Day Six

Robb patiently waiting...

as Lester gives it move pumping action...

and the trucks whiz by.

Probably don't need a caption here.

It was a WINDY day!

Lovelock Court House...one of only two round ones in the U.S.

I got those Highway 80 blues…

In general riding on I-80 probably wouldn’t be my favorite way to move across the country but we’re obviously going to get our fair share of miles there. Today was a bonus for people who like riding totally exposed to the elements including a 20-25 mph headwind because we did 75 of our 91 miles on the highway and another 12 along a parallel frontage road that at least spared us the speeding semis but not much else.

So if you ever see wacky bikers on the interstate spending 7 hours riding what you would cover in your vehicle in about 75 minutes give ‘em some space. If it’s possible to safely move over that might be nice but definitely don’t come up behind them and lean on your horn particularly if you have one of those nice custom horns that sounds like a freight train whistle. They’ll stay in the breakdown lane trying to avoid all the pieces of steel belted tires, glass, rumble strips, potholes, etc. I could probably make a comfortable living selling the rubber hold-downs that truckers lose. I kept expecting to see one go flying by my head.

The day started promising enough with a long gentle downhill but this was not good old Lester’s day. First he accidentally hit the rumble strip, almost lost control of the bike and sent both water bottles flying across the road. Somehow he managed to retrieve them before they were squished by an RV or semi. About another 10 miles down the road he flatted on the rear and then flatted so many times that we just stopped counting. The SAG van was called and his entire tire and tube were replaced one more time with success. Lester is now referred to as the man who just can’t keep it hard.

By this time the wind was howling and it was just a matter of trying to keep upright and moving in the right direction. It was pretty ugly and a number of people ended the day in the van. Robb and I both rode to the hotel but you know it’s a hard day when Robb complains!

So here we are in Lovelock, NV along with OJ who happens to be a guest at the local federal penitentiary. Excellent home cooking at the Cowpoke Café and the Sturgeon Motel (check it out on TripAdvisor!) is attached to a casino so we have plenty of entertainment to choose. This is the first really dumpy place we’ve stayed but there isn’t much choice here in Lovelock and it’s only one night so we’ll be fine…except the power just went off! This is going to be an interesting night.

Today’s ratings:

Scenery: 3

Road conditions: 3

Grunt factor: 2