110.3 Miles Today: Road Rash

Today we saw incredible mountain and desert scenery as we wound our way through the Sheep Hole Mountains and the southern part of the Mojave Desert. This was the most desolate ride of the trip; with 91miles without service (other than our two Trek Vans).  It was really beautiful.

Dennis and I left the hotel a few minutes after the group left.  About 15 miles down road, we caught up with Sallie, our 67 year old friend from NC.  Because we were riding across the desert today, we decided to stay with her.  This slowed us down a bit, as we escorted and broke the wind for her.  She is unique: she built her own motor cycle and clearly knows how to take care of herself.  I really like her a lot!  She had a flat that Dennis and I gallantly attempted to fix for her.  15 minutes later we were still trying to muscle the tire onto the back wheel, when Rustin drove up in the van and pulled out a new wheel and we were off again.  After about 70 miles Sallie declared victory for the day and got in the van.  Dennis and I then picked up the pace and rode towards Arizona.  It got up to maybe 105 degrees, but was mostly pleasant and the wind never got very strong.

About 8 miles from the Best Western Hotel, we rode a section of highway that had no shoulder and ruts carved along the white line (to make you tires go thump-thump-thump if you fall asleep and veer off the road).  I looked back in my mirror and saw an 18-wheeler coming up behind at the same time two cars were passing from the front.  I pulled over the white line and pavement cuts and road on the 6-8 inch bit of pavement next to the sand and gravel.  I was doing fine until the truck whizzed by at 60 mph.  The backwash behind the truck caused by bike to shudder and my back wheel hit the sand, followed shortly afterward by me hitting the pavement.  I skidded a bit and waited for Dennis to run me over and crash, but he was able to stop just as he hit my bike.  Road rash!  I chastised Dennis for not getting a photo of me sprawled on the highway, but he just laughed and said that was a picture neither of our wives need to see.  I got up and adjusted my rear brakes and road in.  I ended up with a tennis ball strawberry on my left hip and scrapes (road rash) on my arm, knee and side of the leg and a good bit of ribbing from my new friends.  The bike needed some tweaking, but appears to fine.