We all got up at 6am for the rendezvous at Dicks place. Four of us were staying at Rafe's and after a quick coffee we mounted up and headed off in the cool of the morning. We turned left out of Rafe's driveway and I took off with a "Harley" roar to find myself driving on the left and having to swerve over to the right side to avoid a car. Left hand turns caught me out a few times on our trip.
Everyone was assembled on the road outside Dicks house and he was setting up his camera on a tripod for a group photo. Dick liked to dress flamboyantly and had already donned his chaps for the cold morning
Dick shows off his organisational skills and his Chaps
The Gang is ready to Roll Dan, Sean, Joe, Larry, Don, Al, Rafe and Barry
They all shot off at a great rate of knots leaving Alan and I struggling to keep up. Rafe's prediction of 70 or 80 was spot on and the roads around the southern end of Lake Tahoe were quite twisty. We caught up with the rest at the first petrol stop at Carson City. Then we turned south for Walker Pass and Bridgeport climbing over the High Sierra on some great roads with a perfect road surface. Alan and I were thinking impure thoughts like "what a great road - pity I'm riding a bloody Harley" we gradually got used to heaving the behemoths round the corners, which if they were smooth posed no real problems. Alan, being a one bike (meaning BMW GS1200) rider found it more difficult than me.
Early Morning on the way to Yosemite
The scenery was spectacular as we crossed the mountains on the edge of the Nevada desert. We stopped briefly to pay our respects to Butch, who died 10 years ago on one of these rides after crashing his Harley off the road. A memorial had been built.
Butch's Memorial - he was adjusting his stereo and launched off the side of the road
We rode on towards the Tioga Pass into Yosemite NP, which was closed due to a very large bush fire on the north side of the park. We also passed Mono Lake which was the scene of Clint Eastwood's movie "High Plains Drifter" and was also the subject of Polanski's "Chinatown" as the illegal source of the water used for Los Angeles.
Colin in his Harley Rider Gear but wishing he had a pair of Chaps
After Mono Lake we headed East across Nevada and started to see the classic American scenery of long straight road disappearing into the distant mountains.
Nevada Roads were all like this
It was getting hot and everyone was shedding gear except for Alan and I as we had been down the road enough times to know gravel rash was not a pretty sight. We had a big days ride of 550 miles and although we had a big breakfast at Bridgeport I was looking for some lunch. Rafe had a deserved reputation for not planning lunch stops so we pulled into a weird place called Rachael, which is an area the US military used for "Special Projects", Area 51, and had a reputation for extra-terrestrials. I filled my water bottle and ordered a sandwich. While I waited the rest of the Gang took off except Rafe who kindly waited for us as we hadn't a clue were we were going for the night.
Rachel and the Aleinn's
We were heading for Caliente in Nevada - a little railway town. As Rafe was with us at the back the others pulled into the motel they thought he had booked, but they were wrong. We were staying Midway Motel the cheapest place in town. We took all their rooms for the princely sum of $42/room and they had two bedrooms so I didn't have to listen to Alan snoring.
Caliente had two restaurants- one was an Irish Pub which got the thumbs down and the other was the Brandin Iron which was a classic American diner. We took a big table and started to order the beers and the food. They soon were running out of both but it turned out fine. This was the first of the "shared bill" meals we had when the total bill was divided by 12. The waitress got a big tip as they have very low wages in the USA of less than $5/hour in most States. Rafe didn't get much value as he only ate salads, but Alan and I did well out of it - but later it caught up with us.
On the way back to the Motel Sean, Jake, Alan and I stopped off at Caliente's night club called the Hideaway. The drinks were cheap and there was a big football game to talk about the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment