Goose & Whit's Wild Ride

mile 8290

Man, I thought Monday was tough until I met Tuesday. Nature seems to want me to really pay for entry back into my normal life. The ride from Vernal through Salt Lake City to Winemucca, NV wasn't really packed with lovely scenery or anything else particularly interesting, but it did come with a handful of peril. It all started with the Salt Lake, which had the most ridiculously strong winds of the trip (I passed an overturned semi at one point). I was fighting with them pretty much the whole time, with moderate rain in spots, right up until... this (330k QuickTime movie).

I just wasn't aware of the distance between service areas in this region. Lucky for me I have a Motorcycle Touring Service membership (sort of like AAA). It took about an hour for the guy they called to arrive and give me 1.5 gallons of gas for $90. No, seriously. Supposedly they're going to reimburse me for that, but it's still beyond ridiculous. While waiting, I caught up on my yo-yo-ing, handstand practice, sand kicking and desperately-bored photo taking, as you'll see below.

It gets worse. I got on the road again, and although the winds became a little less troublesome, the temperature dropped quickly and more rain clouds appeared on the horizon. Before the evening was over with I was bundled up with just about every piece of moto gear I own, driving through fairly heavy rain in the dark. Visibility was so poor that at one point I was relying solely on the traffic cones to tell me where the actual road was. What fun!

But eventually it all let up and gave me a very clear, smooth (but f-f-f-freezing) ride the rest of the way into Winemucca, a couple of hours east of Reno. Unless something bizarre happens, I'll be rolling into San Fran this evening.