Our Highway 1 fun fest is almost over.

Leaving Cambria, we head south on Highway 1, the Cabrillo Highway. We’re on the highway for 2.3 miles, then our coastal celebration suddenly comes to an end.

We begin our long slog inland, through the intense summer heat, toward some places you’ll probably laugh at.

Our first destination is quite popular, and very expensive.

We turn east on California Highway 46, five miles post-Cambria. We’re on our way to Paso Robles, the hub of a world-class wine region. Wine grapes were introduced to the Paso Robles soil in 1797 by the Spanish conquistadors and Franciscan missionaries. Spanish explorer Francisco Cortez envisioned an abundant wine-producing operation and encouraged settlers from Mexico and other parts of California to cultivate the land.

Since then, the wine business here has done quite well. More than 25 different varieties of grapes are grown in Paso Robles wine country. There are more than 250 wineries to process all those grapes.

Tonight, at the Vina Robles Amphitheater in Paso Robles, with a little planning ahead, we could have enjoyed wine under the stars and seen Chicago in concert. 2019 Marks the band’s 52^nd consecutive year of touring. Saturday in the Park, on a Wednesday evening. The Chicago concert begins at 8 pm.

Sadly, by then, we’ll be at tonight’s destination, Barstow. Barstow is one of those places you’ll probably laugh at. More on that later.

***

From Cambria, the ride gets hot, sorta ugly and somewhat boring. Those are relative terms. Compared to what we’ve experienced the past two weeks, it’s hotter, uglier, and boringer.

An hour east of Paso Robles, just before reaching I-5, we arrive in Lost Hills, named for the nearby low mountain range. Low means the hills reach 200 feet. The Lost Hills Oil Field has more than 110 million barrels of producible reserves still in the ground, making it one of the largest in California.

In Lost Hills, we head for the day’s next laugh line: Bakersfield. With a population of nearly 400,000, Bakersfield is California’s ninth-largest city. It’s part of Kern County’s thriving oil economy, the most productive oil-producing county in the US. It’s also the fourth-most productive agricultural county, by value, in the US.

There’s a lot of production going on here. Bakersfield is also the birthplace of the country music genre known as the Bakersfield Sound, whose origins are in honky tonk. The two most successful artists of the original Bakersfield Sound were Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, and Merle Haggard and the Strangers.

Bakersfield is the butt of a lot of jokes. Many of them are about meth and trailer parks.

And don’t forget Bakersfield’s miserable air quality. Here’s one: Bakersfield … why trust air you can’t see?

Emissions from oil refineries and agriculture make Bakersfield the most air-polluted city in the US. The American Lung Association says the city’s air is the worst in the US for short-term and year-round particle pollution, and the second worst for ozone pollution.

Meth and crappy air. Actually, not funny at all.

***

We miss little of Bakersfield, rolling through town on Highway 58 in 105-degree heat, in slow stop-and-go traffic. It’s scorching hot!

We stay on Highway 58, and in less than an hour, arrive in Tehachapi, a city in the Tehachapi Mountains between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.

After 177 miles on the road, Tehachapi is a good place to gas up and grab something cold before pushing on to Barstow, another very funny place.

First, we continue east on Highway 58, rolling past Edwards Air Force Base, home to the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Test Pilot School, and many test activities conducted by the commercial aerospace industry. Dave spent a lot of time here early in his career when he was involved in flight testing aircraft for McDonnell Douglas.

Edwards is the second-largest base in the US Air Force, covering 481 square miles. It has three lighted, paved runways, the longest of which is 15,024 feet long, with an extra 9,558 feet of lakebed runway available at its northerly end. That should be plenty for your Cessna 172, which would be somewhat out of place here, as the airspace is highly restricted.

Thousands of aviation enthusiasts who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the base show up in droves for what’s known as the Los Angeles County Air Show. Yes, Edwards is located in Kern County, but the air show now alternates each year between Lancaster, California — which is in Los Angeles County, and Edwards. The next airshow at Edwards will be in October 2020. The last one was in 2009.

Not far from Edwards is Kramer Junction, where Highway 58 and US Highway 395 meet. The most popular thing to do in Kramer Junction is leave Kramer Junction. Other than gas and food, there isn’t much happening here.

Only 34 more miles east and we come to Barstow, the last source of laugh lines for the day. Johnny Carson made jokes about Barstow, Bakersfield and Burbank. The three Bs.

If you’re a Millennial and have never heard of Johnny Carson, let’s just say he was his generation’s Jay Leno, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah and Jay Leno – all wrapped in one.

Following five hours of intense desert heat, we park the Harleys in Barstow, hold back our laughter, and call it a day.

Tomorrow, we head for Henderson.

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Day Nineteen Summary: Bakersfield to Barstow – a laugh a minute.

Click here to see today’s complete route from Cambria, California, to Barstow, California.

We’re on our way home, eh?

Vroom, vroom.

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Today’s Canada Fun Fact, eh? Fifty percent of the world’s polar bears live in Nunavut, Canada. Nunavut is the newest, largest and most northerly territory of Canada. Polar bears in Nunavut are probably the most widely recognized symbols of the Arctic. The Inuit population believes there are so many polar bears in Nunavut that it’s a public safety concern.