We’ve left the heat of the Vermillion Canyons behind and as we begin our final approach to our destination periodic bolts of lightning streak downwards to the Arizona desert floor.  This is a storm, a proper one.  Occasional lashes of rain cut through the sand’s blown grit as the wind tosses the Ducati GT1000 around…

It runs under the salt like electricity, but the GT1000’s tires can’t insulate me from this current.  We’re on one of North America’s temples of speed, the Bonneville Salt Flats, which, damp in spots, is featuring tenuous traction as we play on the stark white moonscape.

We’ve cut the day short and landed in West Wendover, Nevada.  I use “we” in a sweeping sense as I’ve come down ill and the GT1000 and I have been riding in the support vehicle for the day.  No great sacrifice though, this transit of the “droneways”, our newly minted term for interstates, has taken…

Stopping to take video of our group’s bikes as they ascend off of Diablo dam and into the Cascades along Highway 20, I’ve fallen behind. Mainly it seems because I miscounted the bikes and ended up waiting for a rider who didn’t exist. That’s okay, because our long-term loaner Ducati GT1000 is happily charging through…