I haven't been able to get much riding in on my bikes these days and the move to Watsonville hasn't really helped very much.
But I have been riding my motorcycle more than ever because there's no way I will drive in to work if I can help it. Why? Because it will easily double my commute time if I drive rather than ride in and it will easily triple the time it takes me to get home and that's just ridiculous.
I wouldn't imagine that most visitors to NorCal Bikers know much about Santa Cruz but the stretch of Highway 1 that I travel everyday is a dinky little two lane highway for the most part and it gets seriously backed up each and every day of the week, including Saturdays and Sundays during the summer.
The commute in is usually pretty good until I get to Aptos and things begin to thicken up. Usually I've got some 19 year old knob in a Mustang who thinks his three thousand pound car can keep up with my 400 pound bike. Dusting cars in light traffic is great fun too.
Remember when you were a little kid and you'd go running through crowds of people, dodging in and out of people's way?
Now add two wheels and 70 horses to the game and put it on asphalt. Wheee! There is no better, more reliable and cheap way to get a smile on my face than winding my bike up and jetting down the highway for a spell. I know where most of the cop traps are so I'm mostly safe but I know that the odds are against me and I'll likely eventually get busted but I'm prepared to deal with it.
I miss my old commute from Seabright down to the beach and along the river levee, not only because I was only my cruiser most of the time but because of the fresh air, the sun, the connection with my town and the chance to run into friends all along the way.
Now I jet on the highway or, if I've got time and am tired of playing games with the slow moving hulks that are cars and trucks, I'll head down Soquel through Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Rio del Mar and then onto Freedom Blvd. for a nice ride through the less travelled parts of the county and into Watsonville the back way. Its nice but takes considerably longer and there is more of a chance of getting popped by the rollers as Freedom begins right at the CHP HQ for the county.
But its alright, I enjoy my commute most of the time. But I can't say that I'm not looking forward to selling the house in Watsonville and getting a chunk of land nearer to the town I consider home. Watsonville's fine and all but I feel like I'm a cast member in the latino version of 90210 most of the time and I wonder if I don't live in one of the most affluent latino communities in the country if not the world.
That and I live next door to a prick. That makes things lots of fun. No, not really.
