Putting too much trust into the GPS got us way too far into Henderson when we left the campground this morning. Too much city driving this early in the day so we were glad when we left Las Vegas behind us, heading North on US 93 towards Ely.
The landscape colors are the usual desert browns and grays when all of a sudden ‘green stuff’ appears to the West of the road – the Pharanagat National Wildlife Refuge. An unexpected site in the desert. We follow this sliver of green all the way past the US 93/NV 318 intersection before the desert reclaims the land. Beautiful weather and riding conditions. The temperature has dropped markedly as we are getting up in elevation, to the point that we had to close the air vent zippers on our riding jackets. It’s barely 70F.
About midway to Ely, I notice that Diane is falling behind significantly more than her usual following distance. She’s not closing the distance as I slow down. Something is going on so I pull over to wait for her. As she pulls up next to me she tells me there’s liquid shooting up from underneath her fairing on the right side :-o. She’s pointing to the coolant reservoir as the source. Getting that sinking feeling of pending mechanical problems and possible repairs. The temperature gauge on her dashboard is normal — the midway point between cold and hot. Nothing we can do at this point so I ask her to monitor the gauge closely and pull over if the bike overheats. No more squirting coolant for the rest of the day until we pull up to stop at the end of the day; more squirting and now the red warning for engine overheating is coming on. No overheating warning when riding, just when stopped.
Some quick research at the tent site by Diane that evening suggests an overfilled reservoir (which hers was, filled all the way to the top) expanding out the drain hole. We decide to monitor it and keep going though at the back of my mind this all doesn’t feel right. More to come…
Todays route.
