Day 8. Ely, NV to Bishop, CA. The long way.

Tonight, I'm in a Motel 6 in Bishop, CA. I had a really good day. It started with breakfast at the Silver State Restaurant in Ely, then a quick tank of fuel, and west on hwy 6. I followed 6 out of town about 18 miles, then turned south onto NV-318. The weather was pretty good. Just a light off and on sprinkle. About an hour after I left, I stopped at a rest area (I hate riding and taking a diuretic!). There was a storm behind me and it was coming in fast.

I managed to avoid any more rain for the rest of the day.

Near the end of 318, the road gets twisty for a short ways as you pass through the White River Narrows.

In Alamo, I stopped for gas and a light lunch of a banana, some Craisins, and a 0 calorie Powerade. After lunch, I took off for Rachel on 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway.
In Rachel, I stopped at the Little Al'e'inn. I picked up a Area-51 sticker and a small pin. It's 160 miles from Alamo to Tonopah. There's no gas available in between, and I was fighting a HUGE head wind. I kept the speed down to try and improve my mileage. I took a few pictures along the way...
Jct. NV-375 and NV-318

The mail box marking the road to Nellis Air Force Range at Groom Lake, aka Area-51.

Rachel, NV.

I followed hwy 6 to Tonopah and gassed up. While I was taking a short break, I met a guy from CA that was on his way home after spending nearly a month on the road. He had been to New York and had put on almost 9000 miles on his Triumph Thunderbird.

A few more pictures from along hwy 6.

The road to the Tonopah Test Range.

Hwy 6 took me out of Nevada,

And into California.

It was a long day, but a good day. It ended with a great meal of, a spicy pollo verde tamale, a chicken enchilada with red sauce, and rice and beans from The Loco Frijole.
I miss you Nancy, say hi to the boys, Sticky, Orangie, Rudy, Screamer, Vinny, and Little Boy.

Day 7. Arco, ID to Ely, NV

I was up too late last night and woke up too early this morning. I was in a fog all day. The last hour, I think the bike was driving its self.
I didn't stop to take many pictures. I only shot a few.

My internet connection is really slow here. I'll do a better job tomorrow.

Blogspot Issues?

George F and others, For some reason I can't leave a comment on either my blog or on other peoples. I don't know if it's my computer or a blogspot issue. I'm not being rude, I just can't comment. Sorry.

Day 6. Lander, WY to Arco, ID

I woke up this morning to a sunny, but chilly, 37 degree day. As I was packing up the bike, the man in the room next to mine came outside and started to clean his Harley. We talked for a long time about riding and getting older. He said he was going to be 76 next month, and that he'll continue to ride as long as he can. He actually looked closer to 60 years old.

I left Lander and headed towards Kemmerer, WY. I had to cross the Wind River Mountains. I'm glad I didn't go north to Cody or Yellowstone. I didn't bring enough cold weather gear for that kind of cold. Some of those mountain passes are close to 11,000 feet. My route is over lower elevations. It was darn cold on the 7600 feet pass I went over. I had to stop at a Wyoming rest area and go inside and warm up. Many of the mountain tops still had snow on them.

Wyoming antelope crossing sign.

I crossed into Idaho on hwy 30, north of Cokeville.

I stopped in Soda Springs, gassed up and grabbed a quick lunch at Taco Time.

One of the things I wanted to see on this trip was EBR-I, or Experimental Breeder Reactor-I. It's the first atomic reactor to generate electricity. Unfortunately, I arrived just 15 minutes before closing. I had time to walk in and snap a few photos, but I didn't have time to read the information about the displays. More information here, and here. Also in the parking lot are 2 experimental nuclear aircraft engines. I'd like to see the size of the plane that could get the engine and a bomb load off the ground.

2 experimental aircraft engines.

After they closed the EBR-I, I walked over to the aircraft engines. There were 5 or 6 other people looking at them. A 30's-ish man walked over to me and started talking to me about his motorcycle trips in years past. He told me he was "car camping", and tried to keep me talking as the other people left. I seldom get weird vibes from people, but this guy had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I don't know just what it was about him, but I couldn't get on the bike fast enough. Something in the back of my mind was telling me, Run from the Psycho.....

I stopped for the night in Arco, ID. across the street from the hotel I'm staying in, is this. It's the conning tower from the USS Hawkbill. It's sitting on a slab in the city park.

Tomorrow?

After the Rally, Now What to do.

I woke up this morning not knowing what I should do. Should I continue west on my own? Or do I just go home to Nancy and the cats? To be honest, I really wasn't feeling like a long solo ride, so I told myself that I would ride west for half a day, and if I still wasn't sure what to do, I'd turn around and go home. 
I gassed up in Custer and took off for Newcastle, WY. I stopped at the SD-WY state line for a picture. While I was there, a young couple in black car drove past me, stopped, turned around, drove back past me, turned around again and as I was leaving, they stopped at the Wyoming sign.

I stopped in Newcastle at an auto parts store. I needed to buy a new 12 volt power outlet.

The one I had been using developed a short in the cord. The new one, on the left, eliminates the cord. Now I can use both the Xm radio and the GPS again

I took WY-450 past the Thunder Basin Coal Company's Black Thunder Mine.

In Wright, WY there's a mining museum. I didn't go in, but I did snap a few pictures of the large dump truck parked outside.

