Mile 3745

Today was a very interesting day.  After staying over night in Carson City, NV at the Gold Dust Casino Hotel we had breakfast and called the Harley dealership shortly before the check out time in the hotel.  The information I got from the service department was not encouraging as they hadn't even looked at the bike, and told me there were two more bikes in front of mine in line before they would attend it.  So we felt we better extend our room for another night just to learn that the hotel is fully booked for the day.  But a little luck gave us a room, but we had to change rooms.  Little effort to have a bed to stay for the night.  Whilst talking to the front desk advisor she told me we should go to the HD dealership and make some noise as they have the reputation of not being the most cooperative for travelers and that just last week some guys from New York were stranded for four days.  Advise taken, and Elke and I walked over there (our daily exercise and because we are cheap and saved the taxi money, I did ihe walk three times today).  Catching the service manager Elke did a little blowfish and told him a story about timing, money, reputation of dealership, and made enough noise that the manager took the bike which was still in the same spot it was left yesterday afternoon when we dropped it off, and moved it immediately into a service bay.  Within minutes the front wheel was stripped and the bearing failure confirmed, and about a hour and half later the bike was ready for us to drive out.  A big THANK YOU to the Battle Born service manager Corrie for stepping up and providing a service which should have been provided by his team.  As a kind of compensation he gave us a good rebate on the repair and thanks to the Front Desk Manager at the Gold Dust Casino Hotel she waved us the extra night fees if we could vacate the room before the check in time for today.  Said and done, and because some people were very generous and accommodating, we hit the road before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, running South on Hwy 395 and picking up our trail were we left off yesterday.

We scratched our plan to enter Yosemite Park, we had visited it often enough when we lived in California, and were more than compensated with the smooth and winding roads of Hwy 395 and passing Topaz and Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes, and Crowley Lake, climbing up to Conway Summit and following the Sierra Nevada to the West going South.  Temperatures became quite cool up on that 7,000 to 8,000 ft high road, and with a huge thunderstorm coming in from the East, and earlier rainfalls in this region, we didn't wanted to push our luck today too far, and call it quits in Bishop, CA.  We made some mileage today, and hopefully coming from the East into LA tomorrow, not exactly how I wanted to come down there, will not give us too much traffic.  But with only about 300 miles to go we should be good in time to meet with Elke's brother's family in Long Beach, CA.

Finally things came together, and the day didn't turn out as bad as it looked to be in the morning.

Crowley Lake, CA and the Sierra Nevada 

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seem as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Mile 3566

Today we wanted to go forward to LA, but instead ended up where we had been on Saturday.  We left South Lake Tahoe early and moved on to Hwy 89 over some beautiful mountain passes like Monitor Pass about 8,300 ft high or Luther Pass 7.700 ft high, descending down to Hwy 395 to continue to the East entrance of the Yosemite Park.  The summits still had snow in places, the air was crisp and cool, and after all the humming and buzzing around lake Tahoe it was a welcome silence up there in the mountains.  So we looked forward to Yosemite N.P. until a certain "knack-knack" not a "klong"  from the front wheel and a severe wobble in the steering forcing me to make use of the whole width of the lane forced us to stop.  A call to Road America and a four hour wait in the scorching sun, no shade in sight, for a tow truck brought us straight back to Carson City, NV to admit the patient to Harley-Davidson Battle Born.  The official diagnosis is not in yet, but we are back where we had been three days ago, and not nearer to Los Angeles, CA.  So  back in gambling country we took the nearest hotel/casino and will see how tomorrow will turn out.  Maybe we have lost only one day.  Somehow strange how things repeat.

