Well sure enough there was a Sheriffs convention at the restaurant and one saw me. Of course he lectured me, duh, preaching to the converted. What struck me as funny was how he was going on and on about how THIS state has helmet laws and THIS state does not tolerate that behaviour and THIS state is this….blah blah blah. Long story short, I got a full 11 hours sleep that night!!!! I woke up feeling like a champ!!!!

Well today was a great recovery day. After about 6 days of totally sleep deprivation and killer hot days it was much required rest. To add to needed rest I had inappropriate shoes for walking sooo much in Las Vegas, so I had sore and blistered feet for the last few days.

This morning was abit funny because we woke up in a town we had never seen. We rode in the night before from the desert and it turned out the town we were in was in the mountains, very dramatic ones. The cliffs rose high high above us on both sides, quite shocking to wake up to.

The morning proved a nice temperate ride, abit cooler than the day before and totally windy thus requiring some warmer gear . Its funny riding along with the bike leaning at a crazy angle and the occasional gust shifting your position in the lane. I think I was getting a bit more of it than Vik as I have that HUGE fairing in the front of the bike, major wind sail.

We stopped in a cute town named Lone Pine, at a Mexican restaurant. I showed off abit of my new found language skills and ordered and said my please and thank you’s in Spanish, kinda fun.

So yeah, American portions are notorious for being big. Well I guess it made sense that the prices were high because when our food came, both Vik and I were so stunned we needed time to process the volume of food before us. Taking pics of it helped, lol. Having just been in Mexico, seeing a burrito the size of a small pig was a total aboration.

I couldn’t but overhear and laugh at the little kid in the next booth blabbing on and on to his parents and little sister about how great his quad was now that it was fixed. Mom says studiously “Just make sure you wear your helmet”. To which he replies safely, “yes mom”.

On the way out of the door I noticed the gumball machine sold little skulls and crossbones and tough guy stuff in one machine and little pink do dads in the other. Reaching in my pocket I came up with 4 quarters…one for me, vik, the boy and the little sister, perfect.

I got the trinkets and realised that as the bikes were visible out the window of the restaurant the little boy was staring at Vik and I with all our gear on like were aliens or something.

I walked over and asked him friendily “so do you ride a motorbike?”,
He looks to both mom and dad, I gave them a friendly smile.
“answer the man” says Dad.
“well yeah, I have a quad” he says tentatively.
“Do you wear your helmet all the time?” asks me.
“yeah” he says, checking that Mom doesn't give him away.
So I said “good man, ok then, this is for you, and this is for your sister”
Wow did his face light up!
Well, then of course he starts going on and on about his quad, lol.
I listened for a minute while Mom and Dad laughed.
I had to interrupt him and said “ok, keep the shiny side up”, he looked puzzled but Dad got it so I walked out.
That was fun, plus I got a cool skull thing to hang on my bike!

We rode along the mountain ridge we woke up on and then descended into a high plains type of area. This is where the wind was. After the high plains area we started ascending again, up into the mountains. This led quickly into the Mammoth Lakes area, Mammoth ski hill.

Can you read the red sign behind Vik??

The day before we were melting....

We toured around that area abit, cute town and went to the bottom of the lifts. Here we found some residual snow from the winter and had to play in it abit. We also had to add another layer of warmth. We both had a good laugh at the irony of melting the day before in Death Valley in 125 degrees and minus 283 ft elevation, now we were around 6000ft, and about 40 degrees in snow!

I had a huge rest the night before and was looking forward to a nice long ride today. As the roads were awesome, the scenery stunning and everthing just working for me I really just wanted to roll. Well as I mentioned earlier I was not alone this trip and Vik does love his photos. Although it can frustrate me its all good because he does get some really great shots.

However when I am sitting waiting for Viktor I have nothing to do, so I have created for myself a new hobby. I now take pictures of Viktor taking pictures. Seriously, after all the trips we ahve done together etc, I now have literally hundreds of pictures of Viktor taking pictures. I mention this now because in reviewing the pics to attach to this posting of the blog I noticed that a pic of vik taking a pic is right beside the pic vik took whilst i was taking his pic. So for your viewing pleasure, here is a pic of vik taking a pic and the pic vik took.