I left Wright on 387, then took 259 towards Casper, WY. I gassed up outside of Casper and while taking a break, I met a couple from Kentucky. They were riding a Kawasaki Vulcan. They had traveled from KY to visit a relative in UT, then up to Cody, WY.  They were on their way back home. They were going to be heading into heavy rain when they left the gas station, but they told me the weather was fine behind them. That was the direction I was going.
I took 26/20 west, and made a quick stop at Hell's Half Acre.

As I was getting off the bike and getting out my camera, the black car from back the state line went past, stopped, turned around and pulled into the parking lot. They were from Tennessee and had just been married. They were on their way to Yellowstone N.P. We talked for a bit and I wished them well and continued on my way. 10 miles down the road I made a quick stop at a WY wayside rest area. As I was waiting for traffic to pass by so I could continue west, they went by, honked and waved. I followed behind for a bit, but he was moving pretty fast. I ended up following about a mile behind them for quite a long time... We made good time. I turned off at WY-789 and took that down to Lander, WY.
I stopped for the night at the Holiday Lodge, where I got a very nice room with a 40+ inch flat screen, for a nice price.

After a little clean up, I walked next door for a dinner of steak fingers, baked potato and a trip to the salad bar. mmmmmmm

I don't know where I'll be tomorrow.

STN Rally, Days 3 and 4.

On Tuesday I took it easy. I went for a ride from Custer up to Spearfish to find a better chain lube. I had been riding in the rain and the chain was looking pretty rough. I'm not happy with the lube I had been using.  I picked up a can at the Honda dealer. I also discovered that my camera memory card was still in my netbook back in Custer, so I stopped off at Walmart for another card.
On the way back down to Custer I rode down Spearfish Canyon and 385. I stopped off at Lake Pactola for a break. The water in the reservoir was quite high.

I stopped in Hill City at Rico's Restaurant for lunch. They have great home made Mexican food.

From Custer, I rode into the Custer State Park on 16, then up the Needles Highway to 89. Down 89 to 16 and back to Custer.

After my ride, there were fellow members of the Sport-touring.net forum hanging around the parking lot BS'ing. At 1800 everyone walked over to the restaurant for dinner. That was followed up by more BS'ing in the lot.

Wednesday...

Today, 7 of us went on a group ride. We chose a route through Custer State Park. It was a nice 100 mile loop. Many of the roads are very narrow, and a lot of the other drivers on the road drive like they are the only ones on the road. They will stop and nearly block both lanes, while they try and feed the donkeys or photograph the buffalo.

For the most part the ride was enjoyable, but...
If you are close to this...

And the last 5 of 6 corners have been posted with this....

And you lose your concentration.... This can happen...

I came around a 15 MPH corner and found one of the riders from our group, lifting his bike up off it's right side. He had run off the right side of the road, at the exit of the corner. He may have had a bit of "target fixation" and ran onto the narrow grassy shoulder, and dropped the bike. He was fine, but the plastic on his bike was damaged, and his pride was hurt.

We continued on the ride and stopped along side Mount Rushmore for a picture.

The guy that crashed his bike rode back to the motel.

After the ride, there was more BS'ing in the parking lot for most of the afternoon and well into the night.

STN Rally, Day 2

I had a great nights sleep in Winner last night. I woke up at 0130 to a loud thunder crack. It was raining really hard. I went back to sleep and woke up around 0600. I watched the weather channel, took a shower, had a quick breakfast and packed. I was on the road by 0800.

My route took me through the Pine Ridge Reservation.  After the reservation, I saw something that looked out of place....

That's a peacock sitting on the sign. I also saw some long horn cattle.

I made my way to Interior, SD for gas and a water then up hwy 240 into Badlands N.P. where I picked up my park pass. I plan to go back through the park later this week. I left the park and stopped at the Minuteman Missile N.H.S. I watched the video they had playing and spoke to the Park Ranger. She asked me if I wanted to tour the Launch Control Facility. I got my free ticket for the 10:45 tour.  I drove out I-90 to exit 127. Then a very short drive on a gravel road to the facility.
 There were 6 of us waiting at the gate for the Ranger to start the tour. Ranger Butch was great tour guide. We started at the back of the building and worked our way towards the front. Everything in Launch Control Facility Delta-01, was pretty much just like it was when the last person left the building after it was deactivated in 1992. I saw typical military bunks, A day room with vintage 90's magazines on the table. We then went to the front section of the building where the security force sat and watched the main gate. Behind a door in that area, we rode an elevator down 31 feet to the under ground control room. That's the room that 2 Air Force Officers would sit in, for a 24 hour shift, behind a 3 and a half foot thick steel blast door, and wait for orders to launch their 10, nuclear warhead equipped, Minuteman II missiles.

From the Launch Control Facility, I went to exit 116 where the Parks Service has a self guided tour set up at Launch Facility (missile silo) Delta-09.
There is normally a 90 ton concrete cover over the silo that opens when a missile is launched. This silo cover is partly open and covered with a glass enclosure. You can look into the silo and see a Minuteman II missile.

As a child of the 60's, that grew up reading Civil Defence materials about building fallout shelters in your basement, I thought the chance to tour a nuclear missile facility was AWESOME!!!

After the silo, I rode to Custer and checked in to the Bavarian Inn. I met a few of the guys from the Sport-touring.net web site. We all hung out in the parking lot and b-s'd a while, then Jack(madjack) and I went for dinner. It started to rain just after I pulled into the parking lot.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow.