We have arrived. We’re in Wendover, UT at the lovely EconoLodge just down the street from the Golden Nugget Casino. Our group is down to seven now. Rob left after the first night and we said goodbye to Mark H. this morning as he began his 700 mile trip back to Seattle from Ontario, OR. I’m sure he’ll be in late tonight.
Right now we’re tired, hungry and stinky. There a nice pool outside that I’m going to dip in, then shower and look for the laundry facilities as I could certainly use them about now. I probably could get by another day or two, but if the facilities are here I’m going to use it. I’ll post up more later after I get refreshed and fed.
l8tr. /M
here’s a couple of shots from the road until I get to the rest -
Update:
So we got out of Ontario around 8:30am, Bong wanted to wait 30 miles or so to gas up but we all wanted to start the day with full tank to avoid making an avoidable gas stop. This would be a mistake in about two hours when we realize we’re 100 miles from nowhere and most of us have less than half tanks after ripping up the tarmac during the first part of the ride. The first part of the ride was fun with extended lengths of triple digit runs, but drains the tank quickly at those speeds.
Coming in from this desolate stop we made, the side winds really kicked up and made for some interesting riding as we had to lean over on the straights just to keep from being blown over.
The first gas from the other place was over 70 miles from where we were. The middle of freakin’ no where. It wasn’t pretty, but it should satisfied our need to refill gas and get some deli meat for lunch.
After gassing up in Owyhee, we moved on to the finish the ride to Wendover. Short after leaving Owyee, we ran in locusts. Hudred or thousands of locasts swarming the road.
Most of us made it to the Nevada border by babying the bikes to 60mph the entire way from the desolate place we stopped until we got there in order to conserve fuel. Locusts are just weird, at least we didn’t pick up any unwanted passengers.
The remainder of the ride was. Miles and miles of straight roads with beautiful scenery. With the neverending straight roads, I played around with shoot the small camera while riding with the cruise control on. Some worked well, others not so much. but hey the few keeps are worth it. It was just a bit challenging riding with no hands in the cross winds.
Coming over the last rise into Elko, you could see the Salt Flats where so many have tried to appease the gods of speed. (Note the reference to Worlds Fastest Indian movie) What a sight, we may stop there tomorrow. Below you can see the salt flats beyond Elko’s main downtown boulevard.
Pulling into Elko, Marv made a quick stop into Home Depot to get some glue to fix his air seat. While pulling in to stop Bong was surprised to find his clutch not working as expected, actually not working very much at all. Conveniently Bong has his mechanics home phone number programmed into his cell phone (how many guys have that?) but there is little he can do without a dealership open for the next two days. We’re hoping it might be temperature related and with the cool night might get better – but that’s doubtful. We’ll see what the clutch is like tomorrow.
When we finally got going again and got to the hotel, the resevations apparently were screwed up and there was only one room for seven of us and they were other wise full. Mark wanted to be closer to the casinos anyway so he rode back and found the Econo Lodge had 4 room available so that’s where we ended up. and it’s less than a block to the big casino in town.
So let’s see, at the end of the day we encountered/survived – poor gas planning, desolation, gasoline absenteeism (out of gas), locusts, heat, mechanical problems, and screwed up lodging reservations
After arriving in Wendover, UT and cleaning up, we went out to the local dining and entertainment establishments for dinner and some entertainment. Congratulations Mark for coming out with more then you entered with.
Anyway, it supposed to be 95 degrees tomorrow, I’m be wearing shorts and a micro-T under my stitch suit and will probably be breaking out the cooling vest as well.
Night, night now.
/M
Here’s today track. 397 miles.
Just got back from a 702 mile day from Ontario, OR to Port Angeles. It started raining half an hour or so after I left the guys going into the sun –then it got pretty cold. I had to stop and put on some warm, heated stuff and rain gear.
Great road over 245 (?). I like those 15mph corners…
It started pouring rain on the other side of the pass (once back to hwy7). I rode along for a bit, but remembered I had no idea if there was fuel along this route or not. Since it was really coming down I decieded just to bail on this part of the route and take the freeway west until I got past the bad weather.
It rained for awhile, and I could see to the south where it still was even after it quit on the freeway.
LOTS of wind! I don’t think I’ve ever ridden in that much wind for that long. Went down the gorge to Lyle, than back up 142 that I liked so much. Headed to Yakima, then Ellensburg, then Seattle and the ferry. Probably could have gotten back a little sooner, but I hadn’t stopped very much along the way at all, and figured I’d do well with something to eat and drink and get off the bike for a bit.
had a great ride back home, rained a little but not too much. I was toasty warm with my homeade heated vest and fancy new gloves and old heated socks. I could have gone another hour no problem.
Just a few miles under 1900 miles in three days.
Wish I was going along on the rest of the trip- maybe next time.
Have fun you guys!
Oh sure you guys leave with all the good weather! Wish it was 95 here I’m freezing! I sun might come out today…if we’re lucky.
Be safe!
Great blog, love the sense of humor! HI DAD!!
I must have been more tired than I thought when I posted that. It was 1600 miles, not 1900 miles.
Oh yeah, I wasn’t clear- I could have gotten home quicker if I had ridden through Tacoma, Bremter etc rather than take the ferry. But it would have also been another 60 miles or something.
Also, while you guys were out riding I was running 18 miles today. I’m a little tired right now…
Mark