The Goos, The Bodfish And the Road to Hell Aka-My Birthday Celebration

I have an infamous birthday: 9/11. The only good news this year was that I had forgotten how old I was turning, believing myself to be one year older. Hello-best birthday present ever! Celebration this year consisted of a day long road trip with my younger daughter, in search of a deviation from the phenomenal Caliente-Bodfish Road, found on my way back from the Kern River during an incredible motorcycle ride. Offshoots led to the discovery of Sherman Pass Road, not to be confused with Walker Pass Road, and Trail of the 100 Giants in the Sequoia National Forest.
We headed up the 99 North, to the 150 North, to Porterville, then right at the 190, and then into the forest, eventually ending at the River in Kernville. The plan was a short trip to Weldon onto Kelso Creek Road to Piote Mountain Road which hooks up with Caliente- Bodfish, at least said Google Maps.
We were driving the Honda Accord as the Lexus had the day off, with 308,000 miles on it. The first 15 to 20 miles were spectacular. Then things went bad. The road went from paved to dirt. No signal of any kind. No road signs. No houses. Life lesson learned: When you get to a dirt road in an area you don’t know, turn around. Period. No exceptions. Unfortunately we had not learned our life’s lesson. So we continued for another 7 to 10 miles before finding a sign that said something like “the road ends ahead”. We doubled back for a few miles to a sign that simply said S.R. 14 with an arrow going left. Two and a half hours of dirt road later, and we were still nowhere near the 14. During this entire trip, we were listening to nothing but the Goo Goo Dolls.
Eventually cell service returned. My kid got a message from her mom that there was a fire by my house, my exit was closed and people were probably being evacuating. While I didn’t get the Happy Birthday Message I had prayed for, I did catch a few breaks. First, the fire was nowhere near my house. Second, had we not gotten lost in the desert, we would have wounded up stranded in Kern because the fire closed the 5 in both directions. And third, we had a lot of great Goo Tunes navigating us through the Road to Hell.
For all of your family law, business, and crazy Kern County road trip needs, contact the Law Offices of Richard A. Marcus at 661-257-8877.