4,000 Miles to The Loneliest Road – Jackson, CA, USA, July 16, 2022

We have spent the last several days travelling Route 50 which looks something like this. Nothingness.

One of the days when we were going through Great Basin National Park, we passed exactly 11 cars and one gas station over the course of our 300ish miles.  This brings us a new element to our trip where we now plan our daily destination then get to cross check the gas stations vs. milage to ensure we can make it without having to walk!  Route 50 is called the loneliest road and is said to be one of the most dangerous in Nevada due to some of the switchbacks but since there was no adverse weather, I think we were fine.

Since Ron did a 3,500-mile trip report, I decided to tag on with my own in random order.  These are my “lessons learned.”

• We have not paid over $5.69 per gallon for gas
• There is a place called Hidden Valley.  It’s in Utah and they don’t make salad dressing there. 
• The west has brought on a whole set of road dangers including haboobs, dust storms, scorching heat, overheating brakes, and cattle grids.
• Doing the “hotel shuffle” can get old but we had added a few new tools to our bag like the priceline app which seems to be helping us.  When we start to feel this way it helps to stay put for a few days til we feel up to the challenge again.
• I am surprised how many hotels offer laundry
• While Ron’s Road song may be “Horse with No Name”, mine sounds more like “Holiday Road” (movie Vacation).
• People we have met on the road have two questions for us.  “You didn’t really ride all the way from Ohio, did you?”  The other question is, “Where’s the trailer?”  I guess they can’t believe we can come this far on a motorcycle with so little stuff.  It is kind of funny and clear they think we are nuts.

But all in all, we are still having fun, seeing cool stuff, and this is worth the challenges it brings with it.