Day One ends

Pictures:
-The one place I forgot to put sun block
-The desert hills outside Reno, Nevada
-The wooded Hills near Donner Lake, CA

Alright, I got caught in one of those "dead zones" from all the tv commercials. No phone service, no internet, some place called Nevada. Day one went well, it was certainly and interesting trip. I've gone approximately 560miles and spent the night at a Super 8 motel in Wells, NV. The ride was absolutely beautiful. Passing from rolling hills of California in the the wooded mountins on the CA/NV border then down into the desert around Reno and back into the mountins on the eastern half of NV. It shaping up to be the type of trip where you learn on the fly and fast. So that being said, lets recap on some of the lessons I learned. First, people are crazy. Nothing will make you more nervous than cruizing along and watching all the kids with parents fighting with the kids or people looking at maps while driving. I'll admit to doing a little more rubbernecking going through the mountains than I should have but at least I kept speed and stayed in my lane. Next, the will always be at least one great big "I TOLD YOU SO"......stupid sun screen. About half way through the desert I opened the throttle a little more to pass some tourists and realized my hand really hurts. Ah yes, the little half moon on the back of my hands where the glove latches and doesn't cover the skin.....now bright purple with slight blistors. 2nd degree sun burns on the frist day.....I know I'm going to hear about this one......should have listened to the Claifornia Kid--->haha thats alliteration, because my grammar is sooooo gooder. Sorry everyone else inside joke. And I'll also apologize now for the constant change in tense. This is really a combination of what I think as I look back at it and what I was thinking at the time. So Aside from the sun screen, everything else was set for the trip, I just can't explain that lump in my stomach......wait yup its that nervous almost afraid feeling. Been a while since that was around, but the excited side and logical sides of my brain are going back and forth about the ride to Buffalo, and honestly leaving California is anything but easy after the past 10 days. After fighting with crazy CA drivers I broke into open road.....open construction. And honestly I don't care how much character cobblestone gives to the mountain trails, it is not ok for a highway. Coming from the hills into a complete wasteland of desert is rather misleading. You can see mountains in every direction and towns off in the distance but you don't realize those towns are probably 15miles away and the mountains are over 200 miles off. Really makes you feel like you aren't getting anywhere. Two hours of lonely driving in the desert, not even a semi around. Then civilization just doesn't seem so bad, even if it is the oh so welcoming townsfolk of a rundown albeit forgot place in the middle of Nevada with no phone service and no internet. Roll the motorcycle in the room, lock the door, and wait for the horror movie to start. The only other really fun thing of the day, was hitting a bird. Some small insect eating bird lives all along the highway in NV and one of them thought it wanted the bug right in front of my bike. Had about the same affect as a water balloon trying to go through a brick wall and looked about the same. I thought I was hallucinating because there was no thump or any noise but when I pulled over there was blood splattered from the front tire all the way up my pant leg. Bike 1 Bird 0. So sitting in the hotel I pull out the map to mark my progress. Talk about discouraging. Sounds great when you say a number but put it on a map so you can see how much is left and it certainly is humbling. Thats all for now, sleep and then repeat in the morning.