Barry kept checking the weather and it was supposed to be sunny but cold this morning leaving Ely. So, we took our time getting ready this morning and didn’t leave until about 10:20am. It was a little cool but the sun warmed us and neither of us used heated gear. We had a little trouble getting out of Ely, and I was trying to take 93 South but Barry followed a sign for Las Vegas which took us on 6. I had to do a u turn, but after a few seconds of bickering while riding on which way to go, I followed Barry. The sign did say “Las Vegas” but we had used a map yesterday and routed it on Hwy 93…I figured we would be meeting back up with 93 at some point.

Along the road

Just out of Ely there was some fun curves through some mountainous area, but that only lasted about 10 minutes. From there we were back on the flat lands with mountains and hills in the distance. There were a few small towns, and as we drove through them all I could think was “why do people live out here? what kind of economy is there? what jobs do they have? etc” The little blips on the road broke up the scenery but it was mostly a lot of sandy and rocks. There was an area that had some lakes, and one of the smaller lakes was almost completely dried up. It looked like salt flats. It was so white, I thought for a second it was the reflection of the sun on the water it was so bright, but it was just a dried up lake. I imagine in the spring when they get more rain it actually has some water in it. Today there was a lone deer in the middle drinking out of a small puddle.

We stopped in a small gas station a few miles outside of Alamo, but I was ready for some food, so I suggested we ride up the road to Alamo in hopes of a restaurant rather than gas station food. We found a cool little spot that was a hotel and restaurant. When we pulled in the parking lot there were two sherif’s vehicles, so I figured we would be eating lunch with the police and better not drink a beer!

The waitress was a little goofy, but good natured. She informed us that they cannot serve alcohol but we could bring in our own. Of course, Barry always has some beer and some wine in the bike, so we had wine and beer with our lunch.

Byob or wine

They had a veggie soup that was great with a sandwich. Perfect size for a road meal. On the way out the waitress asked if my husband had gotten his beer that she had put in the fridge…yep “husband”! I had to laugh and tell her that Barry was my dad. After a good laugh we hit the road with no layers, cause it was HOT out!

Yuck!

From Alamo we had a little over 100 miles to Vegas. It was more flat land, and as we got closer to Vegas there were all the power lines and different industrial looking buildings. Then after a few hills you could see the sprawl that is Vegas. The traffic got pretty busy and the roads were surprisingly shitty, I guess because they are too busy fixing the strip and keeping that part of Vegas looking fabulous. It was pretty hot going through all that traffic, and Barry and I decided to stop in Boulder.

I played $1 on a penny slot

Barry led us into this small casino/hotel. It was super old school and looked like time had forgotten it. The casino was small and full of stale smoke and old people playing the machines. We sat at the bar and got a beer, which were told would be comped if we spent $10 each on gambling…ummmm that is not a good deal! So we opted to pay for the beers which were $3 each. I had to laugh, if we had been playing the $1 slot machine and the waitress had come buy I could have gotten a beer for the $1 I put in the machine. I think she probably got a cut from the machines at the bar. Anyhow, I could only handle so much smoke so we headed out. We only had about 80 miles to go to get to Kingman.

Casino

We had called ahead and booked a room at the Best Western, only to find out there were two of them in Kingman…across the street from each other. As we were riding in, Barry was supposed to be getting directions from the “bitch in the box” aka GPS but we could see both hotels and we weren’t sure which one. I realized that the one of the left would be on the East side of the street which is what the address was, but the Bitch said it was on the right. We went inside only to find out it was in fact back at the other location on the other side of the street. When we got back on the bikes Barry yelled behind me “Just take me home, Dia!” I laughed and told him if he would have listened to me in the first place we would have stopped at the right one! So we finally got all checked in and settled. I am of course burnt in my classic face burn pattern with an extremely red nose and upper lip. I put on a lot of sun screen, but it just doesn’t seem to work since I only see the sun on my motorcycle adventures!

Once we got settled we walked next door to a Mexican restaurant called Oysters…yes, not only do Mexican restaurants scare me, but one called “Oysters” in the middle of the desert is especially suspect!

Oysters

Despite the scary name we walked inside and found it to be completely packed, probably because there are not many choices near by. There was only one server and she was busy, we ate a lot of chips and salsa and I had a margarita that was the size of my head. We split a chicken fajita, and overall the food really wasn’t too bad.

Tomorrow we will be stopping at Mother Road H-D to visit the dealership as well as a couple of guys who used to work with us at House of Harley. Should be a fun ride and we will get in early. It is a short trip to Mesa where my mom, Karen is waiting with Zoe their pug. We will be getting our house ready so we can rent it out to travelers as well as for us. Tomorrow night, Lorie, our Harley-Davidson District Manager, also a close friend of mine will be flying in. We will hopefully get some TLC and some riding in on Friday and Saturday.