A Silly Grin In Bishop - #15

Wednesday 18 April


Bob the Kawasaki Concours rider said he knew we weren't normal Harley riders because when we came in he observed quietly to himself that we were wearing hi-viz vests. Harley riders don't do that. My image has just taken another hit! I chatted to Bob for a while in the morning and he gave us lots of good advise about the ride we were doing today. He said it was a long one. He said to go down to Silver Springs and top up the tanks because there was nothing until Tonopah and our tanks wouldn't make it from Caliente.

We did a little video clip of the sound of my bad-boy bike (just for you Donna)...  For those of you who want to watch it go here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3LDEDqHbhw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Of course it will depend your computers sound system and it never sounds as good as the real thing, but you could consider that a blessing!
We were heading to Tonopah. We weren't sure if we were going to stay there, we'd see what it was like when we got there. It was pretty remote country. The road out of Caliente was nice with some lovely corners but it soon straightened out to long very straight roads. We stopped at Silver Springs to top the tanks up.


There wasn't much traffic in either direction. The roads went on and on, quite the most boring so far. Nev's lucky, he had cruise control. You start thinking about the strangest things. The big v-twin just thumps along underneath you, it feels so reassuring and reliable. We passed through a place called Rachel and there was literally nothing there, no houses, no businesses, no anything. Just a sign that said Rachel? How can you call a place a name when there is nothing there.

The road to the west

The road to the west (heading towards Tonopah)

We were running alongside the Nellis Air Force Base so we were hoping we were going to get buzzed by a jet or something, anything would have done, any sign of life at all. It was obviously a fly zone area only because there was no sign of anything. It was the AFB that Top Gun was supposedly filmed in but we didn't see Maverick or Moose either so it can't be so. We did see one jet in the distance but Nev couldn't tell what it was?


It is also called the Extraterrestrial Highway so who knows what might happen to us. If we disappear completely remember I love you all!

Of course the aliens might just want my bad-boy bike, we will just be collateral damage!
We stopped for a rest as we were starting to feel a bit drowsy. There was no noise, naturally we had a pee. I took a photo east & west and it looks like the same photo. A car showed up in the distance and passed us. Exciting!


You go up over ranges and then drop down onto long straights again. We saw a very tall tower in the distance, well into the desert. It looked like the one in The Lord Of The Rings. Obviously something to do with the AF.

Back to the riding. On and on and on...

A corner, yay!

Some 190 miles later we started picking up the signs for Tonopah. That woke us up. Good to get some more petrol. Did our usual MacDs trick for WIFI. I'm not sure if Nev was rapt or insulted to get his first senior discount on his coffee, and they didn't even ask him! LOL!

The boys sitting outside liked my bike. I couldn't help myself giving it an extra loud blip when I fired it up. If only they knew inside I was saying, "please don't stall it, please don't stall"! Hehe..

I'm sure Tonopah is a lovely town but it wasn't for us. It looked like a quarry town with big slag & tailing piles around it, and a bit hot & dusty.

Despite our big ride we are heading to Bishop CA. This ride turned out to be rather nice. We crossed back into California from Nevada and after some miles had a compulsory stop at the agricultural food & plant place.  They take the bringing of bad stuff into California very seriously. They waved us through. Even they had guns on their hips.

We slipped into a nice (big) valley between two mountain ranges and it reminded me a little of NZ in some ways. Dust, rock and dry air became grass, sweet smelling air and snow capped mountains. The front of our bikes were looking like a battle zone with all manner of disintegrated animal life plastered over them.

Slipped into Bishop, got onto TripAdvisor & found a nice place to stay, just off main street. The young couple who booked us in were very helpful and if we went to the Whisky Creek restaurant and showed them the key we would get a 10% discount. They did however deliver some very bad news, at least for me. The storm going through the previous weekend, (when we got trapped at Sedona), had delayed the opening of Yosemite National  Park!


All 3 passes were still closed and wouldn't be opening before we left the USA. how unlucky is that. I had so been looking forward to it.


Oh well, next trip! We'll still go up past it and go to San Francisco. Surely they won't close the Golden Gate bridge for painting?


We walked down one block to Whiskey Creek and sat outside in the sun and enjoyed our nightly beer followed by a nice meal. I had the meatloaf. Yum!


We walked a few blocks down the main street looking at all the shops and car yards. Marvelling out how much cheaper cars are here than NZ.  We really do pay a price for living on a small island. Very interesting.


It was a nice warm evening. I could feel the difference in the air. Being lower and not so dry. My nose, lips and sinuses were feeling better already. Nev's eyes were looking a lot better too.


Back to unit, weather forecast looks great.


A long days ride - We're stuffed!


Good night.