Day 11
Kanab, UT to Albuquerque, NM
If I do not sleep tonight, I think I will lose my mind! Last night was another night of insomnia. Got about 4 hours of sleep, but I had to leave today regardless. I was apprehensive about how the day would go, but I just got on the bike and went. Surprisingly, once I got going, I felt fine.
The Atomic Shovel, however, was a cranky pants. She stalled about 5 times before I even got on the road. Stalled at the traffic light leaving Kanab. She finally started behaving, but not before stalling under power several times. I was able to pop the clutch and get going again so I didn’t have to park on the side of the road to get her started.
But eventually, we got ourselves together and set out on a beautiful ride. The morning air was clear and cool – carbs love cool air. A couple hours in, it was in the 90s. At first the air was still nice and then it wasn’t. Felt like riding into a blast furnace! The fleeting thought that a cool rain shower would have felt nice in that heat went through my mind…. Why did I even?? The weather gods hate me.
The last 150 miles, I had stiff crosswinds – probably 20-30 mph gusts – and there was a huge storm front hovering to my left. For a while it appeared I was going to skirt the edge of it, until the winds ratcheted up, maybe 40 mph gusts, and then the rain….
The last 100 miles were like riding through a car wash over and over. I would get doused with rain, ride out of it, get blasted with wind that would dry my clothes, then doused, dried, over and over. Thankfully, I landed at the end on “dried.”
It was crazy, but I was glad because the road I was on was pretty desolate. It was a nice wide 4-lane, but gas stations were few, and civilization non-existent. There was no shelter to pull over under and put my rain gear on, so I just decided to tough it out, and it worked out well. Douse, dry, douse, dry….
But I made it to Albuquerque, and I am going to be asleep soon. I hope.
The Atomic Shovel 