Day 18 – Bad mood day.

Total miles – 2931

Today I woke up in a very bad mood. I dont know if its all these early starts,the altitude,the fact that my body really hurts or just because I am generally a miserable bastard but I didnt want to ride and I wanted to stay in bed all day.

I had a four hour ride from Salida to Durango planned to that I could get as close to the Arizona border as possible ready for a mega day to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I forced down a breakfast of cereal and toast,grumbled to myself a lot text a few friends for support and didnt get much of a response (except for this,thanks Max)

And headed out to tackle another day of mountaineering. the riding started off fairly easy and I think I actually managed to hit the speed limit a couple of times which has been a rare occurrence at this altitude.

The I saw the sign ….

When you are riding in the mountains you sometimes come across signs that say xxx summit in xxx miles. These signs let you know you are on the highway to slowsville and this summit was 10 miles away.The climb started off very gentle until suddenly it got steeper and I was sat in second gear just about making 20mph for mile after mile. I eventually reached the top and checked the altitude on my sat nav 3,500 meters or 11,428 feet for the old folk. No wonder my scooter had been running so badly and struggling to make enough power to climb this hill. Its said that you lose 3% power for every 1000 feet that you climb so I had lost around 33% of the power of my 11ish bhp scooter.

I had just about had enough of everything,I was sick of riding,I was sick of only being in each town for one night,I was sick of being on my own and I was sick of climbing mountains so I pulled into a car park near the summit and was greeted by this view.

Suddenly I felt a whole lot better and as I cruised down the other side of the mountain (Americans really need to learn how to tunnel) the sun came out and I smiled for a couple of minutes before the down hill turned into up hill again.

A few miles down the road I had to stop so a couple of young dear could cross the road which also helped to lift my mood ever so slightly.

Eventually I arrived at  my hotel in Durango,checked in and headed off to the gas station. After filling up and buying a massive bag of Cheetos I went back to my scooter and couldnt get it to start. After much kicking and button pressing it eventually fired into life but sounded like a tractor. I limped home and then got the spanners out to try and work out what was going on.

The oil lever was fine and everything that should be attached was attached so I checked the spark plug.

Thats a rubbish photo (its really hard to get a good,in focus photo of a spark plug) and yes I really need to buy some nail clippers before my hands get even more disgusting but here lies the problem.That plug should be white with a slightly tannish hue not black sotty and as dark as the night. Again this is all down to the altitude buggering up the air fuel mixture. I wont bore you with the details if you are interested then google it. I changed the plug and the scooter finally sprang in to life and sounded much better. I cant wait to get back closer to sea level.

After a bit of googling I found a craft Brewery called Ska Brewing (http://skabrewing.com/) which seemed like it could be too cool a place to miss. After walking for 20 minutes towards the brewery in the blazing sun I realised I had left my wallet in the hotel so I had to head back to get it.

I eventually arrived at the bar and ordered a pint of Mexican logger,all the beers here are Brewed on site and the pint of ‘Mexy’ was delicious. I sat down with a group of strangers including a girl from Ireland who lived in Bristol for a few years and had been to Frome (small world) drank a few more pints and listened to the band they had playing in the beer garden. Every Thursday  they have a ska BQ (clever huh) with live music out on the stage.

The band were great and so was the company but I felt myself reaching that tipping point of drinking all night and wasting another day tomorrow so I headed back to the hotel for some pizza.

The walk back to the hotel –

I could moan all the stuff going on inside my head but I will save all that for Fake Franco. He listens and occasionally bursts into songs from musicals that he has never seen which is fine with me.

Tomorrow I make a 300 and a bit mega ride to the Grand Canyon then on to Vegas where I will make some decisions about my route and if I am going to have time to make it to LA or not.

Hopefully I will wake up in a better mood tomorrow.

NIGHT !