Sorry for the delay in getting to the last two days' blogs, but it has been busy.
We were out of Eureka at about 8AM. It was warm already but we kept our sweatshirts on, as usual, for the first few hours.
Route 50 is principally a fast-moving (70mph legal speed limit) two-laner which is generally through a desolate landscape. We crossed several 7000 ft plus passes. Just prior to Austin, NV we ran in to some roadwork which had us waiting for about 20 minutes. We stopped down the hill at the Toiyabe Cafe in Austin. Austin has a very small (200 +/-) population but dates back to the boomtown mining days of the 1870s. A neat little town, it has its compulsory courthouse with jail and Masonic Lodge.
The Lodges in Nevada received their charters from the Grand Lodge in California. To my Masonic Brethren, it would be pretty cool to set up a tour of some of these lodges and get their histories; maybe setting one up for our district.
We had come about 70 miles and were looking forward to gassing up in Austin as you never know where the next fuel willl be. Although closed, the local gas station had left its pumps on so we used the credit card to gas up.
More desolation along the road, the heat was unbelievable with temps easily in the 90s. We stopped another 50 miles down the road at an old way station with a bar, restaurant and motel. Met a retired guy from Las Vegas on his Custom-painted Road King. He lives in Ely but likes to do some driving around. Asked how he liked his Harley, in responded that it looked good. He used to be a BMW rider but found it to be too cramped.
We continued west to Fallon, NV, gassed up and continued west to Reno.
Along the way it continued to be damned hot and dry. We passed several dry lake beds, gleaming white in contrast to the tanner tones of rock and sage. In the middle of nowhere was this huge sand dune called Sand Mountain. Don't know how it came to be, but could be googled.
Mark had been asking about Carl Jr's. so we set it as our destination in Reno. From Fallon to Reno we eventually ended up on I80 which was really high paced with a lot of traffic once we got near Sparks. We were able to get on to 395 without incidence, got off at S.Virginia Avenue and Carl's was just on the left. Parched and hot, it was a welcome place to stop. We each ordered two burgers, which was one-too-many. You only need one burger at Carl Jr's.!
The Carl's was just 4.5 miles from our stop for the evening, Bill and Lynne Miyazaki's.
The Miyazaki's have a really neat multi-level home overlooking the city of Reno. The view is panoramic and, in some respects, reminded me of the Morales' home in Ancon overlooking Panama City.
Lynne and Bill were great hosts. Mark and I stayed in Paul and Michael's room in the lower level. We went downtown to have a wonderful Japanese habachi supper at Ichibon. We got home late and, thanks to a couple of sakis, fell off to sleep pretty easily.
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