Day 19 - Stephanie

491 miles today - just 9 shy of the 500 mark.  Thought about riding up and down the road for another 9 miles but opted not to. 

Up at 6 am to shower, pack, and find laundromat.  Then panic of me misplacing my key, Kevin has a  spare so fear not, I will ride.  After tearing up the room, searching the parking lot, and bugging the front desk guys looking for the key, Kevin asked if I had looked in my shorts pocket - bingo!  All is good in my universe again.  Thanks honey!  

Laundry done, food in Kevin, and coffee in me, on the road again.  Hold on Casper, mom and dad are coming home!

We left Chico, CA in search of the Loneliest Highway, Hwy 50.  So far this trip we have been on Historic Route 66, 99 and 30.  After navigating through Marysville, CA and passing Beale Airforce Base (where my brother was stationed and his two children, Jon and Catherine, were born, we made it as far as Reno.  First we passed through the Donner Pass and by Donner Lake.  It's a shame the Donner Party had things of that beauty named after them.

By the time we made it to Reno, hunger had set in again and we thought, hey, while in Reno may as well hit a casino.  We went to Circus Circus (we have now hit both Vegas and Reno ones - wonder if there are more out there for us?).  We passed on donating any money to the slot machines and opted for an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Once bellies were full, we jumped on Interstate 80 for a short while and reclaimed our sanity on Hwy 50.  I see why this is called the loneliest road in America!  Desolate but beautiful and so peaceful!  We didn't have to contend with 18 wheelers and the speed limit most of the way was 70 mph, so we were able to made good time.  

On that road we were able to follow part of the Pony Express route, travel along the Earthquake Fault Lines, travel Lincoln Highway, ands pass by the Naval Air Station in Fallon, hoping a low flying aircraft would buzz us.  All of this on that one road.  We traveled hairpin curves, experienced dust bowls, and rode in the Great Basin.  We didn't see any wildlife until dark when a Jackrabbit ran in front of Kevin and he barely missed the big bunny, and then we both just missed a horrible crash with a huge Elk that was just on the shoulder of the road.  This incident gave us both the needed adrenaline to make it the rest of the way to Ely.   After the scary Elk episode, we realized there was a car several miles behind us (amazing the distance you can see out on that road!).  We pulled over into a chain up area and waited, hoping to use that car as a "deer and elk block".  They passed us at a normal speed.  We pulled out behind them, lo and behold, they must have thought a biker gang was after them because they hit the gas pedal and never looked back.  We let them go, shame two KY people scared them that way.  LOL.  We jokingly said to each other that they were probably getting into town as quickly as possible to warn the police of us.  As we finally topped the last hill and around the final curve to get into town, we did see police lights ahead of us and wondered if the police were waiting on us.  Nope.  The car we had pulled out behind had been pulled over.  Oops. 

We tried to stop and pics things, but time is not on our side at this point.  We are going to try to continue with roads like we were on today since neither of us is excited about riding on Interstates with the semi's.  

Rita Turner the first pic is for you.  

Tomorrow we should be able to get our miles in before dark since laundry is done until we get back home.  And I still want to upload some videos of the Pacific Coast Highway from our helmet cam, but every night am too tired to fool with it.  Soon, I promise, because I want everyone to see how beautiful it is. 

Night for now.