TravellingStrom

Saturday – Moses Lake, Washington

Cold, wet, out of fuel, bugger!!!

Because of the very late night with my new found drinking partner RenoJohn, it meant a late lay in or so I thought anyway. I had turned the alarm off, but it was screaming around 10am, I never even set it for that time 😕 Ahh, it is a fire alarm, I checked out the hallway and there were cleaners there going about their business, not giving a rats, so I ignored it. But, it was loud and no way would I get back to sleep, and when I looked out the window people were everywhere and big red trucks were arriving with more noise, OK, down the stairs I go and wait outside for a while until the all clear is given, false alarm!!!

Well, now I am awake, I may as well get up and slowly sort my stuff out, I was not in a big rush. I had some brekky and checked email and a run around the forums to see what has been said(there was a lot). I ended up getting everything sorted and I was downstairs with my bike packed at checkout time of midday 🙂

I was chatting with some people outside and then went in and paged Margaret, to say goodby, I then did something which had a bearing on a few things that happened later. I activated my SPOT tracker, then went inside and had some soft drinks with Marg while we chatted, in fact we chatted for ages about heaps of things, but mainly bikes of course and her plans and my plans. Yes, I know I know, me at a bar and soft drink, totally un natural, but there you go, it can happen 🙂

Some of the things we talked about were the accident she had been involved in earlier this year, after I had met her at Mitta Mitta, there was a chance when I get back to Oz of maybe going to the 2010 Horizons Unlimited meeting, it all depends on timing I guess. There were a few other things to think about as well, including some of her experiences in South America. In the end I left town about 2pm and instead of taking an extended scenic tour up north and back down, I decided I would head straight for Ephrata, it was only a few hours away, but if I got there at 4.30pm or so, this would probably suit everyone. The people I was staying with had mentioned a band for that evening, so that was all good 🙂 The first hour or so of the road was pretty much un awe-inspiring, it was just rolling hills a bit on the cool side with the possible chance of rain. Meanwhile of course my SPOT tracks had been running for the past two hours but stationary.

During the above boring time, I had the music going and my brain was in overdrive thinking about a lot of things, some that had happened recently but also about some things in the future that may or may not happen, but I was going through some options and planning what info I needed to see if it was at all feasible. A bit vague I know, but more on this later maybe, I may keep it a bit quiet for the time being until I know myself 🙂 I eventually came to some different landscape after a left turn south and I came to a place called the Dry Falls, this would have been interesting to see, a long time ago though 🙂

After this the road followed the river and was quite an interesting ride, although the weather was not getting any better!

I was being hit by some pretty fierce side winds by now and all I wanted to do was get out of the wind, it is a tiring exercise, especially as I was already still tired from the past few days. You can see the effect on the trees to the left, but the sky was interesting, NOT!

2

So, I arrived around 4.30pm and found the house OK. I was very low on fuel, but on purpose as I was maybe going to lift the tank as we were going to do some tech work 🙂

But, no one was home except the old dog that was a tad deaf and it was starting to spit and was extremely windy, the bike shifted a few times while parked and I hoped it would not get blown over again! I phoned John, but all I got was a message bank, so I got out my laptop and checked the last correspondence between us. Hmmm, it seems it was my fault 😳 My last reply after being invited to the Saturday night was basically, that would be great but I will let you know later, and of course I had not followed up on this 😦 I met a neighbour who said they may be home soon, so I sat on the porch and waited a while, but after an hour and another message I went for a ride around town. I ended up in a bar, of course and had a snack and a couple of beers while watching the footy. I still cannot fathom the American football game and to tell the truth, could not care less, no disrespect, but I will stick to Baseball, easier to understand 🙂 The message on the wall of the pub was pretty succinct 🙂

Right, it is 7pm, no action on the host front, I need to find a motel, this was not a good start as I ran out of fuel just a block short of the servo 😦 It was raining, so rather than push the bike across 4 lanes I took my jerry can and got some fuel.

You may wonder why the fuel can was empty yet I am still carrying it? Well, I did not like the way the nozzle is always sticking out, so if I had a prang and it was full, no doubt the nozzle would come off and spill a gallon of fuel everywhere. By keeping it empty it is useful, like tonight and if I really have a long distance between servos, I can fill it and use it for that time only. Well, at least I was rewarded by a nice rainbow while doing this 🙂

So, I went back by the house, but there was still no one home, I then checked out the motels in town, all bloody full, it is Labour Day long weekend!!! One of the motels called a friend down the road a bit and they said they had some rooms so I booked one and headed off after donning the orange rain suit, this time I pulled the hood over my helmet to see if that worked better.

I had a 20 mile ride in the rain to Moses Lake at the most horrible time of night! Just on dusk in deer territory, raining and riding through road works, I did not want to do this, but what else could I do, I was not going to tent it!! The light was just dark enough at dusk to be annoying, where my headlights and spot lights did not work, but there was not enough ambient light to do any good. If this was back in Oz, I would have waited half an hour as when the sun goes down it goes down, none of this half and half stuff! Anyway, I got to the motel which was crappy, but at this time all I wanted was a dry room and a hot shower. The suit leaked again somehow and I had a wet crotch 😦

It was now 9pm by the time I was all set in the room, so I cooked some dinner and checked emails etc, and worked on the blog. I also got a phone call from John and although I was now secure in a room, I was still invited around for tomorrow, so I arranged to be there around lunchtime 🙂 It turns out he had seen my SPOT tracks sitting in Spokane and not moving and as the SPOT tracks are delayed for a while before they are shown on the web site, he had thought at 4.15pm that I was staying another day and coming Sunday, so I only missed them by 15 minutes. They then went to where the music was at, but there was no mobile phone service, so it was a bad combination of errors, oh well, shit happens eh!

Another thing I tried to do was call my dad at home, as it was Sunday in Oz and it was Fathers Day. But, this room had no phone and although I had set my cell phone for international calling, it kept giving me an error 😦 When I called the support line, they were less than helpful, please call back from a landline, not the phone you are calling in about, bummer, so I sent an email home advising of the problem, maybe I can call tomorrow 🙂

Anyway, Happy Fathers Day dad and to all those dads at home in Oz 🙂

Day 157 miles and 253 km
Trip – 35,071 miles and 56,441 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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