The Road to Nowhere: Day 13

Today is the day we take on 'The Loneliest Road in America'. Of course it's already hot as we leave Reno. The string of near 100 degree days continues. But when you're travelling a road like this, I wouldn't have it any other way.

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2033/

It goes like this for miles.

We've been cruising for awhile now. The road is good. Jamie has the lead and we're running at 75 - 80 mph. All of the sudden Jamie signals that she is pulling off. Apparently she spotted a place for a break.

Jamie pulled off here.

A rather unique place.

The Shoe Tree

I don't have any background on this tree, but there are literally thousands of pairs of shoes hanging from this tree. And, there are likely as many lying on the ground. Apparently this has been going on for awhile. It's a big tree and casts a lot of shade so we took a good break

Jamie hooping under the shoe tree.

The road is actually pretty neat. It is mesmerizing as you cruise along. The scenery is interesting, with mountain peaks over 10,000 ft on the horizon and the summits that the road crosses are running 8,000 to 8,500 ft.

A couple of interesting things did happen as we crossed Nevada. At one point we had been cruising and were quite laid back on the bikes when all of the sudden this rather high tech looking military jet came screaming over the nearby bluffs, banking hard. The damn thing blew right over our heads at what seemed like a height that was barely clearing the ground. I checked into it and found out that the Air Force uses this part of Nevada for a lot of their training. Well, it sure shook us out of complacent cruise we were enjoying.

Later in the day we experienced a weird weather phenomenon. As we're heading east a dark and menancing strom seems to be forming to the southwest. Seeing as we're still cruising as 80 mph, I'm not concerned. However. whatever this thing is, it's closing on us. I know it's not a tornado, and I'm not sure what a cyclone is, never experiencing one, but this thing is closing fast. When it hit us it literally blew me across the road into the other lane. The same thing happened to Jamie. We are leaning into it heavily just to keep on the road. We have to slow down and get things under control. Of course there is no cover anywhere in sight. This thing, whatever it is, blows through to the northeast and leaves us no worse for the wear. Never experienced wind like this. No rain whatsoever, just wind. Very bizarre.

Fortunately, after this freak storm passed, the rest of the ride was uneventful.