MONDAY August 2nd

Well, here we are at the end of the 33rd day. We are in Ely (E-Lee), NV which is located on the "Loneliest road in America". There isn't much out here. I actually noted the mileage on one straight stretch and is was 25 miles before the road made a turn. Hey, why turn, there is nothing here and I am sure it is cheaper to make a straight road than one with turns.

So we started a little late this morning (7 AM) but that was OK. Little did we know that the road we would take into Zion National Park was closed from 8 PM until 8 AM. We got to the closure about 7:45 and they opened the road right on time. They are doing construction on the road in the park at night. No big deal, right? Well, except for the 10 miles or so of dirt road. Not your every day run of the meal dirt road, but read clay dirt road that was wet. That stuff is slicker than hound slobber on a brass door knob! I imagine the cars behind me didn't care for the 5 to 10 MPH rate we took it at, but frankly, I didn't care. Losing tracking on that and going down hill (did I mention it was all down hill, even worse) would not have been fun.

Once we finally made it to the park itself we boarded one of the many shuttles that take you up into the valley. They run every 5 to 6 minutes and if you stay on them it takes about an hour and a half to make the ride up and back. We didn't stay on them so it took a little longer. We got off at a few of the stops to take a look around, hike a bit and get some great photos (I hope I can add some later, I am going to try to upload some from my camera through the computer in the hotel). I also noted a tree that looked like it had little acorns but more pointed and longer. I had a sneaky hunch what it was and was sure once I picked one of the green "acorns" and peeled it open. It was a pinon tree from which you get pinon nuts. Most of you will know those by the name pine nuts.

We were in the park for about 2 hours and then headed to our next destination, where we are now. The road took us to I-75 for about 20 miles and then Garmin told me to get off and go under the freeway and make a left. At first, when I got to the left I thought I missed something. We stopped and got off the bikes and looked at a real map. Nope, this looked like the road we were supposed to take for the next 8 miles. IT WAS GRAVEL! It was a very rough ride and I actually yelled at some farmers that were chatting over the fence next to the road and asked if they couldn't smooth the road out?! They replied but I didn't hear them. There was a lot of washboard on the road so it was not pleasant at all. It saved us a lot of miles (we looked at other routes) and was worth it but no fun.

So back to blasting down the road. Later I saw a rest stop ahead and decided to stop and get a drink of water. Not at this rest stop, there were no services just some trees. There were, however, three guys on Harleys there. We stopped and chatted for awhile, very nice guys, brothers, and all three retired police officers. They found out Mike was a retired fireman and they harassed him a bit. It was pretty funny.

Tomorrow we head to Reno for the next night as well as getting our bikes serviced. Both need oil changes and Mike's main head light needs a new lens. It looks like it got hit by a rock and cracked it pretty good.

Well, another day in the bag. Sleep well, good night and God bless.