Monday, July 16, 2007
50th Birthday Ride - Day 1
I wanted to do something special for my 50th birthday, but I'm not really one for a big party. I talked it over with Carole, and we came up with a great plan: I ride my bike up to Banff, she flies into Calgary and meets me there, and we spend a week seeing the sights. After wards, she flies home, and I ride my bike up to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, over the Alaska, and back home.
I packed up my Motofizz bag with my camping gear the night before. On day 1, I left the house around 9:30am, with a stop for gas at the 76 station on Rosemead, with the odometer at 25301.
I needed pair of casual shoes when I got to Banff to meet up with Carole. I picked up a pair of low-rise Timberland hiking shoes at the outlet mall in Barstow, which was in a pretty sorry state.
The heat was intense — when I got to Baker the famous high-rise thermometer read 108. I hit Del Taco for lunch, got a tank of gas, and soaked my Sahara vest for the ride to Vegas.
I rehydrated both myself and the vest in Vegas, but waited until Alamo to get gas. On NV-318, the Zumo kept telling me to turn off onto NV 38 - a road that does not exist... The bike was really stable with the Motofizz mounted, which was a pleasant surprise. I kept the speeds up, and only the crosswinds slowed me down.
The combination of a day of intense heat, 509 miles of road, and imminent thunderstorms led me to wimp out and hit the Motel 6 in Ely for the night. The thunderstorms hit around 10:30pm, dumping prodigious amounts of rain and lighting up the sky.
