It's hard to begin each post with "today was the best ride I've had in a long time," but today was really a great ride.  I initially planned to do about 400 miles today and make the Pacific Coast, but stopped short in Red Bluff, CA at about 282 miles due to the heat and an overall very long day.  I wimped out on the camping thing tonight - it was around 110 degrees when I decided to call it quits for the day - you can imagine that I didn't want to hang out in a tent for the rest of the afternoon.  I found a Comfort Inn with a pool and high-speed internet access for about $70.  Yeah, I know, I gotta stop doing those seventy dollar hotels or it ain't gonna be a low-cost trip! Trust me, you would'a made the same call that I did.  Did I say that the hotel has a pool? Yep, I hung out in the pool for about an hour when I first arrived. 

So... how was the day? Excellent.  I kept to State Route 89 for most of the day today (except for one little, ah, "mis-direction"...) and am super glad that I did.  View the Pashnit site (http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/Highway89.htm) for more info on this wonderful ride.  Although only about 300 miles, I easily spent eight or nine hours on the road today.  Some of that was used to explore - the Lassen Volcanic National Park and Frazier Falls in the Plumas National Forest.  I spent a good bit of the day in 2nd and 3rd gear!

Oh yeah, the "missing" few days were that work meeting in Reno.  Good things happened there.  The motorcycle trip will give me a chance to think about all that stuff... yeah, right.  :)