Easter Day 1

Day 1 - Sylmar, CA to Page, AZ

549 miles. 2 stamps.

Left a bit late from Sylmar. I had planned to leave by 6:00, but didn't make it out until 7:45. I knew I had some room to spare. Streets and Trips tends to underestimate the speed on the 2 lane highways in the west. Even on the Interstates, outside of cities it is 70mph in CA, and 75mph in the other states. And most of the 2 lane highways that I traveled today was 65mph. You can cover quite a bit of ground at those speeds.

I hit the scattered showers when I crossed into AZ for the first time on I-15. Nothing very heavy, only enough to make the ground damp, and no puddles. I was briefly in Utah, and then back into AZ, making a stop at Pipe Springs NM. This area is known as the 'Arizona Strip' which is north of the Colorado River, but south of Utah. The strip is mainly a high plateau, at 5,000+ feet in altitude. Pipe Springs was the location of reliable water. There is a fort/house which was built for protection from the Indians and as a ranch headquarters. The sky was threatening to rain, so I quickly walked up to the buildings, took a quick look around, and then left.

My path curved back up into Utah and then east and south towards Page. There was some lightning giving quite a show to the north. Luckily the highway curved away from there. Not long after crossing back into AZ, I came to the Glen Canyon Dam and the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. The visitor center is a 'secure' facility and with all of my layers of clothes on, I was having trouble with the metal detector. I also had my passport book in a baggie to protect it. When I pulled that out, I was told that no 'baggies' were allowed, either. I mentioned that I just wanted a stamp, and one of the very patient security personnel volunteered to get my book stamped for me. What a relief. I opened the book to the green section, and told the lady that I only wanted the NRA stamp - the Rainbow Bridge stamp is also at the VC, but I wasn't going there (you can only get there by boat). After I got the book back, I realized that Glen Canyon NRA should have been my first stamp in the orange section of the passport book. Oh well.

I got back onto the Rex and went the 3 miles into Page, got gas, and checked into the Super 8. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. I was actually 20 minutes ahead of the predicted schedule. Not bad, considering I left 1:45 late. The GPS claims that I spent 7 hours and 34 minutes in motion. That meant I used 1 hour and 11 minutes for 6 gas stops and 2 stamp stops. I didn't feel like eating lunch, so my gas stops were very quick.

A note about how I was trying to schedule my days using Streets and Trips. I set the speeds to 70/65/55/50/45 for the 5 categories. I also planned my gas stops, and allowed 10 minutes at each stop. I also allowed 30 minutes at each stamp location.

The temperature was in the upper 40's and lower 50's for my ride. I don't have any electric heat devices like a vest or heated grips. I did wear 3-4 layers of clothing. Here is roughly what I had on:

	Feet - Thin sock, Regular sock, Boots (Aerostitch Combat Touring Boots)
	Legs - Thermal pants, Jeans, Joe Rocket Ballistic Pants (I have the old 1.0 version)
	Ass - Same as legs, but add underwear.
	Torso - Long sleeve T-Shirt, regular T-Shirt, Jacket Liner, Jacket (Hein Gericke Boost jacket)
	Arms - like torso, but without the regular T-Shirt.
	Hands - knit glove liners, Olympia Gel Sport gloves, and Aerostitch Triple Digit Rain Covers.
	Head - thin Balaclava (covers head, ears, neck - single opening for eyes, nose, and mouth), and a Shoei RF-900 full face helmet.

Out of all of that, the most amazing is the Aerostitch Triple Digit Rain Covers. They make all of the difference by keeping the wind off of the gloves. If your hands are cold, riding just sucks.

I walked to a mini-mart for some bottled water. I only fill my Camelbak (it can hold 100oz of water) with bottled water. I don't want to risk getting the runs from water that my body isn't used to. I also use some of the water to rinse my contact lenses off. I also got some chicken at the KFC near the motel. I ate in the room and settled down for the night.

On to Day 2