I had prepared for hot weather as I had expected to be crossing the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California mostly during the day. But the delays put me there at night. After making the turn west at Albuqurque my challenges were the coolness of the desert night and the distance and time I had to get to LA.
The evening was going smoothly until my helmet suddenly filled with something that was burning my eyes and causing hard choking. In the darkness my headlights only showed some type of smoke. My eyes were watering so much it was difficult to see clearly especially since it was night and any vehicle lights were just blurrs, but I had to ride out of whatever was the cause of this smoke. I was coincidentally passing a building with lots of lights off the road a bit and figured it was a building fire. It cleared and I figured I was out of it but my eyes still stung. Then not too far down the road I ran into this two more times but they were less severe. I would later learn that it was the smoke of wildfires.
At about 1 am I could tell that my focus was being impaired by my fatigue. I also calculated I could only afford at most 3 hours total for a rest stop, not enough time to justify a hotel. So I checked into the hotel operated by the Arizona Department of Roads at the mile marker 233 rest stop. The bed is as hard as a parking lot but it�s free. I think I only admired the stars for about 10 seconds but had a very uncomfortable 90 minute nap. I just couldn�t find a soft spot in the asphalt. So I was back on the road making progress toward the coast. The next few hours until sunrise went very slow as I stopped several times to try to fight off the tiredness. After the morning was well lit I was good to go. The original plan conceived in the cold months of winter had me arriving at Southern California Triumph at 11 am. After fighting rain, cold, and a very long night I was enormously pleased to be pulling up to their service doors at 11 am on the nose. After 6000 miles I was on time to the minute. That would be the only time during the whole trip I was on schedule. Again I received great service from Eric at SoCal, I was here two years ago on my Four Corners Tour. I had a new rear tire, clean oil, a freshened bike, and was on the road in three hours. It still took me about two hours to get away from the heavy LA traffic, but at least it was only two hours as it was the middle of the afternoon and not rush hour.
Heading up I-5 I finally found the heat that I had missed so far. I also experienced the strongest crosswinds I�ve ever ridden through. Even though I�ve had strong crosswinds every time I�ve been riding east-west through Arizona and New Mexico they�ve never been this strong. A couple times I thought they were going to blow me off the road. I reasoned that slowing down seemed prudent, but I was still getting pushed from one side of the lane to the other at 40 mph. Being an analytical engineer I then theorized that slowing was the wrong approach. The amount I am pushed by a gust is dependant on at least three factors; the cross-sectional surface area of me and the bike that the gust can push on, the force of the gust, and, as a gust is a volume of air and not a plane of air, the amount of time the gust can act on me. Not being able to affect the first two factors I could change the third factor by speeding up. This then decreased the time I am in the gust and thus the amount that I am pushed to the side. Now I am sure that someone will write in giving their reason why this theory may be full of holes that the gust can blow through, but after 6300 miles in 5 days and some hours it made sense. And it either worked or the gusts began to decrease. I was approaching Sacramento just after sunset and decided to stop early that day after the night I had before and out of the need to do laundry. But this again put me behind the ideal schedule.
The beginning of day seven was the toughest for me to get going. I had ridden for six days, but those were behind me. It was the four ahead of me and the 4000 miles that made the morning tough. From here on out that drive had to be there every morning. And to add to that I was also going to loose an hour due to time zone changes during two of the days ahead. This day went well until I got to Portland. I always seem to hit Portland at rush hour and it is never only an hour as advertised, it should be rush hours. But I guess that would just fall into the American fad of biggie sizing it. As it seemed to take forever to get to Seattle, I knew I wouldn�t be getting to Montana that night. It was getting onto sunset as I was leaving Seattle behind and heading into the mountains. The evening and elevation made it a very cool night. By Moses Lake, WA I had had enough of the road and called it a day.