Day 6

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. And a brief stop in St. Louis was more than enough time to witness the best and the worst that city has to offer. Did you know for instance that St. Louis installed half of a giant McDonald's logo next to the river, several hundred feet high? We wondered when they'll finish it... Illinois had little to offer in the way of scenery, aside from a few oil wells, and it marked a curious increase in the number of cow sightings and a near total decline in the number of birds. Conclusion, birds do not like cows. We stopped for dinner at the Hog Eye Smoke Pit, and decided to keep riding, extending the day by one time zone to a record 13 hours and about 575 miles of riding. Jim's first choice of motel, the "Tara", was straight out of Bates Motel, and the only thing missing from the carpet was a chalk outline. I especially liked the tattered dishtowel, ragged beyond use, that was lovingly repurposed as a bathroom window curtain. Within 5 minutes we exhausted the number of places to put our stuff that were "not the floor", and got a rapid refund. These Winchesters have higher standards. Somewhere during the day, while peering at the list of "to dos" on my phone, I came across dozens of work-related goals and tasks, and the delete button has never felt so damn good. Onward and upward!





Popular posts from this blog

Day 11

Image
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
Read more

Day 14

Image
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
Read more