Thursday, July 25, 2013

Riding the Loneliest Highway

Was worried about crossing Nevada when the temperatures are hitting 100 plus. So loaded Da'mit with extra water and gas. Up at 3:30, on the road by 4 am. Will try to get in as many miles as possible before the heat gets to us.

Finally out of California, past Reno and Fallon, we roll east on Rt 50. Off in the distance we see a large white mound. Da'mit thinks it is sugar. Wants to go check it out.

Half mile off the pavement we bog down in soft sand. The aggressive knobby tire on Da'mit just digs deeper. When you can't go any further forward in soft deep sand, you are usually in deep enough that you can't back up either. Unless you have two wheel drive and reverse. Double shift and we back out of a sinking situation. No one is around to help pull or push us today.

After we get out of the soft stuff, we leave the mini-sahara behind.

Back on pavement, Da'mit gets this pensive look on her.

I turn to look at what she sees..... the loneliest highway awaits us.....
Route 59 crossing Nevada claims to be the Loneliest Highway. Must be the tourist season as we saw traffic most of the day. The extra gas and water did come in handy though... several times. When crossing the desert at Ural speed.
Da'mit's good fortune would carry us through another day. The temperatures stayed in the eighties and lower all day. Was not the scorcher we anticipated.
By the time we reached Eureka, thunder clouds, rain storms and lighting were circling on the horizons.

After taking the opera house photo, a Deputy approached asking which way we were heading. Answered "East". He said the rain was really heavy that way. Be careful.

Pulled out all my serious rain gear. Now fully wrapped, on we rode.

Thunder and lighting in full force off to the left The GPS indicates the road goes that way.

Storm clouds dumping rain off to the right and moving in our direction. Dark ominous clouds blacken the mountains and pass directly in front of us.

Every time we thought, "Okay, this is it. We are going to get soaked." We would reach the edge of the storm, and the rain would move off. The roads were wet, with water running off. But we never got rained on. Not complaining mind you... just observing that Da'mit's good fortune was in full strength today. First escaping the sand trap, then no sweltering heat and now missing all the thunderstorms.... Too bad they won't let Da'mit into a casino. We could be millionaires with her luck.

So tonight I showed Da'mit my appreciation by replacing her burnt fog lamp, cleaned her air filter and repaired a stone chip in her headlight lens.

Was another interesting day... saw a part of the US that we had never been in before.

And the adventure continues... tomorrow Utah.

Nite Da'mit,

Nite all.

 

2 comments:

  1. Some really nice country your crossing. Great photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great pictures as always. I must work in the loneliest highway some day...

    ReplyDelete