2019 - North to Alaska

So the trip has truly started. SoCal sucks. I’ve done the 395 sooo many times. Northern Nevada really makes me understand why the government thought that blowing up a shit-ton of atomic weapons above ground was a good idea. But then we finally made it off I80 at Wells and entered the Baja Idaho area of faaaaar north Nevada. The road dropped to two lanes, the scenery improved, the air cooled, and the rains came. ...

Alarm went off at 6:30 and we both jumped out of our respective beds…promptly at 8. A little bit of packing done and Paul has gone off to wash his bike. Seriously. I’ll cut him a little slack, though. He’s owned the thing less than 24hrs, after all. We’ll grab breakfast and hit the road. Looking to clear town by 10:30 or 11. Then it’s on to Twin Falls, which is about 7 hours away. ...

We rolled into Minden at about midnight, so pictures weren’t high on the priority list. Cute town, though. Good start to the trip, although the start to that start (so to speak) left something to be desired. Paul ultimately came through with the bike, as mentioned. Kickstands up at the Norco Chik-fil-A at 3:15pm…straight into SoCal stop-and-go traffic on the 15 freeway. Since Paul had literally purchased his bike an hour before, he was understandably reluctant to jump straight in to splitting lanes. It was as slow as being in a car and as hot as the surface of the sun. At least I think it was that hot but I couldn’t feel it much at all. I was wearing a miraculous gel “cooling vest.” You soak it in water to charge it up, then the evaporation of the water from the vest keeps you cool. Cool and moist. That is, damp. Okay. It’s really fucking wet. But it never felt unpleasant and I never, ever, got hot. ...

Paul has joined me on his new bike in Norco. We’re grabbing a quick bite and hitting the road.

- - - Loaded for Bear. Literally.

So, the plan was to leave on Friday the 26th. My partner’s work commitments made that dicey, and then his bike got sick… Well, more accurately, his bike had been sick and the shop was having a hard time repairing it. They just needed some new parts from Japan and it would be up and running in no time. Unfortunately, “in no time” meant July 30th. Departure date was summarily changed to Wednesday the 31st, crack of dawn. ...