Its Sunday and I'm in Bishop,CA an hour south of Mono Lake on the East side of the Sierra Nevadas...left Vancouver on Monday in the sunshine but hit rain by Seattle...stayed the night at Salem then hit Albany,OR Tuesday and got suit, boots, etc...Tues PM headed for Boise, ID...got half way, driving at night thru mountain passes was not a good idea and was not fun, even fully layered with heated vest and grips I froze my ass off, winding roads, poor visibility...was needing to stop cause I needed gas and was getting mild hypo but couldnt find town with gas/motel, stopping every 20 min to warm up finally reached Mt. Vernon by 9PM then on to Boise next AM...spent two days in Boise getting luggage and gear...
synchronistically ran into a guy named Seth from NY at the BMW shop, also on a F650GS, going from New York to live in Portland, he manages the band called Beduoin Sound Clash...he had his life strapped in a tuppercare container strapped on the back...we did a deal on my old BMW luggage which worked well for both of us...felt really good to help him out and it worked for me not to have to deal with shipping it back to Seattle....
left Boise Friday AM and got to Carson City...had great meal at a great Thai restaurant (more "Food as Medicine" inspiration/information on this later as I forgot my journal/notes in the motel room)...Sat AM had a nice chat with a very nice woman who owns a funky coffee shop...she told be about her adventure to Bali...I asked her out to dinner/dance..she said she was flatterred but said her boyfriend would have a problem with that...oh darn, dancing would be good...Sat PM decided to stay in the area and circumnavigate Lake Tahoe (gorgeous up there) and then headed back to Carson City for the night...same cheap motel $30 and more great Thai food...
Had an interesting day today...struggled with getting going, some fear and having second thoughts of what am I getting myself into, etc ...left Carson City 11AM and headed south down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas'.... two hours on I spied a gravel road from the vista lookout above Mono Lake and figured it was time to test my non-existant off road skills...was a little sketchy for sure but OK, then about a mile in, I hit some really deep sand... oops imagine that!... fucking sand in the desert!...went down pretty quick with the right pannier coming to rest on my lower leg...guess I did that one a bit wrong as the alum panniers are supposed to protect my leg...lucky it was soft sand, made it easier to get my leg out with no major damage, a little sore in the calf but other than a little rattled, bike and me no damage....good opportunity to test picking up the bike, etc...then in the motel parking lot here in Bishop I couldnt get the bike on the centre stand with all the extra gear weight and it went over again...building confidence of being able to get myself out of a jam tho and getting some practise of whats ahead I'm sure. ....Poor Bike..oucchhh!
Not making many miles each day and having a hard time just getting going early...guess I'm liking the safety/familiarity of the US as I get my rythym and more comfortable with the bike, gear, etc..I imagine its also the fear that when I cross into Mexico and on to Central
America its like setting sail on the open ocean in a ship I dont know very well and I see myself avoiding it a bit Feeling tired and resting up my swollen leg...we'll see what tomorrow brings...will probably hit LA tomorrow...need to get the bike serviced soon either LA or Sand Diego....thinking I need a few more days in the US ensuring I'm ready before heading into Mexico...also not confident that my offroad skills are up to this journey...perhaps I should hang out and take a course but the only one I know of is not until middle of Nov and I dont really want to wait that long... yikes leaving soon!
Back upright again and ready to go
