MOTORCYCLE DIARY: 8

JUNE 24, 2021 – SPARKS, NV to JACKPOT, NV.

RECORDED SOUTH OF ELKO, NV.

[START OF AUDIO] Apologies for the wind noise. I’m trying to protect the microphone. June 24th, it is. God damn it. Hold on. [inaudible 00:00:21] Under 100 miles south of Elko, Nevada. [unintelligible 00:00:33] the first half of the day. Then I stopped for lunch. Got gas. Talked to Michelle. Got back on Route 80 which up until that point had been very chill. Once I left my lunch spot… well, there’s weather moving through here. I got drenched a couple of times, which was really nice, actually.

After I moved through a couple of those cloud systems it got incredibly windy. I was just fighting to keep the RS in the lane. During the stretch of straightaway where there were no cars around me, I couldn’t keep it in the lane. I got pushed out by a sustained gust of wind, pushed just over the lane divider. I can’t tell what speed these wind gusts are but it’s considerable. Despite all my leaning and effort I just couldn’t do it. I clicked on the hazards and pulled onto the shoulder. Exited at the next exit, which was like a quarter of a mile away.

Now, I’m just standing here. The rain has stopped, but if I look [inaudible 00:01:56] weather. I was making really good time to Great Falls. Now, I’m just debating whether I sit here and wait a little longer and get back on the interstate or [inaudible 00:02:15] more scenic roads. I’m not sure [inaudible 00:02:32] worth noting this moment. Yes, it was a different kind of thing. It was a different kind of fear. It was active. I was fighting to keep [inaudible 00:02:48] update later. I will have decided which route to take by then and I’m going to provide an update. [END OF AUDIO]

RECORDED NEAR INTERCHANGE OF I-80 & RT 93 // NEVADA

[START OF AUDIO] Okay. The time is just about 9:15 PM on the 24th, still. I did it. I got, I think, to the end of my time on route 80, Interstate 80, aka the road upon which I went to war with the wind. Stuck with it, did it. Done. Now I am at whatever exit off of interstate 80 takes you to route 93, which is what I’m going to take into Idaho. I stopped at a Love’s to use the rest room, just took a piss [burps] and I put on my HEATTECH pants, and I busted out my Patagonia puffy just to layer up because I’d rather be a little too warm than freeze my ass off.

I still feel good, so I’m going to keep going. I don’t know what this route 93 is like. I’m just going to take it and go until I feel like I’ve had enough, and hopefully find a motel where I can sleep. A note: About 10 miles in the distance – I’m staring at it right now -in the foreground we have a garbage can, an underpass, a sign for Flying which I guess is some sort of gas station, and a casino. The “I” is out of the word casino, so it says “CAS NO”. In the distance, five or six, seven miles away: mountains, and peeking at me above the mountains just now, two thirds of a gigantic yellow full moon. [END OF AUDIO]

RECORDED IN JACKPOT, NV

[START OF AUDIO] All right, I’m going to multitask. I am in room 219 at the Barton 93 Casino Resort. My room cost $71. I took Route 93, hence the name of this place. After suiting up at Love’s… the road is two lanes, one lane in each direction. 70 MPH speed limit. I mostly had it to myself. Moonlit, no lights, nothing, and occasionally traffic coming the other way. Semi-trucks and local pickups with their brights blaring and occasionally cars going in my direction from behind, and I would let them pass.

I also stopped at some point to take– just, I think the second longest piss of my life. The first being the one that I took at the hospital in Rapid City in 2004, no, 2002. Following a 70-mile ambulance ride. I pissed 850 milliliters of piss that time, which I know for certain because I urinated into a plastic hospital jug with measurements marked on its side (“Oh, you really DID have to go,” said the nurse.). This time I don’t have a volume for you, but I feel like I pissed for like three minutes straight in the dark, pummeling the gravel, four or five feet below the road’s surface, beyond the shoulder in the underbrush.

Took some epic photos in the dark. Waited a little bit. Hopped back on the bike and I was thinking of going as far as Twin Falls, but then as I neared Jackpot Nevada, I thought I should probably stop for the night. I stopped at– oh, what’s the place across the street called? The place across the street has an amazing name, but they were full, so I came here. That’s it.

Let’s do some real time notation. I have not written in my book since the night of the 21st. I’m going to see if I can go backwards. Each time I’m just going to say– For today, I’m going to say, “See audio diaries.” I’m writing this as we speak.

I’m going to note the trip odometer as of tonight, which was– Let’s turn on the camera and consult my photograph. That’s the sound of the camera hitting the table. Let’s see. Boop, boop, boop. Here it is. Okay, the trip odometer is 375.7, which means since I first got the bike, I have done 1375.7 miles. Now I have to go back to last night when I was still at the Nugget and enjoyed The Day of Nothing because of GPS, et cetera.

The day I spent at Sierra BMW. Doop, doop, doop. Going through the menu looking for my photo of the odometer. Aha. Now, I took a picture of the odometer in the evening and it said 936.8, but then I bonked around Reno, so the trip odometer was actually– I’m writing, “Odometer.” It was… actualmente… 947.5. Now let’s see if I can figure out what it was the day before. Unclear. I think I took that photo. It would have been 920 or 921 or something. Aha, here it is. 921.8 trip odometer. 921.8.

I’m going to write for June 22nd, “arrived Sparks Nevada, Nugget Casino ‘Resort.'” Resort should definitely be in quotes. June 23rd will be, “Day of Sierra BMW GPS saga.” Now if I go to today, I will say, “Buffeted by wind and rain. Interstate 80 wanted me dead.” I wrote, “dear,” dead. Then I’m going to write, “Rolberto’s. Not Roberto’s. Rolberto’s for lunch. Love’s for bathroom change into additional layer.” Oh, God, layers, “Route 93 into Jackpot.” It’s literally called Jackpot. “Jackpot, Nevada. Sleeping at Barton’s 93.”

Now, yesterday. Was it yesterday? I can’t remember, “Enjoyed,” I’m back on the 23rd, “Enjoyed brief low-speed night ride through Reno. Dinner in Rosie’s cafe inside casino.” I’m going to put what I ate. “I had French-Toast with fruit, two scrambled–” Honestly, between you and me, it was more than two, “two scrambled eggs, two sausage links. Multiple glasses of ice water.”

That’s all I can remember. I’m here. I’m safe. I’m here. I think even if I don’t get an early start tomorrow, I will arrive at the rally tomorrow. Let’s see if that works out.

[00:10:39] [END OF AUDIO]

MOTORCYCLE DIARY PART 9