The Journey has started

What a difference a day makes. We woke up to bright blue skies with no wind, perfect riding weather.  After going through our final checklist of items we were on the road towards Fredericksburg by 9:00.  After a brief stop at my parents with a quick snack of fruit and cookies (thanks mom!) we were on the road agin by 11:30 heading north on 87 towards Mason, Brady and then San Angelo.

Uneventful riding with light traffic until Brady. Traffic picked up from there all the way into San Angelo where we arrived around 15:00. Too early to call it a day, so we decided to keep going to Midland/Odessa which had a couple of campgrounds and a good number of hotels – more than in Big Springs, our original destination.

The temparture kept climbing throughout the day but as long as we were moving it wasn’t too bad. Our riding jackets have zippers in the front and back that allow air to flow through the jacket, evaporating your sweat and thus cooling you down. Using the Camelbak hydration system each of us carries keeps us hydrated and with a capacity of 100 oz. (3 Ltr) it lasts all day. It allows us to drink while we are riding rather than having to wait until we stop for gas.

While the beautiful weather lasted most of the day the rain did catch up with us about 50 miles outside of Midland. Nothing too severe but rain nonetheless…and gusty wind. Typical localized summer thunderstorm in west Texas. It was all over in 30 minutes. However, when we arrived in Midland there was a strong wind with heavy gusts and lots of dirt/sand in the air. Neither one of us wanted to pitch a tent in this type of weather so we decided to stay in a hotel – that was around 18:00. Just as we were ready to leave the gas station this lady approaches Diane touching her, getting all worked up (in a positive way) that Diane was riding – it all had a ‘sixties hippie’ feel to it. Very odd.

Bike related info. About midday I noticed the word ‘LAMPF!’ showing up in my dashboard display. What the hell is LAMPF? I was low on fuel so was it a cryptographic ‘you are low on fuel’ message?’Low amperage’ – a battery related warning? I recently replaced my taillight with an LED light array, maybe that triggered some kind of fault? Mystifying…until I realized that the computer was talking German! – maybe the LCD display was off or broken – but the message was ‘LAMPE!’ – or lamp. Doh. So I thought it was the replacement taillight for sure since the turn signals were still working properly. Wrong. When Diane was leading for a while she pulled over to let me know that my headlight (which is always on by law)  wasn’t working. Another ‘Doh’ moment. Of course, a burned out headlamp. Swell. As luck would have it, there were two (not just one) auto parts stores within easy walking distance from our hotel – though it required ‘Frogger-like’ agility to cross the pedestrian unfriendly roads :(.  The bulb was easily pulled and a replacement (H7 12v 55w) gotten for a mere $16. Repair complete. I once again have a working headlamp and no more mangled German messages in my dashboard ;-).

Here’s todays route on Google Maps.

Milage for the day … not as straight forward as it may seem: My trip counter said 345 miles, Diane’s 360. Hmm.