Travel Hodgepodge

What I write here is filtered by my observations and memory, which is why it will be a hodgepodge. Unlike my trip in the car, I can't take notes, not that note taking even in a car is the safest driving.

What with one thing and another, well two things after everything else was finally ready, I didn't get out until after noon. First the cats didn't come right away to get their treat of wet food and be locked in the house. Then I remembered that I should put on sunscreen. It took me some time to remember where I put one of the spare tubes of 70 SPF I left in the house. (I didn't want to unpack my loaded motorcycle to get out one of the two tubes I had in my toiletry bag.) I was glad that I persevered because this let me remember my Sonic Care. I don't think I would be nearly as good with an old fashioned toothbrush even if I could get the motion back.

I thought I was out early enough to miss the Friday "get out of Dodge" traffic but if I was, I certainly didn't want to be later. What with the normally clogged corridors and the artificial ones caused by miles of construction... Let's just say that I got phenomenal mileage, the best I've ever gotten out of the motorcycle, 48.9 miles per gallon. I also did the most miles of lane splitting I've ever done. Unfortunately the combination was really draining and I had to stop just a little past Reno having gone 275 miles in five hours.

The next day's ride was substantially better, except for two incidents. The first happened when I was following my pace truck going about 80 mph. All of the sudden at just 105 miles since my last fill up, my engine started sputtering. I quickly turned it to the reserve tank setting, really just an intake set a little lower in the tank with about 3/4 gallons before bone dry, in the hopes that that was it. It was. I was fortunate that soon after that was an exit with gas. (I have passed a lot of exits that have that sign "No Service." It's a scary thing with a tank that holds less than four gallons.) The second happened in the high wind and rain in Utah, just before Salt Lake City. This time I didn't have a pace vehicle. In fact, I thought I was going at a reduced speed to get better mileage and to be safe in the rain visibility and wet pavement. This time at 98 miles since the last fill up I had to turn to the reserve tank, 29.6 mpg. I immediately reduced my speed even further making the two miles I had to go to the next gas available exit seem even that much longer.

There were some good things on this portion of the trip. I saw my first motorcycle with cruise control. Now after today's ride of over 600 miles, I definitely have to get me one. What happened was that I was being passed and the rider waved at me with his right hand. My right arm started hurting from then on.

Nevada was really into road reconstruction. Unfortunately their roads before reconstruction are generally better than California's roads after construction.

I also learned that the Nevada High Desert is cold. In spite of my warm fuzzy self-congratulatory thoughts about remembering to bring my jacket liner, I wasn't really getting any warmer until I stopped and put it in.

It was still raining this morning so I delayed leaving the hotel until after it had stopped. In fact, I wrote the following twoem about the experience: "Waited until the rain stopped. Delayed my for an hour. / Within ten miles though, I had a 16-mile shower. / It's beautiful now." The clouds were so beautiful that I actually wrote another twoem but after the fact I wished I hadn't. But all down Highway 6 to I-70 and up at least to the Johnson Tunnel was simply too beautiful for words. The rocks in the canyon walls, the cliffs from the surrounding mesas, the Colorado River, ... I was just elated to be on my motorcycle riding through all of it. I'm sure pictures wouldn't have done the actual scenery justice but that is one draw back to riding a motorcycle. But after the rain, it got warm. Then it got hot. Finally I stopped to take my jacket liner out. My motorcycle jacket has pockets for everything, and they are duplicated in the liner, even one for an iPod. This morning, even though I can't listen to an iPod while I'm riding, the wrong kind of ear phones, I put my iPod in the liner pocket. I then proceeded to take it out of the liner in order to put it in the jacket pocket, except I never did. So, somewhere around the Cisco "no service" exit there is an eight gigabyte nano.

I have to stop to do almost everything. I'm glad no one reading this could see me try to close up my vents. When it got cold later, simply zipping up my vents wasn't warm enough so I finally stopped. It took several minutes to get the velcro all on the right closed strip and make sure I wasn't leaving something else on the motorcycle to fall off.

There were a few slow downs, mostly due to construction constricting the lanes down to one. Unlike similar lane limits in Nevada, the speed was reduced to zero and very low when it wasn't. Unfortunately, one was due to a severe accident. I don't know how many cars were actually involved as there were several cars stopped to help but at least one was on its side right up against the center concrete divider.

I'm sure I could think of even more things but it's late and I want to get ready for the next day's riding. The real preparation is sleep. However, I want to end with a chuckle, at least I chuckled. On the back of one of the trucks I passed I saw: "I started with nothing and still have most of it left."

Keeping the shiny side up.