My route for the day.

I had a really nice visit with my cousins. I hadn’t seen Mark for almost 30 years when we were just kids and I only get to see Colleen every couple years. It was nice to touch bases again. I was on the road after waffles – I’d had waffles on the brain for a number of days – and took a quick trip trough Salt Lake west on I-80 to see what the Salt Flats looked like on my way to Winnemucca. It was about 54 degrees warm in Salt Lake City when I started my day and I figured mesh gear and an electric jacket liner would work well for me as it had been. I’ve been wrong before, but this mistake beat a lot of them. The wind was blowing evil across the Salt Flats, the bike running at about 30 degrees lean, and the temps kept dropping!!! What the heck, the temps should have been rising - I was headed into Nevada. I was cussing in my helmet long before I got to the rest area at Windover and I was cold, vowing to order some electric socks when I got home!!! Listening to the guys over the CB radio, out on the flats, running speed trials kept my spirits up and I imagined how fun it would be to ride right out and see for myself.

The Salt Flats.

I changed into warmer clothes at the rest stop and took a couple photos in the bighting wind. That wind didn’t take long to change my mind about riding out to the pits. It was just too cold and windy. Maybe next summer!!! Thinking I’d get warmed up soon with my electrics plugged in, I started up the hill towards Wells. Well crap, it started snowing; lightly at first, then heavier. The squeegee on my left glove really came in handy getting the snow buildup off my shield, but my feet were getting really cold again, so I stopped in Wells for a cup of warm soup and an extra pair of shocks. As I sat in the café warming my bones, the snow started falling heavier. Eastbound folks said they had just come from a whiteout in Elko, so I let common sense be my guide and I sat longer, and longer. It was over an hour by the time the heaviest snowfall turned into tiny flakes, and it wasn’t sticking to the asphalt, so I got back on the bike with warm feet to go see for myself what the weather was like up the next hill. The CB radio was handy to ask the truckers what I would find: The snow was making a mess in places, but not where I was going so I motored through it. Only a few miles west there was no storm left, but the cold didn’t go away – electric socks, electric socks – and I didn’t stop again until I got to the destination hotel in Winnemucca about 3:00 with time to unpack, shower, and warm-up before anyone else arrived for the annual ride. I lit a cigar to celebrate the ride and by the time I got out of my room, friends were arriving with tales of more snow and rainy winter conditions all the way into California.