Coming down Monitor Pass

Before Hwy 395 breakdown

... waiting for the tow truck

... stranded

"you look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge." - Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Mile 3492

After a couple of days at Lake Tahoe, CA/NV, it is time to move on tomorrow.  We arrived at Lake Tahoe following again the Lincoln Hwy through Reno, NV south to Carson City, NV before passing the Washoe Indian Reservation and coming through the Toiyabe National Forest to the Stateline.  Here the casinos are built right up to the State line, and Stateline Ave. separates Nevada from California even though, the town moves from one to another.  It is the typical buzzing summer (and winter) vacation town, with many restaurants, shops, hotels, resorts, casinos (on the other side), shows, horse carriage rides, and all other "Halli-Galli" a tourist town has to provide.  The ride to the other side of town is exhausting, stop and go, and I hardly see anything of the lake.
We decide to take our luck and make the next day a trip around the lake, against the clock, and surprisingly traffic is moderate for a Sunday.  The lake is just beautiful, deep blue and clear water, on average you can look down 72 ft (per Secchi disc measurement), and pretty cold.  We enjoy the scenic ride around the 72 miles of shoreline and then throw us in the Sunday afternoon buzz of the town.

Art installations along Lincoln Hwy in Carson City, NV

Today we used to run some errands, send stuff home we discovered we didn't need and to lighten our baggage, laundry, some shopping (since we have more space now) and had an easy going day.  We will leave the original Lincoln Highway now to run South to meet up with family in Los Angeles, CA. Tomorrow will be hot again, and we will be on the road again, moving South into John Steinbeck's dust bowl of California so nicely described in his books, towards the region we left 15 years ago.

Lake Tahoe, CA

Lake Tahoe, CA - Emerald Bay

Tahoe City, CA

Stateline, NV, viewing west shore (CA)

"We tramped a long time on level ground, and then toiled laboriously up a mountain about a thousand miles high and looked over. No lake there. We descended on the other side, crossed the valley and toiled up another mountain three or four thousand miles high, apparently, and looked over again. No lake yet. We sat down tired and perspiring, and hired a couple of Chinamen to curse those people who had beguiled us. Thus refreshed, we presently resumed the march with renewed vigor and determination. We plodded on, two or three hours longer, and at last the Lake burst upon us -- a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still! It was a vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or a hundred good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords." - Mark Twain, Roughing It (his first impression of Lake Tahoe)

“Tahoe is surely not one but many. As I curve around its heads and bays and look far out on its level sky fairly tinted and fading in pensive air, I am reminded of all the mountain lakes I ever knew, as if this were a kind of water heaven to which they all had come.” - John Muir, 1873 letter to Jeanne Carr

Mile 3231

Today I can confirm that Nevada has of all the states we travelled through the longest straight roads we found thus far.  We also found out that the wind always blows from the side, never from the front, never from the back.  And we saw that dumb can always be beaten when a Ford Transit Van was driven into the salt flats for the perfect Facebook photo, not considering that below the crusty salt surface the ground was still soft and the van sank beyond the axles into it.

We left Salt Lake City, UT early this morning and found after a quick gas stop our way out.  Unfortunately can we not follow the Lincoln Highway as it passes nowadays through military test grounds and is off site for us.  So we pass the Great Salt Lake on Interstate 80 and follow the salt harvesting ponds to the West.  There are one salt pond after the other, and soon we wonder if there will be something else around there.  As the miles go on, we reach the Bonneville Salt Flats, home of the land speed record.  Leaving the Great Dessert at Wendover, UT we turn south onto Hwy. 93A and come into the Ruby Mountains and the Shell Greek Range, before we turn West again in Ely, NV.  This stretch of Hwy. 93A is about 130 miles with no gas station, not town, no settlement whatsoever, just plain dessert.  Having turned onto Hwy. 50 in Ely, NV, the barren country has by now turned into nice forested and mountainous areas, winding roads, and we are passing several 7,000 ft plus summits.  We share about 100 miles of the old pony express route, and for what we pass in a little more than one hour and a half, took an express rider in 1860 about the whole day, and 8 horse changes.  We take a gas stop in Eureka, NV and cooling ourselves down, before following the Hwy to Austin, NV (not Texas), before calling it the day in Fallon, NV.

Surprise of the day is that regardless how small a town is, casinos are everywhere.

