Trip stuff

Some random thoughts, recollections and observations from my ramble through the West last month:

I did the whole 17-day, 5,414-mile ride without ever once consulting a paper map. I either trusted my Garmin Zumo 550 or, during the brief period that it wasn’t working, followed a friend who was being guided by GPS. On at least one occasion, I found the Garmin route to be quicker and more straightforward than a route suggested by someone who had lived in the city in question for several years. The GPS routinely took me easily to addresses in unfamiliar cities without the hassle and safety issues of trying to follow a map in the top window of my tank bag. I lost the Glare Stomper sunshade in the early morning darkness of July 26 in Las Vegas. I had taken it off and apparently not secured it properly a day earlier when I removed the GPS to fiddle with it inside the house. I remember feeling something fly off of the bike and hit my right leg moments after I got onto the freeway and I’m pretty sure that was my sunshade. I managed without it for the rest of the trip and bought a replacement from Cyclegadgets.com when I got home. $20 and change.

Riding across the Mojave Desert from Barstow to Las Vegas in 100+ degree heat, I noticed several disabled cars and trucks along the roadside . Obviously, the extreme heat takes its toll and finds weaknesses in automotive systems. I also noticed that several of the folks who were stuck had umbrellas to protect themselves from the blazing hot sun. The California Division of Agriculture maintains inspection stations at the state line on every major highway. The concern is that someone will bring fruits or vegetables into the state that carry insects or disease that could damage cash crops in California. When I entered the state from Oregon on I-5, the traffic was light and I paused only momentarily while the inspectors asked the driver in front of me if they had any fruits or veggies. When they saw me on my bike, they waved me through without questions. But when I left the state at the Nevada state line, California traffic was backed up two or three miles at the inspection station. That might have been just an inconvenience for people in air conditioned vehicles, but motorcyclists trapped in that line on a crazy-hot summer day, it could be life-threatening. I made a mental note to never, ever enter California on I-15. I did it on I-40 on a Sunday back in July, 2002, and don’t recall any hassle there.

Free Wifi at McDonald’s is a very handy thing. I had expected to make extensive use of it with my netbook, but that’s not how it worked out. I carried my netbook buried deep in a saddlebag and it was kind of a hassle the few times I dug it out at a McDonald’s. I used the Wifi on my iPod Touch instead to check and send email and scope out the weather ahead. I carried the iPod in a jacket pocket, so it was just a matter of taking it out, turning it on and signing on to the McDonald’s server – a process that usually took less than a minute. Also, I was usually trying to get as many miles behind me as possible, which mitigated against taking the time to get out the netbook and boot it up.

I have the XM satellite radio premium traffic feature on my Garmin Zumo 550, mostly because it includes a basic weather feature. However, I saw no evidence of the traffic feature as I rode around the east and south side of the San Francisco metropolitan area. I know there aren’t a lot of cities in the U.S, where this feature is functional, but I’d certainly expect it there. WTF?