California Nights
OMG! I experienced the consummate California Moment this afternoon.
Here’s the set up:
Roof down, 70-ish day, around 5PM – so the Sun is coming in on an angle and feeling like only a Southwestern Sun can feel like. Can’t describe… kind of like sunshine and heat in super HD, very crisp and clean.
I’m sitting at the light that marks the start of the Hwy 65 Fwy S; a California-unique collage of very rural, to the point of cattle, sheep and goats – even an ancient rodeo arena mixed with new residential and commerical that all fell out of the sky a week ago last Tuesday. That hunk of road runs maybe 3 miles, and with Miwok / Madui Indian land on the western shoulder and Lincoln / Placer County on the eastern shoulder.
The view on one side is of the snow and peaks of the Sierra Nevada – just stunning – and on the other side Sutter Buttes, with the Coastal Range behind them just crystal clear.
I had an old Bob Seger CD on. I hit the gas on the green just as a guy on a high handlebar Harley split the lanes and went ripping past me at the exact , same instant as the track switched over to ‘Hollywood Nights’
Picture this: roof down, Joe Cool shades on, perfect Sun, Wild West plain surroundings, hawks and buzzards in the sky, the Union Pacific spur between Lincoln and the Roseville yards sporting a freight train running alongside the road; Easy Rider just tore past me and there is open freeway in front of me… not a Chippy in sight either… a perfect alignment of the Universe.
Well, I decided to see just what my Engine-by-Singer could do and after only a brief time out while the engine decided whether or not I was serious, I covered the mile to my exit in total California.
Happens rarely but each time reminds me that I ‘get’ it.