Wendover, NV

Eureka, NV

Old Pony Express Rider Station in Schelbourne, NV near Ely, NV

"There were about eighty pony riders in the saddle all the time, night and day, stretching in a long, scattering procession from Missouri to California, forty flying eastward, and forty toward the west, and among them making four hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every single day of the year." - Mark Twain, Roughing It

Mile 2715

What can I tell you today?  It was hot, it had gusting winds, traffic was low, and we made it through the Badlands into Salt Lake City, UT.  Even though some consider the Badlands a very boring land, I'm fascinated with the open grassland, the many steaks roaming on it, and the softly rolling hills with their various colors of brown and green, bushes, shrubs, and trees.  And then out of the nothing come some rock formations and hillsides with rock colors that blow your mind when shine on in the right light.  We cross over the continental divide and are happy for the cooler and crisp air up here at 7,000 ft elevation.  We continue westward and miles later we pass the Utah Olympic Park and the Mountain Dell Reservoir, and drive through a valley which reminded me very much to the river Inn valley in Austria.  We pass through the outskirts of Salt Lake City and enter the city from the South.  Driving to the north end of town is a breeze on those wide and clean roads, and even though it is already afternoon, traffic in this city is very low.  We find our camp site easily and after a dip in the pool we take the UTA-TRAX (tram) into town to do some sightseeing.  No more riding today anymore.

Sun protection, wind protection, effective as long as I keep on moving

Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

"Choose your Love.  Love your Choice." - Thomas S. Manson - 16th President of LDS

Mile 2410

Once again did we start early to beat the heat of the day.  We leave Kearny, NE and follow the Lincoln Hwy to North Platte, NE and Sidney, NE, not Australia.  How do you know you are driving in Nebraska?  When the roads are straight for miles on no end, and your interest in the railroad traffic next to the Hwy is greater than in the scenery around you.  The railroad next to the Hwy has trains running almost every five minutes, with a coal train of about 120 wagons long every 20 minutes going east.  Anyway, we are making good mileage, traffic is very low, and a detour onto Interstate I-80 is also helping in that.  We stop for lunch in Cheyenne, WY, before continuing to Laramie, WY, and calling it the day in Rawlins, WY.  All in all a good day, temperatures not too bad, even some rain sprinkles around Cheyenne and Laramie, and very gusty winds in places.  And above all, we are finally in Wyoming, and the scenery has changed for the better.  Rolling hills, some mountains even have still snow in places, and nice winding roads.  It's almost heaven.

At a tank stop in Kimball, NE

Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument at the Summit Rest Area west of Laramie, WY

Street mural in Rawlins, WY

So that's it for today, I'm going to have a beer now, and Happy 4th of July to all your readers.

"We must think anew and act anew." - Abraham Lincoln

Mile 1918

This morning we started once again early to make the most out of the morning cool.  We leave Cedar Rapids, IA and follow the Lincoln Hwy through the never changing landscape toward the state line to Nebraska.  But this road will not end, and so we run through more corn fields, and more corn fields, and another set of corn fields.  It is soooo exhausting since nothing changes, and concentrating on the road becomes more difficult with every mile.  And then this sweet smell of the processed corn, I can’t get away from this fast enough.  We pass the Lincoln Statue in Jefferson, IA, and some road side art installation near Dunlap, IA, before crossing the Missouri River at Blair, NE next to the old railway bridge.  But all hopes that the scenery will change now are quickly taken away as also in Nebraska the road and landscape continue as before.  Even worth, I measure a 17 mile straight stretch of road between Columbus, NE and Grand Island, NE without the slightest directional change, plain straight.  Very exhausting doing that in the 100+°F of this afternoon.  As our concentration is tested to its max we decide not to force it and call it the day in Kearny, NE.  We made some good mileage today and with another day like that we shall have our rest days at Lake Tahoe, CA in the pocket.

Here some impressions from a rather none spectacular ride:

"Most people would live in an outhouse in Bangladesh before they would voluntarily move to Nebraska." - Poe Ballantine, Fiction and non-fiction American Writer