Day 3 (Wednesday). Bishop to Redding, via Susanville.

I actually waited for the sun to rise this morning, and was somewhat intentionally a little pokey getting out of town, hoping the sun would warm things up a bit. It started at about 37 degrees, and never really rose much over this for the first two hours. My departure time was 8:15am. I used my entire bag of tricks, except for the electric vest, initially. Jacket liner (of course), FJR side "vents" in the "out" position, warm gloves, etc. Actually, I was fine for about the first hour.

Into the second hour I was starting to get a little cold, with the gloves and electric grips not cutting the mustard. The temperature seemed not to want to rise (I'm sure it was rising, just not where I was at any given point.) About half way to Reno, I pulled over at at a ranger station and donned my electric vest. This helped quite a bit. They also had a much needed restroom.

I made pretty good time (I think) on the first quarter of the trip, but past Mono lake, there was a bit of construction, and a lot of smaller towns. Driving directly through Carson city was a little slow and very busy with a dozen or more lights. There was a glorious sprint section up to Reno, but my GPS dropped me into the center of town before I could make the turn off towards the "395" sign that I spotted, momentarily. I kept with the GPS "plan" (if you can call it that), hoping to spot a Chevron. Funny, I only saw one, and I was on the wrong lane to make the turn given the amount of traffic. I finally spotted the 395 sign once again, and blasted out the last 3/4 of Reno, in a fraction of the time I had slogged through the first quarter. I settled on gas at a 7-eleven, as I was headed north out of Reno.

The ride from Reno to Susanville was nice enough, although not especially memorable. It's funny, I kept thinking of the various stretches in terms of other areas I know in Arizona. The portion from Reno to Susanville reminded me of the ride from Alpine to Springerville, (except that it was 100 miles!). Beyond Susanville, the road really got much more fun and interesting, with a lot a broad sweeping turns, through pine forests. A lot of this area reminded me of other areas between Eagar and Pinetop, or perhaps between Strawberry and Winslow (the green parts). Actually, it was even better, as the speed limits were 65 for much of it, and there was only a sprinkling of cars. A reasonable number of good passing zones kept people from riding my butt. (No, I wasn't going *that* slow, really!) All the turns were well mannered, but not too boring, either.

As I dropped into Redding, for the last half hour, the temperature kept rising, and finally was to 84 degrees by the time I arrived. I had kept my vest on the entire day, (although I didn't really have it turned on more than a half hour or so, towards the beginning). It was pretty warm when I arrived, with all the stuff I was wearing. (Oh, I took the neck gaitor off in Reno, as it seemed a bit too much.)

I arrived at about 5:15pm. That's 9 hours for 400 miles or so. Okay, that's about 44 miles per hour. 5 to Reno, and 4 to Redding.

Doing laundry tonight, and working out. The Bishop BW didn't have a workout room. The one in Redding does, even if the equipment is a little worn.

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