyclists. They spend unbelieveable millions of dollars on 'entertainment', usually in the form of gambling. Most actually believe that they will come away winners. Are you following me on this one? This kind of illogical thinking is a form of...That's right, you say it with me.Two days ago as we drove through the spectacularly red Utah desert, I was dumbstruck by my first sighting of an expanse of green. Acres of it. A virtual oasis. Lawn, in actual fact. In the middle of the desert. Yes, the great Colorado River was the source of irrigation for these acres of tended grass, but that's a whole lot of watering in my opinion. This was an oft repeated theme and I urged H__ to pull over on to the shoulder once so that I could get photographic evidence. Luckily for me, one of these lawn-rich estates turned out to be Sorrel Canyon Ranch, one of the world's leading small hotels and, happily for us, situated on the banks of the Colorado River. Even luckier was the fact that their restaurant was serving lunch and we had been on the lookout for some sort of an establishment that in addition to wonderful scenery, provided wonderful air-conditioning. We'll be back to visit despite the extensive irrigation.

This idea of a national insanity (now don't get riled up at the notion, keep reading) first presented itself to me somewhere in the middle of Iowa when the enormity of the terrain we were set to traverse dawned on me. At least a couple thousand miles loomed ahead of us and we were still in the same country. Hell, we drove through states that took us two days to escape. Cross. I mean cross. Who but Americans could think that they could unite these vast, diverse and often ideologically oppositional regions and make them work together as one country? Isn't that thinking a little kind of? ...you know. But yet, here we are. With our own flag.

Two days ago, H__was fretting. We had booked a hotel room for the night and the location seemed so far away given the difficult time we were having, he was worrying actively about whether or not we would get there. It did not occur to me for one moment to be worried about the possibility of our not making it. "We've made it this far, haven't we?" I asked. And he agreed that indeed we had.

Some might think me insane for conceiving of this trip. Some might think that we were insane to think that we could make it at all, far less just the two of us, doing mostly back roads from one coast of the country to the other, seeing that neither of us was handy with mechanics and the furthest we had been was to Lake Placid from our home on the shoreline-- and that with a bunch of guys. I guess living here for fifteen years has had some kind of an effect on me. To those who dare to ask the question, I say "why no, I'm not insane, I'm thinking like an American."

Oh say can you see...