another update

today, I will be discharged from hospital. going back to denise's hotel then fly out to the uk tomorrow. there's lovely!

denise has suspended her life to play nurse so i'll be back in stourport on friday.

see you soon

;0)

update from me!

hi all,

this is a very quick note from the usa to say that i'm getting better. up and about yesterday and there is talk of a transfer to a uk hospital later this week all being well.

i had a bit of a setback a couple of days ago with with an infection in my jaw, but this seems to have been solved so i'm up and running again.

sorry i havnt given an earlier update but i have really not been up to it.

so! all is well and i hope to see some of you when i get back to the uk.

thanks for keeping me in your thoughts.

mike

Mike and Roci's journey was interrupted suddenly west of Garden City, Kansas on
Monday May 11 when a 16 year old girl ran a Stop sign and drove onto the highway
directly in Mike's path. He had less than 1/2 second to react. The collison was
hard, and spun the car through 180. First Responders were on the scene quickly
and called in an air ambulance. This took him to the Saint Francis Hospital in
Wichita, where he is now. The Sheriff and First Responders openly say they do
not know how he survived the crash. But he has survived. Not his time. But he
has been very seriously injured. He has had two surgeries over the last week, is
now out of the ICU and is doing well. But there is a way to go.  Plan A is for
him to be repatriated to the UK within a week or so.

Mike's journey is not yet complete, in several ways. He will tell us more about
that when he updates the blog - as soon as he can deal with a keyboard.  To
survive this Mike had a guardian angel with him.  The people who were on the
scene and saw the carnage don't have another explanation. Let's all just give
thanks, however we expess this. Sometimes there is a silver lining.

Colorado

I have arrived in Colorado at the end of the 6th rainy weekend in a row.

Mothers day was today in the USA and they were so hoping for a change. Well, thats all changed now that the rain god has arrived. Perhaps I need to change to the name to sun god. Looks like I'm going to sneak through the bad weather that's been effecting the central and eastern areas. Well, I can hope cant I?

Making good progress so that I can take time out if I need to. Apparently a motorcyclist was struck by lightning last week and killed, Not good!

Colorado

Only in the USA could someone write an advertisement in 30 foot letters on the side of a mountain!



Anyone thinking of driving / riding Highway 50, I have a great detour. Go south to Moab then hang a left up into farming country, then drop down through a canyon into the perfect cliff lined valley. Then follow a lovely river back to 50. Not really going to tell anyone. The good folks down that way don't want a bunch of Harley riders spoiling their peace and quiet!

Followed Highway 50 then to Gunnison past miles of beautiful lakeside. Decided to press on for another few miles. What a few miles they were. I asked the miserable bag in the gas station how long it would take to get to Salina. "about an hour" she said and walked off.

What she could have added but didn't was "Its just over 60 miles and you'll have to cross the continental divide at Monarch pass. It will be cold at 11,312 feet so you might be better going tomorrow rather than this evening". Oops, silly me. Monarch is more than 30 miles away! She wouldn't know those things ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_Pass

Technology

I'm sitting in the towns only real restaurant and couldn't help overhearing a chap outdoing the technology of his mates. They have a sat nav in their car but he uses a PC! Its much better.

Why the other day he was flying, so he put the transceiver on the window of the plane and plugged it into his PC. He could see how high they were, how fast they were going and the planes place on the map.

That's useful that! You could avoid trafic jams on the freeway, look for the prettiest route to London and know where to find a MacDonalds. Invaluable!

You would also know to phone home if the plane started to head for Cuba....

Beardless

To complete the bowling ball look, this evening I removed my beard. The charger doesn't work for my trimmer and it was starting to really bug me.

So! Question is, does it make me look younger or even more handsome? You'll never know as I'm going to grow it back each week for the next 3 weeks till I'm home.

(the answer is, it does neither of those things ;-)

The loneliest section

"If you don't want to go that far out of your way, make the detour to Moab". I was chatting with John and Peter in Border (its a small town on the Utah state line, not the bookshop. I wonder how long it took to come up with that one....) at the last gas station for 80 miles.

After I had explained my navigation technique, they had enthusiastically recommended Durango and the San Juan National Forest. That would take me too far off R50 to say I did the thing. But if I go south to Moab I can cut off the rest of Interstate 70 and some dual carriageway and rejoin 50 at Montrose. Looks really scenic so that's tomorrow sorted!

