"You`re going on a long and challenging journey....."
How spooky is that? Not sure about "meeting a tall dark stranger" though.
I`d heard about how fierce the heat was in Phoenix so I set off, slightly anxious about how I`d cope riding in the heat of the day.
“By the time I get to Phoenix....”
As it turned out, I was right to be anxious. It was mad hot! I`d never ridden for so long in that kind of heat and I wouldn`t recommend it. I didn`t realise that Phoenix is America`s 5th biggest city and it took much longer than I expected to reach Bill`s place. It was such a relief to step into air conditioned heaven!
One of the first things he did was offer me a cold bottle of water (and I`m sure I drank gallons while I was there!).
“In Phoenix we say, hydrate or die!” Bill informed me. And that was just commuting to work!
After showing me to his guest room and a quick change we got started on the bike and fault finding the horn problem.
As with Paul, Bill made it look so simple, and after checking various components with his multimeter (I really must figure them out!) he concluded that the relay was corroded.
Within an hour of arriving, Bill had fixed the problem! Genius! Which I was thankful for, as we could then get out of the 100ยบ + heat of the garage!
“My God! How do you manage to live in this heat?”
“You just get used to it”, he responded casually.
Not when you come from England!
Bill had re-arranged his work schedule just so he could help me out. He has a really fascinating job working as chief technician on a flight simulator. He makes sure the simulator keeps “flying”. After showering, we were discussing plans for dinner that night when Bill`s girlfriend Lori would be home,
“What kind of food do you like?”
“Any kind. I really don`t mind”
“Do you like beer?”
Dangerous question!
It just so happened, Bill was a big beer fan. Proper beer, not the Bud, Miller, Coors stuff, and he knew a bar that had an amazing selection of micro brewed beers. Done deal!
Lori and Bill
So that night Bill and Lori treated me to dinner - superb beer and wings! My loose plan had been to set off the next day but Bill and Lori insisted that I didn`t need to rush off and frankly, it was too tempting to stay and keep cool for a while, so I gratefully accepted their kind offer to stay a while longer.
Lori did some washing for me (clean clothes again!) and Bill dug out some instructional DVD`s on how to change tyres and water pump repair (still on a steep learning curve!). We also went shopping for a few bits and pieces for the bike and while we were out just happened to pass by a huge beer “warehouse” with another amazing collection of weird and wonderful micro brewed beers! Had to get a couple obviously.
That night Bill had arranged for Lori and me to meet him after work and go for a flight! The simulator is a very impressive piece of kit. Think of it as a very advanced Disneyworld ride, except that the pilots that are trained on it spend $15,000+ for the privilege. It`s so realistic that you could go straight from the training and fly a real plane. Bill`s an expert on the “sim” and regularly flies a couple of hours a day so he took us for a quick flight around JFK airport and then handed the controls to each of us in turn. It was then his turn to play “God”! He would sit at his own controls and change the environment we were flying in at the push of a button. From blue skies to thick fog, to thunderstorms and turbulence! It was a brilliant experience and what`s more we both landed it without crashing!
I had such a great time with Bill and Lori I didn`t really want to leave! They made me feel so welcome and at home. Bill was a so knowledgeable and helped me enormously with route planning ideas. He had spent many hours planning his own journey down the Baja peninsula which he was hoping to do sometime in the near future, so his thoughts were invaluable.
He did all that to help me, despite having the shadow of possible redundancy hanging over him. He`d been informed as I arrived that the company were “downsizing” and some people would be out of a job (of course they didn`t specify who – they just left all the workforce to worry for a few days. Aren`t managers great?).
Thankfully, Bill`s expertise and knowledge were clearly still needed. Nevertheless, it was a worry for a couple of days, but he just ignored it and focused on helping me! Bill and Lori - another incredible couple.
The next day I was up early, again, in an attempt to “beat the heat”. I was heading for San Diego and that meant getting across the Arizona desert and there wasn`t going to be an easy route. The frustrating thing is that the actual distance can easily be done in a day`s riding, but the heat is such that I had to do it in two stages which meant 3 day`s riding. I`d bought an hydration pack the day before so Bill filled it with ice and water to keep me going and promising to stay in touch, I headed out to the blistering heat of the desert.
Perhaps you should have done a "Motorbike Horn Repair Simulator" session before you left the UK ? :-)
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