Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

Whew! It was a very cold day out today - maybe 60 degrees out... and with the wind and traveling on motorcycle, it was very cold, perhaps in the 40's.  We started out at our regular meet up spot in Long Beach then headed north on I-405. And AGAIN, a very dangerous interstate lately. There were 16 of us heading north when all of a sudden I heard a largest bang and crack sound. I instantly thought one of use got hit but when I looked around I didn't see anything. A few of the women were not riding but driving in a trail vehicle and later told us a bathtub came out of nowhere and was bouncing across the interstate. Whew! Good thing we were missed or it couldn't done quite a bit of damage to any of us and our bikes! A bathtub?!?! Wow.

 We met up with another portion of our group, adding 3 more women and the actual person that created this ride. We went out to Lake Hughs and the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. I had never seen a poppy reserve before and this was my chance. There were quite a few people out in fields of poppies - I was a bit surprised since it's Easter.

We stopped for lunch at the Rock Inn, which was built in the late 1920's as a getaway retreat for movie celebrities. It was an inn, trading post and post office back in the day. This area was built way before I-5 and had a lot of curves and twisties that could make driving a long chore getting from Southern to Northern California. After Interstate 5 was built, the local economy went downhill since people preferred the fast straight away of the interstate versus the country back hills.

Rock Inn - kind of a biker bar, but many passersby stop for a nice hot meal.

On the way back, we preferred the less cold route home... and even that was cold. The wind was extremely cold. We passed by Vasquez Rocks, named after Tiburcio Vasquez, who still remains controversial to this day. Some people see him as a defender of Mexico trying to restore California to Mexico and others view him as an outlaw who frequently hid in this rocky area from the law. Over 100 movies, television shows and music videos have used this area as a backdrop. We didn't stop at this location but only rode by.

These images of Vasquez Rocks were taken from the internet.

Then for more excitement, there was a 6.9 earthquake from Baja California. Luckily, we were all on the road and didn't feel a thing. From the reports, there was a 5.1 aftershock and people felt the earthquake all the way north to Santa Barbara and as far east as Phoenix, Arizona and as far south as Tijuana, Mexico.