Well he thanks me effusively and tells us about flustered and in a hurry he is as he was on his way to get married in a chapel and was worried it was going to close! Wha? Married, now?
“Yup, getting married right now”
Well he feeds the meter and helps his elderly bride to be out of the car, all dressed in white she was, and barely slows down for us to get a pic of them!Vik and I roused ourselves from a sound sleep which, as it turned out was a ‘warm winters nap’, it was SNOWING!!! A day and half ago I burned my face on my metal rimmed sunglasses cause it was so hot, now its snowing!! Unreal.

Vik and I moseyed across the street to diner and watched the now fall while we stuffed our faces with a huuuuuge carcinogenic cholesterol bomb of an american breakfast. Listening to people who lived in the area talk about ‘the pass’ we had a slight sense of dread about being storm stayed. Where we were the snow was not sticking but all the pot bellied hunters in the room seemed to be of consensus that it was going to stay later in the day. I guess that makes blowing away helpless critters from miles away easier and therefore more fun.

Keeping a close eye on the pavement for any signs of the dreaded snow that stays we walked about the town seeking warmer gear. On the way down to Phoenix from Vancouver the fear was of massive heatwave so second layers of gloves and long underwear were strategically not packed. Yes we did underestimate the altitude.

The snow abated abit while I went into do some more work before we headed out. I made a few calls and did some emails for about an hour and a half, not bad for a part days work. I also made sure my phone was charged as I had to make a call in about 2 hours and I picked out an appropriate place on the map to stop to make the call.

After the work delay Vik was eager to get going so we geared up with some new gear and got ready to depart this one horse but 10 cop town. One cop for every Larry with a rifle? Probably not but there sure were a lot. And yeah, it had started snowing again.

From Bridgeport we rode through the snow, along lovely river valleys and narrow canyons with a wide burbling and likely ice cold river running through it. Damn good country for an ambush or at least a good 6 shooter fight. Very wild west.

All this time it had been snowing steadily, even heavily at points, but it never did stick and eventually abated. We pressed ever on.

After about 2 hours the time for my conference call was coming up. I was looking for suitable places early and its thankful I did, there was no cel service anywhere!!! None of the little towns we were going through had service and I was getting panicky. Balancing work and this trip was proving tiring and a compromise on the schedule, but I had to do the work part. If I didn’t do the work part successfully the whole thing was a failure.

Well, I have been working with technology etc fo rlong enough to know to have a plan B. At the first sizable gas station I bought a phone card but, they were calling me on my cel phone for the call, so I still needed to get to service. We raced ahead trying to find those precious bars on the reception indicator on my phone, all to no avail.

I used the phone card to call my admin person to tell her to tell them I would not be available. She had just found out the whole thing had been delayed an hour. Hot Damn Enus, let’s ride! We ripped to the next big town and thankfully it had strong service, sweet! The call came in as expected and the work/bike trip balance of my universe held strong.

We rode through Carson City then Reno. I really liked Reno, it was neat. I guess with all the cool Vegas style stuff, the cool signs and light bulb neon it was sort of what I had expected from Vegas. Basically Vik and I just launched the bikes on a main corner, took pics and watched the world go by.

Me.

Vik.

Vik taking a pic.

Me taking a pic of Vik taking a pic.

While we are standing there this older guy was wrestling with a parking meter. He noticed us noticing him and asked us if we had change for dollar. Well the guy seemed genuine enough and nice enough and also seemed abit rushed and confused so I basically just gave him some change…better than loosing it in slots I guess eh? Well he thanks me effusively and tells us about flustered and in a hurry he is as he was on his way to get married in a chapel and was worried it was going to close! Wha? Married, now?
“Yup, getting married right now”
Well he feeds the meter and helps his elderly bride to be out of the car, all dressed in white she was, and barely slows down for us to get a pic of them!

We were talking about schedule and route planning etc and it was about this time the Viktor realised we were a day behind, lol. I guess he hadn’t factored in the extra day in Vegas. I was working so was still very aware of days and schedule (not so much with my location that is true). I could feel the palpable sense of urgency start to emanate off Vik.

We looked at the whole trip remaining and decided to cut one leg a bit shorter and do a bit longer days, and possible and do an ironbutt day need be. Iron butt days are lonnng days in the saddle. ON my other bike, the sport touring VFR, that meant aobut 500k, for Vik it was abit more, maybe 650kms. Well, having ridded 2100kms in 2.5 days just a few weeks earlier to get from Puerto Vallarta to Phoenix, I knew that on the Goldwing I could do a 900km, maybe more, if needed.

From Reno we crossed back over into California then up into the mountains with beautiful valleys and a great sunset. That ride was really remote and really beautiful, stunning with a gorgeous rainbow. I borrowed Vik's super 10meg camera and got all arty.

For some reason this sunset made me think of Africa. I have been thinking about Africa alot lately, (shout out to Mirembe, my own personal Goddess of Peace) and this got me to thinking how stunning it really must be to be there.

After sunset it got super cold and snowy. The roads were still dry so we pressed on to the next town, Alturas, California.

It was near the end of the day, we were worn from hyper vigilance in the snow, worn from the cold and worn from new sights. We were driving casually, heads steady, hunkered down for the last cold leg before a warm hotel room. It was about this time I decided I needed one more layer of upper body warmth when I looked back and saw the flashers as Vik was being pulled over. What the? Speed was reasonable, no erratic behaviour? Turns out vik had an light bulb issue and as a result no rear taillight. What ever.

We cruised into our next town, consulted The Oracle for a place to stay and cranked the freakin’ heat. I had no work til the next day so we just hung out in the room recanting the days events and warming our bones.