Humanity is still alive and well

For those of you who are having a tough day with humanity (road rage has hit you hard, people tend to ignore each other, you've had something stolen, ...) let me tell you that there are some truly great people out there. From our experience that ancient custom of treating travelers with compassion and respect still holds very true in the world (or at least along the pacific coast).
Our latest episode of Xenia came at the hands of two fellow BMW owners in Ventura, CA.
With the storm of the decade rolling our way we decided we just couldn't work on our bikes on the side of the street anymore and that we needed a garage to get the girls a royal spa treatment.
The BMW motorcycle owners association puts out a book called BMW Anonymous. It lists all the members who have volunteered their place for any number of services, from Coffee and Conversation to a pick-up on the side of the road during a breakdown. It is just a list of phone numbers sorted by city with a series of codes stating what this particular phone number offers up. So down the list I go starting with the phone number with the most codes after it. "This number has been disconnected," "Thanks for calling such and such store," "Please leave a message." I started to get a little disheartened. Perhaps this book wasn't going to be great resource.
Finally, an actual human answered. A woman with a soft european accent (later learned that it was Moroccan) instantly made me feel comfortable as not only invited us but encouraged us to come over to her and her husbands house to use the garage.
We packed up our stuff, rode the 2 miles to their place and within minutes Megan and I felt right at home with this great couple. Rick and Eliane (pronounce el-ii-ana) made us a cup of coffee, showed us around the garage, introduced us to their dogs, Buddy and Nekita, and gave us a great space work. But not only that we enjoyed fantastic conversation as Megan learned that both of their kids (now in college) went to Montessori schools and that they are the Solar Kings of California as founders of California Solar.

The day went on we were fed an amazing lunch with their own "Woodie Wine" -as in the station wagon- and gourmet cheeses.
To prevent this post from rambling too much, I will cut to the chase. By 6 o'clock, we were invited to stay at their house indefinitely to wait out this storm (which could last into next weekend). They will out of town on business so we will be house-sitting. We can use their garage to finish up the bike maintenance and it all starts tonight when we go over to their house for dinner (which I'm sure will be fantastic).

As we were driving back to Jenny's house (who has also taken care of us beyond belief) last night in the rain I kept shaking my head in disbelief and feeling warmth in my heart from how lucky we are to be able to take a trip like this and interact with such great people. This is the greatest thing about traveling. You put yourself out there to meet new people and experience new things and sure enough, the world returns the favor.
So for those of you feeling like the world might not be so good. Let me re-assure you that it is. You just have to go out and find it.

--Rick's gorgeous Ducati Corse (I don't know enough about Ducati's to say which one it is, but boy is it a work of art)