They were out with their wives trying out Peters new Kawasaki. The Kwaka and the Suzi looked just like Harleys. So much so, I asked what models they were.... Duh.... Again.... I think today I ticked off the longest stretches without gas. Even then I didn't need the spare tank. One stretch was 83 miles and the other 104. So the worse prediction of Captain Birdseye and the Recliner Bandit were extremely exagerated. And as far as I can see the folks here dont roll up their sidewalks any earlier than anywhere else I've been. Everywhere closes their restaurants at 9pm!

I asked if the winding road on the map going to Green River indicated a climb into the mountains. Peter said that nope, they were just drunk when they laid the pavement. Much mirth. John suggested instead that the cartographer was drunk when he drew the map. Much more mirth. Oh, these Americans....

The reality was that the road did rise (to 7776 feet) and fell to I don't know what, but mostly it wound its way through what looked like the Grand Canyon. Not as deep but wow, the San Raphael Swell is spectacular all the same. I didn't even mind the upgrade of R50 to I70 for the purpose.

Stopped for the night at Green River. Not really a one horse town; probably two horses. Another of those nothing places on the map but its really worth a few days stopover. Its at the centre of some fantastic countryside and worth a trip - http://www.sanrafaelcastlecountry.com/ and http://www.greenriverutah.com/

Earlier on the longest straight so far on the trip, I ran alongside the most enormous salt lake. Huge!

Communications technology

Route 50 follows the route of the Pony Express. AT&T have this mural on the wall of their exchange in Ely. It celebrates the replacement of riders by the first telegraph across the country.

Shame there is no AT&T mobile signal in this town ;-)

Route 50

The worlds largest airfix kit

Desert trafic jam

Lake Tahoe to Ely

Nevada, I take it all back. Like Arizona, the south is just sweltering desert: but the north! Vast, yes; desert, yes; but cool because its high and the salt flats surrounded by mountains on all sides; fantastic.


Another day of wows. Left Lake Tahoe curling down the pass to Carson city and hit Route 50 proper. After the run to Fallon, it certainly lived up to its name as the lonliest road. One section was 104 miles of no-one, no-where and no-thing except open road, desert and mountains.

The maps I have don't give a clue to altitude except for the odd winding road indicating a climb or a descent. Didn't fall below 4500 feet all day and several times climbed over 7500. Came across mountain ranges I never heard of, still snow capped and forming a georgeous backdrop to what looks otherwise like never ending desert.

As you finally approach them you see the road dissappear round a hill and wonder how on earth it finds its way up. Sometimes it doesn't but crawls and winds its way through, assisted now and then with a slice taken out by dynamite. Other times the road just climbs and climbs.

The last 3 towns including Ely, the one I'm staying in are so small I wonder what people do here.

Well, the waitress explained that this part of the mountains is famous for hunting and fishing. That explains the the pictures on walls, the trophies, carvings, the NRA notice in the window down the road. Duh...

Also a bit of gambling. Each tiny (and I mean tiny) town has a casino or two. I can understand now why Nevada was the first state to be allowed casinos. There is little else here to create wealth (well, let's say re-distribute!).

I asked the owner of the motel if there was a good restaurant in town. So here I am in the local diner and having tasty stuff..... Its where he takes his wife so it had to be good, eh? Life here could not be further from those living in San Francisco unless the town was transported to Mars.

This place is so big, its like foriegn countries every 200 miles. Nice! (No-one from here could afford to even eat in SF. 4 times more expensive at least.)

Tornado chasing....

I'm running toward all the storms now but I'm hoping (really hoping) I don't actually catch up with them. Tornados and thunderstorms with hails the size of grapefruits.

"One of these hitting you would kill you" the Weather Channel presenter merrily informs us. No! Never! :o)

Back on the road again

Put Denise on her train for the airport and set off for South Lake Tahoe.

In a couple of hours or so I had climbered to 7300 feet and above the snow line before dropping down to the Tahoe basin. I cross into Nevada a mile from my motel then after Carson City its off across the least inhabited section of my trip. This is where Route 50 becomes 'the loneliest road'.

From this.......

To this.....

San Francisco!

Hired a Mustang for the day to go to Carmel....

Monterey

Free booze!

Alcatraz

Pier 39

From the Golden Gate bridge