The Long Way Around

As I still have a few errands to run (filling up my tank and gas can, some last second re-packing of my carry on materials), I'm up. Been up since 5:10 am. Annoying and early.

Hard to be an effective rider when you're exhausted.

The meet at Ocean Beach is in about an hour. I hope everyone else is as frickin' tired as me. Hah.

No sleeping in for 10 days.

The road is stopped. Construction. Caught up with Maroy and Bagel.

Got stung by a fricking bee bear Livermore. That'll learn me to open the arms to my jacket to cool off.

So far top speed has been 80.6 and that was somewhere near Livermore as well.

Man. No time to stop. Grrrr.

Meet up.

I was the laatone to show up. Even though I live closest to the starting point.

I thought I heard a claxking noise on the way over but it turned out to be straps on my back pack hitting the aide of my bike (on the cowl). That was retarded.

We're now at Alice's on Skyline.

Got here at about 4:14pm pacific. Damn it's pretty here. And far.

My iPhone says it's 6:35 right now. Time zones - who knew.

Here she is. Small town

Btw - of course I had to pull over and use my gas can in the middle of yosemite. That sucked.

At least I had it though. Lots of distance there with no gas.

Also, it's clear that a few posts might get out of order due to reception issues. An they may be littered with typos.

What do you want. I'm on a phone.

And left a nasty explosion.

Ew.

Jess and I noticed my rear tire was covered in crap. Not sure what - looks tone some sort of oil.

We don't see any obvious leak though. Not sure what the heck is going on.

My rear brake is soft. Something was getting on it.

Cleaned it off (below) and we'll look tomorrow. All my levels (hub, engine, and brake) are good.

Rolf has no idea right now. That says something. Will be keeping an eye on this.

Things that have happened:

- while not all of the scores are in, for day 1 I'm 4th in my class. Better than I hoped. There are reasons for this - several of the people I would be competing with are experiencing some mechanical issues. This is keeping me in the top five for now.

- seriously, there were some of the most technical roads I've see ridden on in my life. Near Mt. Hamilton, Quimby to Mt. Hamilton Rd is crazy. As tough a road as I've seen.

- Old Toll Road was messed up. Some 15 or so miles of it were gravel and, as the road signs put it, fresh oil. Suck. I rode with Bagel and Maroy for the whole time there, and we kept our distance from each other because we were flinging up nasty gravel at each other.

- for what ever reason, Pete's top case got filed up with gas from his gas can. Icky.

- there is this Mobil gas station that has frickin' great food here in Lee Vinning. Seriously. Had a great burger. Delicious.

I'm tired as hell. It'll be a nice long ride tomorrow. The longest leg I think. Pretty much cover all of Nevada I believe.

Till tomorrow.