The Return Trip - Riding Across Nevada

I got up the next morning a little later than I wanted and loaded up the bike. I knew I had hundreds of miles of nothingness in front of me so I had a quick breakfast at McDonalds just to save time and get going. The sun heated things up quickly and it was already pretty warm when I left Fallon eastbound on highway 50.  Here is a map of my route that day, Monday, July 19th, which was day 11 of my trip.

Nevada was a long ride across a series of mountain ranges with large open arid valleys in between. I was surprised by the amount of traffic though. I though highway 50 was the "loneliest highway in the US" but there was a reasonable amount of cars and trucks. But there was no commercial activity at all. Not for hundreds of miles.

In fact, the first stop from Fallon was Eureka for gas which was 180 miles. I caught up with a couple of BMWs on the way and just fell in behind them. We stopped and got gas and drank a Gatoraid and chatted for a few minutes.  Eureka was a quaint, small, one-horse town. Kinda sad to think of people still living there. What the hell do they do all day out there in the middle of all that nothingness???

So we left Eureka and kept riding east. It was another 80 miles or so to Ely. I stopped and filled up just as a safety measure, not knowing where I was going next.

Riding through town I noticed a number of motorcycles parked in the shady side of a large brick building so I pulled in there. It turns out it was the Hotel Nevada. I didn't think much about it other than there must be some food here if all these bikes are here. 

Well, what a surprise! This was a fancy casino, restaurant, and hotel. But even more so it was historically famous. It was built in 1929 and for many years was a major stopping place along highway 50 before the Interstate Highway system detoured most traffic. There were many stars of famous people in the sidewalk out front.

Here are a few pics of the hotel.

Finally, this being Nevada, I just had to stop and take this picture...

I left Ely and headed south on highway 93.  My goal was to get to Cedar City, Utah for the night so I would be in good position for the national parks the next day. But it was a long way and a long, boring, hot ride.

While it wasn't terrifically hot (upper 90s) I knew it was very dry so I was wearing my camelback and drinking regularly from it.

After several hours riding south on 93 between the mountains and down the wide open valleys I saw the wind kicking up many dust devils in the open range and planted fields. Some of the dust devils were mini-tornadoes as I could see them spinning hundreds of feet tall from many miles away. 

At one point I started getting sleepy and I knew I needed to stop or do something different. I saw a small town was coming up so I kept going for 20 miles or so and pulled into the small mining town of Pioche, NV.  I found a small town little gas station and grocery store. Inside I got a power bar and a Monster energy drink. I chatted for a while with the woman behind the counter about the small town, its history, and the people.  Very interesting but another case of a dying town in modern times. 

I kept going south and then turned onto highway 319 going east over the mountains to Cedar City. I thought there would be some gas at that intersection but there wasn't. I checked the GPS and it was about 82 miles to Cedar City from there. That would really be stretching my tank but I didn't have a choice at the time, so I kept going.

I kept my speed down to increase my gas mileage and watched the altitude climb on the GPS going over the mountains, knowing that the higher altitude would improve my mileage as well. I watched my fuel warning light waiting for it to come on, since that would tell me I had a gallon left (5.2 gals total).  The later it came on the better mileage I was getting and I could use that average mileage to calculate how far I could go. 

So the light finally came on at about 180 miles (I think) so I knew I was getting about 44 mpg (4 gallons used). So if I had a gallon left I could go at least 44 miles and my GPS told me I had about 25 or 30 miles to go. Not much choice at this point but to keep going.

As it turned out I pulled into Cedar City with 202 miles on the trip odometer (from Ely). That is one of the longest tanks I had ridden on but my system for watching my fuel worked well. Then I found a neat restaurant to have a beer and some dinner and checked into the local KOA. 

As I made my camp in the RV park a huge black thunderstorm rolled up in the late evening but then skirted by to the north.

I met a guy walking his dog who introduced himself and we chatted.  He said he was traveling in his RV but he was carrying his bike with him. Turns out it was a BMW R1200RT - a nice large touring bike. They would travel for a while then park and his wife would relax and catch up on her phone or email and he would take off on a ride on his RT.  Well, when I walked over to the showers I saw them and their RV - OMG what a rolling palace!  It was a HUGE class A motorhome with 3 tilt-outs - beautiful rig.  And on the back, just as he said, was a newer BMW RT on a hydraulic lift. Amazing! I don't know what he did for a living but they were definitely traveling in style!

Here is a pic of their rig:

So it was about 460 miles for the day.