Reno and Return

It's been wonderfuly strange trip so far. I read somewhere that it is amazing how many things can happen in one day! I'm borrowing and internect connection so I don't really have time to properly document but here are some highlights. Pictures (many) to go along with some of these stories will be posted for the full writeup.

- being hit by debris on Oreagon highways (filthies highways I've seen)
- getting lost on the forest roads of Northern California
- helping an old man with a broken truck on Hwy 3
- seeing some old biker buddies in Weaverville.
- enjoying the heck out of Hwy 299 into Redding (wonderful!)
- running out of gas a 2:00 am in Dunsmuir (where everything is closed)
- chancing up a nice woman at 2:00am that did not mace me and had a can of gas
- find out that her roomate's sun is in the Navy, in the small town where I live!
- seeing Mt. Shasta in the rising morning light over my campsite
- making amazing time from Mt. Shasta City to Modesto (down I-5 boring!)
- replacing my helmet with a Concept 1 due to damage coming though Oregon
- heading over Hwy 4 to Nevada
- stopping at Alpine Lake for a lunch. Really neat lake
- crossing two mountain passes (8000 ft. and 8700 ft.)
- NOT crashing on Cadillac Corner
- being tossed like rag dolls near Carson City due to nasty sidewinds on Hwy 395
- unpacking and repacking at friends house before going north to camp at Stead
- reaching proposed campsite at midnight under a full moon (how fortunate!)
- setting up and having borrowed tent's poles break and discover broken zippers.
- got a good night's sleep, gear working out OK despite tent.
- awake to the sounds of aircraft blasting off the runway
- getting a good location to watch and shoot pictures in the pit area
- giving Canadians next to us a hard time about the Snowbirds (it was hard to resist)
- retiring to camp for MRE's and tequilla.
- meeting neighboring campers that had been coming to airshows for last 20 years
- checking out an abandoned mental health facitliy near out campsite at midnight (spooky)
- rising early to get into show for coffee and breakfast
- saw some really strange old and new aircraft in the static display area (is the F-18/F a Super Hornet?)
- watched some great racing
- decamped and headed for south Reno
- took some shortcuts through the desert to avoid the nasty traffic backup (good test of bike and skills - no crashes)
- exhausted, tired, filthy, getting a shower and a bed on Sunday night at friends in Reno

So far.. a really awesome trip and I still have another 1000 miles to go before I return home (if I return home, hahahah).

Bike performing flawlessly. Discovered the joys of having a camel back drink system and found that the Concept 1 helmet is one of the most comfortable and quietest helmets I've yet owned (and I only bought Shoei and Arai in the past) at 1/2 the price of my last Japanese helmet.

I also need to get a real, net, tent. Less to self, thank those that lend you things but respectfully decline unless you know for SURE it's in top-notch condition. Thankfully I did not have to stake my life on the functionality of the tent! Not sure what to replace it with but I should buy something for the return legs of the trip.

As far as the return legs, I'm will tryin go figure out what I want to do. I was planning to return to Modesto with my buddy but that means about 5 hours of relentless super-slab to get back to Northern California. Thus I'm considering taking 395 north out of Nevada into California and nighting over near Mt. Shasta again, to return to Bremerton some time Tuesday afternoon. We'll see how that all works when the day is over.

More to come upon my return.