Day 5 – Vegas to Richmond, CA (home).

route I took & route I was considering

My original plan was to spend a day in Vegas before starting the ride through Death Valley, Yosemite and home. When I got up I felt unusually good. I had considered a more interesting route, but a couple of things transpired. First, I had relatives who happen to be in town on Sunday that I really wanted to see… and I was actually starting to get a little home sick and was starting to get a little burned out, so I decided to express myself back home. I got a late start…about 10am… but off I went up Rainbow Blvd before catching 95 north.

95 was challenging. It was extremely windy and as anyone knows that owns an Arai XD with the visor on… it was tough to keep my head on straight 😉 Eventually I went through Beatty and then I must have crossed over into “Brothel Territory” because they were everywhere. While I was on the road I had a Camelback malfunction. As I was drinking from the end of the hose… the mouthpiece came off and suddenly I was in the rainstorm from hell! The hose was flying all over the place like an out of control garden hose! I managed to get the hose and the only I could do was stick it in my mouth which is where I left it. I would have drank it dry, but it still had about 2 liters left and I wasn’t THAT thirsty… so I pulled over at Nevada Joe’s to drain the bladder and empty the Camelbak too 😉 I also got some gas which is how I noticed that the back of Nevada Joes was actually the “Cherry Patch 2”. There I was standing right in front of a Brothel in the middle of freaking no where! I mean… there were barely any homes for about 50 miles in every direction! Tempting as it was to take a time out :yeahrite: , I decided to get on the road again.

(Nevada Joes)

All of a sudden out of no where… there was the turnout for 266. I have to say… I hesitated at first. I saw this two lane road disappearing about 20 miles into nothing. But what the hell… so I turned left and started heading down 266. What a great road. Lots of sweepers and just one of those roads that gives you lots of quality alone time… in fact, I even turned off the iPod for most of it.

(Looking back on 266)

Getting low on gas and ready for some lunch… I decided to stop in “The Boonies”. That was the name of the place in the town of Dyer, NV. Friendly locals… nice town and it was another 50 to the next town… so seemed like a good idea to stop there… “seemed like a good idea”. Unfortunately as I was leaving town, coincidentally the local Sheriff decided he wanted to meet me too and pulled me over. Ticket number 2.

So off I left the town of Dyer… never to return

(road hazards)

From there on… I basically made my way to Lee Vining and stopped at Tioga Pass for some Camelbak repair parts and then through Yosemite and eventually all the way home. Not a lot to tell from Yosemite to home… but pulling into my driveway felt pretty good.

(Mono Lake)

(Yosemite)