To: WL From: "Kathy E. Gill" Subject: Day Three - Catch Up - Part 1 Cc: Bcc: PE X-Attachments: After about eight hours horizontal -- I begin to slowly move. Shower helps (of course). And bacon and eggs and coffee and milk. ;-) There are two things on the 'to do' list. First - can I fix the BMW vest switch? Second - is there a dealer open with a replacement brake lever? On Saturday, I was planning to buy a new vest cord at the Salem BMW stop. But Rick insisted it was reparable (and it was, where he fixed it). The problem was that a screw that allows the switch to "stay on" is floating around inside the unit. And it's stripped. :-/ There is a Biker Accessory store (San Jose?) that stocks (drum roll, please) Widder electrics with the BMW plug! WhooBoy - triage point number one taken care of - probably cheaper than from a BMW dealer. ;-) No close Duc dealers open - so a file takes care of the sharp edge on the lever. There is sufficient length remaining so that I can get all four fingers on the brake, but my little finger is "on the edge" so to speak. I may zap DaveR a request to fedX me a new one - OTOH - it's not bothering me, so maybe I'll just wait til I return. It's 1:30 before I hit the road for Tonopah, NV. Am back to Plan A. I vaguely remember this as being about 400 miles (it is). At the suggestion of many Californians, I take 108 across Sondra pass (82 miles). Ah - this is lovely. Good road (going up), straights and twisties, not a lot of traffic. Serious weather change, though. When I hit 7K feet - I know it's time to pull over and put on heavy gloves and try out the new electrics. The pass is at 9600. It's the "flat spots" that intrigue me. What force of nature carved out these tiered, level spots? And they're *big* - there's a national park camp site in one of them. (These aren't mesas, so what are they called?) At one point, the climb is a 26% grade. (I don't even want to think about that for a downhill run.) The road does have its "narrow, tight" places, but overall, it's in good condition. I had one of those "angel moments" where I thought, "I can't see what's next in the road" and I did the brake/clutch/downshift thing. Good thing, too, as what was waiting for me was the *only* pothole I saw on 108, at the entrance of the curve, about the size of half-a-cantelope, and in my preferred line. The downhill section begins with a notice of 15% grade for 10 miles (or so). Then flat section. Then 10%. Then flat section. Then 7%. I'm idly wondering how low we will go when I'm greeted with a sweeping vista - the scale of which I was unprepared for. And there's a helluva lake! I'm too slow on the uptake to pull off in the viewing area with all the other touristas, so I slow on the next few sets of curves as we descend to lake level. This is Mono Lake, and that's all I know. It seems to go on forever. Kathy still postponed