412 Miles
Friday morning, I said goodbye to the family and took off on the long road to Nashville, Tennessee; the first stop being Weiser, Idaho. At the advice of my Weiser friend, Joe Burris (who has been riding motorcycles for about five years), I decided to abandon I-84 and headed across Hwy 26: over Mt. Hood, through Madras, Prineville, John Day, and so on.I noticed as I was pulling into Sandy that my hands were freezing; my midweight thinsulate gloves were already failing me. I found a wintersports shop and picked up a pair of snowmobile gloves, and man am I glad I did. It was cold on Friday. Bitter, biting, brutally cold. I left wearing thermals, a short-sleeved t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a polar fleece, and my motorcycle jacket, and I did not remove a single layer the entire day. Even with the newer gloves, my fingers started to ache. However, it was worth it.
The ride over Mt. Hood was amazing! If I hadn't been so cold I would have stopped to take pictures. The sun broke the clouds, and they bled bright blue. The tops of the pine trees were dusted with snow. And the further I rode the more I rose to meet the snow line. This did make me a bit nervous. I never really saw a snow-covered road, but it was wet, and I was wondering if any of the water had turned to ice. In any case, I made it to Madras with no trouble at all, and stopped at a gas station to fill up and warm up. There was a mexican restaurant in the back, and an angel working the pumps sent me down the road to a small shop that sold disposable hand warmers. This made all of the difference in the world.The rest of the day was spent twisting through central oregon from town to town, and sundry precipitation. I stopped several times to make sure I would have gas to the next station. At one point I put my midweight gloves on inside my snowmobile gloves to fight off the chill. Hard to bend your fingers around the throttle, but one does what one can.
I made it to the Joe and Pam Burris' house cold but unharmed, we had chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner, and boy oh boy, did it ever taste good. Joe's parents live nearby and are currently out of town, so they put me up in their beautiful home. Needless to say by the time dinner, games with the kids, and conversation for the evening was over, I crashed hard! 
