Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 22:08:51 -0700 To: wetleather@micapeak.com From: "Kathy E. Gill" Subject: Day Nine : Day of Rest It's Sunday - a classic day of rest - and I give a nod to tradition. EC gets out on time - I wake up to hear John* in the shower. Will I get up for breakfast? Turn over, nap some more. Drag out of bed at 8:30 - join John for breakfast, who is almost finished. (complimentary hot buffet breakfast for PE riders) Somehow we got to talking about Europe - I told him about the 2001 WL Alps tour. He started telling me about places in Austria to visit! He has an amazing grasp of history. He departs around 10 for SF; I think about going back to sleep, but decide that's probably not a good idea, as 5:00 (my etd - I get an extended checkout for another $25) isn't *that* far away. Go to WallMart for oil and oil drain pan; also need a new air pressure guage, mine disappeared Saturday. (are these things like socks in a dryer for other folks?) The oil shelves have conspicuous 'holes' where the 15-50, 20-50 oils normally live. I pick up Mobile1 15-50; decide not to change the oil filter (even though I carried it out with me, along with the oil filter cover remover) because I didn't change it during my 'dry run' two weeks ago. No sense getting it off and not being able to get it back on (i'm thinking of the contortions I have to go through to get the R65 oil filter in place). In swimsuit and shorts, I change oil, adjust and lube chain, and give the bike a sponge bath. Washing clothes concurrently. Next - pool/hot tub (which felt 'Jack and KD' hot). Try, without success, to get pix out of Phil's camera - either my computer isn't happy or the camera isn't ('cannot find camera' is the error message). I think the Powerbook will need a visit to the "shop" soon for tune-up. I can only sporadically "manually dial" for connection (this is how I prefer to connect, because I use the MCI card for the LD charges). Repack the large compression sack - I now have the thermarest & tent & sleeping bag & flashlight & rain covers for the tourmasters stuffed in one sack for the rear rack. (Feel better, Jon? ) I'm getting better each time with the packing. At 5 pm - the odo reads 8505 and the digital thermometer at the bank up the street reads 103! (explains why I got sunburned with my little stint doing maintenance in the sun) I decide to run up I-29 - pick up SR2 just north of the (Iowa) border. [I touch an unplanned state] I have poured water down the legs of my stich, stuck my head under a faucet, and am wearing half-finger 'bicycle' gloves (yeah, i know, but it's SO damn hot). Route 2 turns out to be a good pick; it's a fairly new, four lane concrete road. For some reason, it doesn't feel as windy as I remember I-80. In places, it's rolling hills, not unlike Wisconsin. Corn corn corn beans corn beans ... On the ride tonight, I think again about how we recycle names. It's like there was a limited supply of possible names for towns when the 'white man' moved west. I *know* this really isn't the case, but I am amused when I see "Syracuse" as an exit in Nebraska. And there was a Dawson KS yesterday (my folks live in Dawson, GA). Just on I-80 - there was York (PA), Waco (TX), Waverly (NY), Utica (NY) .... OH - it wasn't my recollection; SR2 was less windy than I-80. I don't know if I-80 is in a more 'wide open swept' area (it looks like it might be) - or if it's residual buffeting from traffic (traffic tonight was amazing - 2x as heavy as friday). Do 200 miles in four hours - with two gas stops. My "hot weather" gas stops seem to take 15-20 minutes, no matter what. Get gas; go inside to the bathroom - re-wet my head and neck things; buy water and gatorade; refill camelbak (i've started adding fruit punch gatorade to the water); suit up. I had originally thought I'd ride maybe 100 miles - then I thought, well, I'll go to Lincoln (about 150) ... and at Lincoln, I said, "well, I could go at least another 50 to York". I wound up going all the way to Grand Island, my point for departing from the slab for 'scenic' riding Monday. Staying in a Howard Johnson (haven't done *that* since I lived PA in the 80s) at $34-. With swimming pool. Kathy * A funny I forgot from Saturday. I was the first to check in -- but John, bless his heart, handled check-out because it was taking EC and me longer to get stuff 'together' and downstairs. "Mr. Gill, did you get your package?" he is asked at the front desk. "I'm not Mr. Gill," John reported that he said. The clerk says, "but you were in room 232?" "Yes," John replies, "but I'm not Mr. Gill." The clerk seemed discombobulated; a guy sharing a hotel room with two women and he's not married to either one of them. ;-) John, of course, didn't know that I had received a package from my tailor, Mona, in Bellevue. I forgot to pick up the 'safari' pants that were to do double duty (shorts, pants) on this trip - Mona, who rides a H-D, shipped them to Omaha.