OK so now that you have seen that one, I have to share with you one of the prizes of my Vik taking pics collection. It was taken, funny enough, just yesterday! Rememeber the ppeak of Dante's lookout? Well Vik walked out to the end lookout and i stayed behind nursing blistered feed and tired bones. Well I used the super zoom on my wee little camera and, as I knew what he would do, I caught him just as he raised his arm to take the pic! You can see it in the progression, how far away he was! Also, I think the pic he was taking was one of those funny self portaits as seen in the yesterday's post.

The highways led us quickly up into stunning views and higher elevation mountains as we approached Yosemite Park. It was getting on in the day and the park was closing soon so we rode as far in as the main gate, took a million pics again and futzed around in the snow abit.

Where the Yosemite entrance met the highway we stopped at a little rest station and chatted with a couple of guys from Vancouver Island on KLR’s, good guys.

There was a scenic lookout there and we took a few pics. As the gas station and restaurant were only a couple of hundred feet across the parking lot from the lookout I figured, ahhh no helmet.

Well sure enough there was a Sheriffs convention at the restaurant and one saw me. Of course he lectured me, duh, preaching to the converted. What struck me as funny was how he was going on and on about how THIS state has helmet laws and THIS state does not tolerate that behaviour and THIS state is this….blah blah blah. Since Viktor was navigating I had absolutely no idea what the hell state I was in!!!

Besides being in a state of almost laughing at the irony I had no idea if I was in Nevada still, California, or somewhere else, nor did I particularly care, the riding was nice.

I respect appropriate laws and agree with helmet laws so I dutifully said my “yes sirs” bashfully and let it pass. I did consider if I should surrender my skull and cross bones trinket out of respect for the little kid with the quad…. No way, he probably rode no helmet abit too and I really like that trinket!

From the entrance to Yosemite we rode along the edge of the stunning Mono Lake, in the light of the day at the time it was absolutely beautiful scene. I took a few pics but really just concentrated on soaking it up.

A quick sweeping road climbed up the surrounding hills abit and one point we came around a corner and I saw a stunning scene that literally made me say wow in my helmet. It was fabulous. In our stopping and starting I kinda lost track of Vik so I backtracked a bit then had to race forward. Anyway long story short is I didn’t get a pick of the place. You know those pics that you just didn’t get? The one that got away? Well that is one of those, oh well.

It was not far from here we stopped for a good scene of the sunset, which we did get pics of. Stopping for sunsets has become a bit of a ritual for Vik and I. We both really feel connected to the environment and the lands we are travelling through when we do that. It allows us a breather, a chance to just be still and reflect on where we are, what the terrain is, how the locale changes when the sun goes does down. Plus it makes for great pics and a chance to do some gear adjustments.

These gorgeous rolling hills rolled along the side of some high altitude lakes. Cold, worn, and buffeted by wind Vik and I agreed to motel in the little town of Bridgeport for the night. We consulted The Oracle for a suitable place to stay, then when driving around comparing prices, we realised that we could see almost every motel from one spot on main street! I love small towns.

We ended up staying at the Bridgeport Lodge and Inn. I like the name Lodge, feels rustic to me. Could have been a ski lodge from the weather the next day.

I had to check email and do some work while Vik warmed up in front of the TV. As you can tell by the volume of writing and pics it was a very full day. Typically at the end of these long days we just have something light to eat, a reffreshing beverage or two and chill out, not doing much before sleep.

Unfortunately this was a working trip for me so I had to dial into my work email, reply to some emails and do abit of writing. In the morning I would need to make a few phone calls, process some more emails and write more. Oh well, at least I was on the road.

By the time I had finished I was just that, finished. Vik was asleep and i rolled into my bed exhausted but fulfilled form a great day of riding, scenery and physically challenging miles. I love it.