Day 1

It was 37 degrees and dark on Day 1 of the 2018 Prefrontal Tour, with reports of snowflakes falling somewhere in the Adirondacks. We put off the launch until after dawn, so as not to be driving at deer-thirty in the morning, and in the hope that it would warm up a bit... Gassing up at Fuller's Store in Edinburgh, we headed south under broken clouds set ablaze by an Autumn sunrise, through Amsterdam and the farm fields of Schoharie county, hooking up with the concrete slab of I-88 to make some time through Oneonta and beyond. We turned south at Horseheads to amble through the Allegheny State Forest and into Pennsylvania, then turned west and made a race into the sunset to reach Youngstown, Ohio. All in all a great day with 525+ miles on the meter.

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Day 6

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I was surprised to see the light peeking around the curtain, having passed the age a decade ago when a biochemical change makes you pop awake at 5 AM. Every day. Then a whiff of chlorine reminded me it was just the light from the swimming pool that our room overlooked, and it was still 5 AM, dark, and a very cold 32 degrees. But Day 6 of the 2018 Prefrontal Tour was a day to make up for lost time, and there was no more to lose. A Canadian invasion was underway to the north, a mass of frigid air 5 states wide with temps well below freezing. As that air mixed with the moist air to the south it would create high winds and torrential rains, and we intended to thread the needle and beat those conditions by skirting to the west just in time to miss the worst of it. Thanks to the support crew in the US and Europe who track our progress and run the weather models, we were able to stop briefly in St. Louis and then turn southwest toward Oklahoma City instead of continuing westward to Kansas. A
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Day 11

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Day 11 of the 2018 Prefrontal Tour was to finish off the To-Do list and get headed back east. We packed and repacked the bikes, but in the end a couple things had to go - my plastic containers and black sneakers were ready for the dustbin anyway, and I had to toss them out for lack of space. Jim got a pretty cool photo of my bike before dawn, backlit by the hotel's accent lights, but truth be told the desert has put a shameful layer of grit on the old girl. We headed west out of Bakersfield, through that now familiar mixture of grapevines, fruit trees, and oil pumps. That part of California is such a strange mixture of heavy industry and food production! Everywhere it's fumes and dust, and in the process of harvesting the celery, cabbage and green onions they were packing them in cardboard boxes with gaping air holes, loading them on open trucks, and carting them through all of that mess to the processing facility. Another good reminder to wash my food! Part of the heaviest in
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Day 14

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There really is a rhythm of the road, or should I say a common refrain with accent notes. Rise, pack, eat, ride. Frequent stops for hydration and fuel. Find lodging, eat, unpack, plan tomorrow's route, sleep. It's mostly the same but the accent notes are the weather and the clothing and gear choices you make in response. Day 14 of the 2018 Prefrontal Tour was the coldest we've seen yet, and it took us a couple hours to make the right choices. Although it was in the 50's in Salt Lake City, as we rode up the gentle switchbacks to Summit Park it dropped to 35 degrees and faceshield fogging meant cracking the visors to maintain visibility. We made a stop to switch back into the cold weather gear, and to "coffee up" to try to overcome the lethargy of a Brazilian Steakhouse dinner the night before. Truth be told, neither of us was feeling it. We passed through Echo, Utah and the rock formations were impressive, great red dollops of rock with little holes pockmarkin
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