I'd run into some pretty impressive displays of hospitality & friendship along the way but this really stunned me. I didn't have any way to even come close to repaying him or his wife for everything, just a check for the cost of the parts and to let them know I'd buy them dinner when they next come through Phoenix. Plus, they'll have a ninja here they can strip for parts just for the hell of it.

Between repair, lunch & mapping out a route for me that bypassed I-10E. I didn't make it out until around 11:30am but I figured even riding through the night would be pretty easy since the forecast said only a mild chance of light rain. Feel free to beat the crap out of your nearest weather forecaster.

Not many photos on this day’s run. With the weather I encountered along the way I was concerned with lightning strikes and drivers more concerned with not being blown off the road than looking for bikers with cameras.

David mapped out kind of an odd route using county roads, small town routes etc. but a fun one compared to hitting Los Angeles and I-10E on Labor Day weekend. We had figured I'd be in Parker by 6-7pm. However traffic didn't cooperate in some areas and I got rained on 2x in Victorville.

When I got to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA I started noticing small rivers along the road. Crap. Apparently the rain in Victorville and other areas was pooling here. So, I made my first washed out road crossing on my Ninja :0 It seemed to work, so I made my second crossing, then my third and finally the fourth. I was completely soaked the bike had mud clear up the fairings past the fuse box, the main wiring harness etc. It's a damn good thing I followed the FAQ on the Ninja 250 Forum for waterproofing the bikes electrics. Not only did she not stop, I had zero problems shutting her down and starting her back up again whenever I got gas. I found out that about 20-30 minutes after leaving Twenty-Nine Palms toward parker on 62 that they had closed the roads I had just been on.

After only about 20 minutes of riding toward Parker I noticed some incredibly bad looking storm clouds on the horizon. If I had to do it over I would have returned to Palms and gotten a hotel. Instead I pushed on and saw some phenomenal displays of lighting. As bad as it looked at first it just got worse and worse. About 15 miles from Parker the wind & rain really started to kick in, and with no overpasses to hide under and the lightning being pretty constant I again pushed on through. I estimate I almost died 3 maybe 4 times on this last section. Between the light weight of the bike, full fairings and gear the gusts were really trying to tear me off the road. On one occasion I was riding close to the center line and in the next second I was at an extreme lean angle on the very edge of the road desperate to stay out of the ditch. lol On several occasions the rain & wind cut down my visibility so much that the only way I still knew I was on pavement was because the tires were rolling smoothly.