Poor Circulation .. the motorcycle misadventures of Blue88: Post 329: Boonville Time .....

It’s taken a little more than two weeks, but now I’m there. Sure, I arrived in Boonville a while ago, but it’s taken me this long to adjust to ‘Boonville Time‘. Things move at a different pace here and sometimes that means no pace at all. People arrive when they arrive and things get done exactly when they do. It reminds me very much of Thailand and maybe that’s why I feel so much at home here. People here are always in a rush but there’s very little rushing. People have time for people and there’s always enough time to just stand and stare. Boonville is in Mendocino County and Mendocino is famous for two things; amazing wines and the worlds finest marijuana. I’m not sure that these things are in anyway connected to the pace of life here, but they’re certainly not in conflict with it ….. mai pen rai

Here in Boonville, the ‘normal’ things seem to take on greater significance than they do elsewhere. Like early morning coffee at the ‘Redwood Drive-In’. It’s probably not the best coffee in the world, or even the best coffee in Boonville, but it’s just a great way to start each day.

Back on the London Despatch Circuit, a place that I once called ’home’, most of my day was spent dreaming of ‘home-time’, but here in Mendocino every part of the day is here to be enjoyed. A 6:00am start to feed cows, pigs, chickens and lambs means rising long before the sun. If the fog is still hanging low in the valley then it’s cold and somewhat magical, and if it isn’t, then the sky is filled with stars that are too numerous to count. Work on the house up on ’Lone Tree Ridge’ is hard, but the time passes quickly and home-time arrives long before you really want it to. If you linger long enough then you’re rewarded with the most amazing sunset and a new set of stars that couldn’t have been painted any brighter by Hollywood‘s finest designers.

On the other hand, if you leave in the ridge in daylight then you can enjoy what I now consider to be one of the finest biking roads in the world. From ‘California 128’, Peachlands Road rises into the hills and if you follow it for long enough will probably take you all of the way to Ukiah. It’s a private road and to enjoy it fully then you’ll need a good dirt bike and the combination codes to several locked gates. I’m a very lucky guy because I now have those combinations and a previously enjoyed Kawasaki KLR 650 on which to explore ….. mai pen rai