Our day started out early for a mad dash through the desert that surrounds Las Vegas.  Although Las Vegas was already 30 degrees Celsius when we left just before 7:00 AM, once we got closer to the mountains outside of Las Vegas the temperature miraculously dropped ten degrees and we covered a lot of ground, stopping briefly in Beatty, Nevada (where we saw our first roadrunners and took a photo of one . . . on the road of course) and Tonopah, Nevada.  We saw lots of desert and lots of mountains.

Our string of luck with flawless performance on our motorcycles ran out just outside of Tonopah.  My bike began stalling sporadically when I released the throttle.  With the automatic transmission on my bike, I do not have any control for the shift to neutral or the idle speed.  There is definitely something wrong with my bike – we think either the transmission computer is messed up from the extreme heat or there is something wrong with the fuel supply system to the engine.  It is such a shame to be worrying about your bike when you cross the border into California.  After gassing up in Benton, California, we had 80 KM of amazing motorcycling roads to Lee Vining, California (the gateway town to Yosemite National Park), but I did not enjoy it too much as I was afraid of stalling it anytime I had to slow down for those amazing curves.  We had to keep going as there are no Aprilia dealerships this side of Yosemite.

We pulled into our hotel we had picked online to a “No Vacancy” sign.  As we sat in the parking lot trying to decide what we should do, the owner of the hotel stepped out and asked us if we wanted a room because someone had just called and cancelled.  It’s a good thing we happened to sit outside the hotel for a few minutes!

Jeremy got in touch with a dealership in Sacramento, California.  Good news is they can definitely take a look at my bike.  Bad news is their service department is closed on Sundays and Mondays.  It looks like we might be spending a few days in Sacramento.  We can nurse the bike through Yosemite tomorrow (we will leave early to avoid park traffic) and the bike should be fine on the highway to Sacramento since there should be very little stopping.  The bike is performing normal if I manage my throttle and do not have to stop too often.  Even when it stalls, though, it starts right away again.  If we have any major problems, we can call CAA and get them to take the bike the rest of the way to Sacramento.

Anyway, we are trying to look on the positive side of this glitch in our plans.  What a beautiful area to have to stay a couple of extra days!  And we are very thankful that the bike did not die in the desert!