COLD WATER STATION TO RACHEL

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Though I love to ride early in the morning, I delayed my departure a little as I had sent my cold weather gear home after the Cannonball. The temperature was up to 49 by 7:30 so I layered up and headed out east on US 50. Temperature stayed around 50 until about 10, but it was not uncomfortable. We gassed up in Austin and continued east until NV 376  where we turned south.

To save you from the being bored with NV, I put togather this slide show. No two pictures are at the same spot. I did a video, but it failed.

I stopped to visit with Clyde, the manager of the R&O ranch. He is a cattle buyer and runs 1500 head of his own over in Utah, but the owner of the R&O asked him to come over and run his place for awhile. They were moving some of their 8,000 (that is right “thousand”) cattle to another pasture. He employees 5 year round cowboys and 7 farm workers for the pastures and the hay. He was glad to report that the cattle business is good.

In Tonapha I bought a gas can. With Big Red I can go almost anywhere with out extra fuel but this leg required some extra. I tried to take a picture of the refueling but the wind was 
blowing 25-35 mph and I was afraid to let go of Big Red.

 The nearest gas was 50 miles from this sign.

 That is a UPS truck in the middle of nowhere.

 We went off the highway for awhile, but the road was to much of a washboard and gave it up.

We headed down NV 375 to Area 51. We saw no aleins but lots and lots of airplanes. There was a group of about 20 C-17’s and then a dozen or so C-130’s flying slowly in odd patterns.

Most employees of Area 51 fly the 15 minute flight on charter 737’s everyday from Las Vegas to work.

I am staying in the big city of Rachel at the Little A' Le' Inn. Don’t let anyone ever try to convince you this is an Inn. It is a couple of old worn out 1960’s mobile homes. You get a key to one of the rooms and three rooms share a bath. Due to my mode of travel and where I wanted to be, this was it. At least it is not as bad as the Sun-n-Pines in Lufkin, TX, but the evening is early.

Rancho Cordova to Cold Springs Station NV

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The morning started at the Waffle Shop and breakfast with Dick Lemmon. I had seen some of Dick's postings on the Modern Vespa Forum and from his short and infrequent posts I figured he was an interesting person and I was right.

We visited for several hours and talked about his past and scooters.  He just turned 90 and still rides his scooters.  His first 2 wheel he got at the age of 14 and has been on one ever since. He entered the Army Air Corp in 1942 in the flying Sargent program but when he finished flight training they made him an Officer anyway. He was one of the best trained pilots in WW2.  As the military tends to do, they sent him to one flight school after another.  Several times he was an instructor but after all was said and done though, he never left the U.S. After "they retired him" with 22 years he flew for several non-scheduled airlines. After the airline business he spent many years as a handy man until he decided to just play with his airplanes and 2 wheels.  He has sold his last airplane but still has his hanger so he can go out visit his friends that still fly.

We had a great visit, he paid for breakfast, we said our goodbyes. He had trouble getting up from the booth like many his age but he hopped on his scooter with no problem.  He says his fear is falling over as he would never get back up.  He is a great guy and well worth the stop.

Since Dick had the handicap sticker I parked in the blue place with him

I pointed Big Red east on Highway 50, "the lonelist highway"/ Lincoln Highway/Austin Highway and we roared into the hills.  It started as a freeway and changed to just four lanes and out of Fallon, NV to a two lane.

 Off at a snail's pace

 Springs brings lots of these.

 During our short visit he told me all the "dumbass" stories of the day and it was only 10.

The home of the evening is Cold Springs Station Motel.  It is not even on google maps.  I learned last time through here to prearrange a room.  There are not many to be had and though there are few tourist there are lots of maintenance people for highways to oil wells to power lines looking for the few rooms. Dedee and I exchanged phone calls all day until she found a driller that had his work days mixed up and I got one of the six rooms.