Big Breakthrough in Reno

The black skyscraper in the middle is Reno City Hall, the Mayor and Council are on the 15th floor!

A major breakthrough for the ride took place today!! I got Firefox to run on my little two pound Netbook (an Acer Aspire One). Not only is my on-line life going to be infinitely easier, this also allows me to run our NBG maps at http//bikeroute.com/brdc (they do not run on IE)!! And as such instead of blowing out of Reno at 6AM, I was busy tracking my travels from South Lake Tahoe to here. 

Toward that end, I had maps and notes spread all over the bedroom here at Mike Damon’s house and nearly five hours later I had this result. Wow, what a breakthrough. Wow, what that means for this ride that I am pulling out of the ashes of the bus and crew that once was going to  support it!!

My next job was to make sure it was acceptable to the Nevada state Bike Coordinator, Bill Story, who I met yeas ago at Interbike. He had already sent me email to tell me about water availability out on I-80 as Jeff Moser from BikeCarson.com had told him I was coming through……But not before I made sure it was OK with Mike Damon who had a work party to go to this eve and would not be around until 6PM. He said yes with the only condition being that I get his kids on top of my Eagle for a picture tomorrow morning!!! As I was speaking with Bill, I asked him a bunch more questions about I-80. And he knew the answer to every one of them. From the shoulder width, mostly generous, to hotel cost, $30 to 90, to the total amount of miles, almost 400, to the road grade for the three passes that are out there, less than 6%, etc, etc, he knew the road very, very well!!
Then I went by phone to my Internet guru, Lori Yung। She told me how to get a around on this Windows machine a little better so I could access my files. She also tracked down some html editing software that we are hoping will let me see my files a WYSIWYG if that means anything to you.
I also spent some time at REI’s site. In lieu of all the money I am going to spend on hotels out there on 1-80, I had thought I could camp. Having a tent to do so would also give me needed privacy and a place to meditate at mid-day. However, it looked like a five-pound penalty for Peter Wagner’s rack. And at 7 x 23 folded down, the size for what they have is also a concern. Might there be any one out there with a 2 or 3 lb. tent I could borrow for a few months that they are not using? 

Thx 4 all of U!!