Over the Mountains and Back Again

We made it! 811 miles in 3 days, over the mountains twice, and we survived.

We learned a few things, or at least here are 20 things I learned this trip, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. 97 degrees is darn hot, even if it's "a dry heat". It is 97 degrees everywhere in this state but over here.

2. Even if you're going somewhere that you think no one else is going to go, make motel reservations because it turns out EVERYONE also wants to go there and all the rooms are taken.

3. Find me a motel with a restaurant within walking distance, because I don't want to get back on that bike.

4. Braided hair works better than hair blowing in the wind although it doesn't look as "cool".

5. I need a different mesh jacket as this one really doesn't fit.

6. Sometime in the afternoon of each day, suddenly nothing fit right. Not jeans, not boots, not gloves, not helmet, not jacket, not the seat of the bike.

7. Stop every hour, get off the bike, drink something cold and wet, or bad things happen later in the day.

8. I suffer major melt-down after about 9-10 hours on the road and get REAL cranky REAL fast.

9. Morphous Wrex is a lovely lowland/flatland/small hill bike.

10. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain if he's got a good running start and even then, it's uphill at 45 mph, full throttle.

11. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain faster than a speeding RV. Yay! Not the slowest thing on the road.

12. Even when you're driving at or slightly over the speed limit, someone always wants to go faster.

13. If you're in heavy, slow traffic doing the shake-and-bake, Morphous Wrex is the bike to be on.

14. I'll never be a Knee-Dragger. I love 60 mph sweepers and 50 mph curves and even 40 mph switchbacks. 30 mph tight curves and 15 mph hairpins? Not so much.

15. Turn off your communications system at every break. When the manufacturer says the batteries last 8 hours, he's not kidding.

16. Savor the moments when everything is perfect: seat of the bike, temperature of the air, angle of the sun, scent of the air, scenery. They don't happen all that often.

17. I know where all the old unused washboards went....they obviously are the layer just under the pavement on most Washington highways. Kudos to the State of Washington for keeping these things out of landfills and antique shops.

18. It takes way longer to get anywhere than you think it will and it's exhausting.

19. Bikers in this state are missing a fun road.

20. Every time we stopped, wherever we stopped, people wanted to talk about my bike. Parking that bike is like drawing flies to honey.

Susan