Xenotropic Systems

The Beginning

The day started out with goodbyes, and the final views of Corvallis for a few months at least. I decided to push through to Sweet Home with the fuel I had on board, and that would give me a nice break before the stress of the mountains. Everything seemed to be performing okay on the motorcycle, and I started gathering some fuel statistics as well using MPG on my iPhone. It’s actually a cool little app. I talked to a fellow motorcyclist in the gas station in Sweet Home for a bit. He was really interested in my “crotch rocket” and was apparently thinking about getting one in addition to his cruiser.

Unlike the last time Dylan and I were there, the Cascades were awesome today. It was sunny, and dry. The morning started out a little nippy, but I elected to go without any rain liner or insulation, and I think it was the right choice. Things warmed up, and the forest was at its best. I got a pretty clean run at Highway 20, and was able to pass up cars fairly quickly after getting behind them. They seem to have paved over the gravel spots that were there for a few years, which makes it a little better for motorcycles. The paving job isn’t the best, so you can’t go barreling into those corners like you normally would.

I saw another couple of BMWs at the gas station in Bend. They were headed back to Colorado after a trip they took to British Columbia. I almost had a disaster with the TomTom when near Black Butte Ranch I noticed it had completely fallen off the mount and was hanging by the power cord. It turned out that it needed a little more cutting in Bend to make sure the plug fully clears the mounting. After that it stayed put all day. Unfortunately, even with my makeshift sunshade on, it’s not really completely visible when riding. I can cup my hand over it and see well enough to get the data I want though. It would be so much cooler if it had a nice bright screen like the iPhone.

I expected that the trip to Burns would be dry and hot, but amazingly enough, I got rained on. I decided to grit it out and just get a little wet. It kept things cool, and wasn’t a bad choice at all. There was some construction along the way, and I had to wait for a pilot car.

McDonalds was lunchtime for me, since I wanted to get back on the road quickly to preserve some time for other things. It hit the spot, and I was out of Burns after some gas in the tank. Crane was a short hop from there, and it was nice to hang out with Grandma for an hour or so. I got to stretch my legs and rest up for the remaining 200 miles or so. Grandma seemed to be doing well, and recovering nicely from her dental work. She seemed happy to see me.

I really drove had out of Crane, flogging the bike along at 75-80 mph. This made some really good time, except when I had to wait for a herd of cattle to cross the road. I made my next stop in McDermott to grab the final gas break. The wind was kicking up a little when I was filling up, and it seemed some weather was on the way. Around 30 miles out I got caught up in it. Again, I decided not to do any rain gear, which was probably fine. The major problem was that there was terrible wind. It was whipping sagebrush across the roadway which I was hoping not to get caught up in. Worse was that I had to suck down to the bike to and lean into it to try to not get blown off the road. It let up after a while and I found a small sliver of opportunity to make the rest of the way into Winnemucca. Shortly after I arrived at Aunt Sue’s house, the sky opened up and started dumping, complete with thunder and lightning. It’s continuing to do so tonight, and we’re thinking that a fire may have been started somewhere since there is a burning smell in the air.

Dinner was some cheeseburgers and the meat was really good. I helped Aunt Sue with her computer issues, and got her Macs up and running again. We did some teaching on how to do a few things on the computer, and she seems eager to try some stuff out. I got her signed up for AIM so that we can try to do any remote debugging that needs to happen, and that should allow her to talk to some folk too. She was thinking it might be good for Grandma since she just inherited Mom’s old 12″ PowerBook. We’ll have to see if we can get Grandma Internet service first. They’re CenturyTel out there, so I’m thinking some DSL services might be available (even though AT&T cellular service is non-existent in Crane).

Weather seems to be okay for tomorrow, and I don’t see an road closures along the way from Nevada DOT.

Total Fuel Cost: $55.35
Estimated Fuel Cost: $49.41
12.02% over fuel budget