Runnin' Against the Wind- The Story

DAY 11
Bryce Canyon, UT to Ely, NV

I woke up this morning to a steady Spring rain, a bit of a headache- no doubt the result of the unknown number of beers from the night before, and a restless mind. Anticipating my own departure in the next few days, my head is full of all the intangibles leading up to the ride... What must I wrap up at work? Do I have all the crap I need for the trip? Have Tuna and I covered everything? No chance I was getting back to sleep. Better get up and start the day...

I stumbled downstairs, made a fresh pot of coffee, turned on some BB King, and fired up the ole' laptop to check my email. Sure enough, I got an email from Rigid with a new batch of pictures. Saturday is lookin' up! I started going through the pictures and, based on the National Park signs snapped in a few of them, I went into Google Maps to try and determine where they were. Turns out they'd made their way to a small town in Nevada called Ely.

These pictures are even more spectacular than the previous, which seems to be a recurring theme. It would appear the more you get lost, the better shit gets. Earth and Sky as far as the eye can see... And while I may not buy into the Mormon faith one bit, it's easy to understand how the Mormons got started in Utah... The guys are truly in God's country... I started wondering what the day would hold for Overtime and Rigid, but I didn't have to wonder for very long... The phone rang. It was the road warriors themselves.

We spoke over speaker phone for about 15 minutes. Turns out, exploring the beauty of this part of the country via motorcycle in May comes at a cost. Weather and temperature is a total crap shoot, and between the winds, the rise and fall of elevations, and the warm daytime air being met by the frigid nighttime temperatures, the ride is being slowed having to stop to bundle up, then stop to un-bundle with regularity. When the guys called this morning, it was 29 degrees. They were stuck. I don't care how damn tough you think you are, when you start riding distances in sub-freezing temperatures ill equipped to handle that weather, you quickly remember that patience is a virtue... Better sit it out until the Sun warms the Earth.

And with that, I bring you to Scotty's account of the previous day's ride. As with the previous posts, the picture slide show precedes this entry, so be sure to check out the pictures when you're done with the story!

"Friday May 9, 2008.
Bryce Canyon UT to Ely NV.
350 miles today.
Trip total: 4277.

The accounting firm of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe performed an audit and confirmed that Overtime ain’t too good at figures.
It is entirely my fault as somewhere in the trip I accidentally zeroed out the trip meter. The audit confirmed my suspicions and reaffirmed what drilled into the thick heads of all Marine Lieutenants at the Basic School – “Marines Don’t Do Math In Public”
Morning started in the low 30’s, needless to say we had another delayed departure.
Computer system was down at the Bryce Canyon Inn so we couldn’t update the blog in a timely manner.
Rode to Zion NP. Again, another extraordinary ride with incredible scenery.
Kind of the reverse from Bryce Canyon as we were looking up this time.
Elevations for the day started over 8000’, down to 3500’, and back to over 7000’.
Temperature variations were huge, and we were constantly stopping to adapt to the environment. Everything from “Under Armor” to underwear and back again. At our last gas stop in UT, I elected to “go cold” – good move as the temps were falling rapidly as the sun set and the elevations increased. Did I mention the wind? Yup, it was back with a vengeance. I actually thought that at one point, it was blowing the top of my bike in one way, and the bottom the other. A little rain, but it never escalated to the point we had to suit up. Dodged another one.
Did a short stint on I-15N to get to the start of the loneliest road.
If we thought west TX was void of humans, W. UT and E. NV have it beat.
We rode for over an hour without seeing another auto/person. Plenty of cows grazing, miles from anywhere. Kinda wondered how the owners kept track of the herd.
Finally saw a truck towing an outhouse – bet there was a story there.
Arrived in Ely NV, a quaint old mining town, at dusk and were directed to the Hotel Nevada, a biker friendly place (I was initially worried that it was a spin on the Hotel California were you could check out any time you want, but never leave), but it was too cold and windy to camp out, and we were enticed by the history of the place (not to mention warm rooms and hot showers).
Haven’t tried to check out yet, so if you never hear from us again, we’re still here.
Really a neat old time hotel (with the exception of a casino on the ground floor).
Small rooms with a lot of history – and actually pretty inexpensive (less than $40.00 for a family suite.
Flipped for the queen size bed, and Steve is in the bunkroom.
Not sure about tomorrow yet. Probably across Hwy 50 – “The Loneliest Road” to the Tahoe area. High altitude camping this time of year is an iffy thing, so we will play it as it happens
We have kind of given up on Crater Lake, as the last time I checked they had somewhere in the vicinity of 13 feet of snow."

NOTE: As a result of some setting / bug with the Blogger site, I'm unable to post both the slide show and the story in the same entry. The entries will be coming 2 by 2 going forward, so be sure to check for pictures following each blog entry.

ATW'08