Day 10 - Gamble with the Wind

I quickly learned why today was so much cooler than I had expected. Wind. And what a wind that was. I added layer after layer but only when I finally left the cloudy area I stopped shivering. The wind, however, continue blowing heavily. And there was this mean looking dark front at the horizon. Right where I had to go. And I could see the rain pouring out of it.

And I did end up in it. But luckily, only for a few minutes. Thanks to the wind.. Which kept pushing the bike so that it was constantly bent to one side. As if I was driving through curves. Just less fun and less active pushing on my side. I just hung on and held against the wind. This is how it must feel to break in a mustang. Well, luckily without the up and down jumping. Just left and right. 

After the third huge truck had passed me (two of them got pulled over a few miles later) I thought it might make things easier for me if I just hid behind one of them. Well, the headwind was less strong. But there were all kinds of weird turbulences going on which made it even harder to keep the bike in a straight line. So I stopped doing that and just hung in there. For all 290 miles to Winnemucca.

Now I'm done with my nap, or better woke up after passing out and am having dinner in my hotel, the Winnemucca Inn and Casino. Funny crowd. I wonder if some of them actually do stay for longer than a night. It's kind of like a geriatric ward of Las Vegas. And anyone else, who is traveling through. Like me. I think I could write a whole post about gambling. Why people do it and why I don't. Well, the latter I because I inherited the love for gambling from my mother but, unfortunately, not the luck.

It started with card games I played with my parents and my brother. Mainly "Doppelkopf", four players, 40 cards, ten of hearts is the highest trump and whoever holds the queens of clubs (second highest trump), plays together. There's all kinds of rules and funny outcomes. But the main outcome for me was to lose 2-3 D-Marks to, mostly my mother. But at least she taught me the only way to deal with gambling. If you absolutely want or have to. Get chips once. For a limited amount of money. And then gamble. Win, lose, but don't get any more chips. Maybe I'll try that again tomorrow night in South Lake Tahoe.

I also noticed that I prefer to meet other bikers while I'm on the bike or at least close enough to it that I can be associated with it. It's not that much fun when you walk down the street in Winnemucca in shorts and boots and get whistled at by dudes on Harleys. And you can't just yell back:"I'm one of you guys, dude (enter stronger word here), so stop that whistling!"