21 Days in June – Day 4 US 50 to Area 51

Story: 21 Days in June

Page 4 of 20 – Day 4

Austin NV to Rachel, NV. (320 miles)
Via US 50, SR 318, SR 375

Terrain: Desert with curvy sections
Date: June 2014
Roads: Good paved hwy with curves, mtn passes, straights
Technical: Easy
Elevation: 3,812 ft. to 7,598 ft

After prepping my bike and luggage for today’s ride, I decide to eat breakfast at the international café. Oops, my diabetic pump and monitor is beeping at me. Time to refill and change the monitor. It only takes 10 minutes. Being diabetic is much easier now since I started using my insulin pump. It does come with its own set of hassles, but is great especially when travelling.

At breakfast, I meet up with two of my new friends, John and Scott. John is an avid motor guy and had a dyno in his business before he was retired. Cool conversation about bikes, Bonneville Salt Flats, Synthetic oils… guy stuff. We got along great. Breakfast in Austin was actually pretty good. Reasonable prices and a small menu make it easy to partake the local food. I fill the tank on my bike as well and head out. Gas stations are scarce on the loneliest highway, so make sure you know where you’ll need gas and have a buffer for side trips. I head out toward Eureka where the Opera House is and the next museum stop to get my Loneliest Road book stamped. The road to Eureka starts with some lively pass curves. Fun and I notice that we are going up about 2000 feet. Most of this trip has been around 4-5000 ft. with passes around 6 or 7000. Makes for an enjoyable mix. But after coming down from Austin Pass, the road is pretty much straight. Some curves over hills or passes make the trip enjoyable and I always have that flick of the right thumb trick…

Eureka is pretty small and the locals say they will go 100 miles to Ely for their regular groceries. We are right in the middle from Ely and Fallon, but people here get used to the miles. It is a way of life here. The museum in Eureka is very nice as well. It is more typical of the community museum, but as in Fallon, is much smaller than the one in Fallon, but very nice in its own right. For example, there is an excellent fireman’s display with vintage gear. The printing press collection is out of this world and brought back memories of 7^th grade shop class in Santa Barbara Jr. High where we learned to set type and print on similar vintage machines. I’m glad that I grew up when I did.

Next stop is Ely where I’ll end my Loneliest road section. I stop at the Train museum. It is noted as the second best working train shop servicing vintage trains in the US. Second only to the one in Topeka. I get a great video of the ’40’ starting up and pulling out the most massive crane you can imagine. That crane has outriggers and is meant to pick up entire engine cars! Amazing. So much steel and so heavy, I can hardly believe that it’s possible. And this is 1940s technology. The engine starts up with a Thump… Thump… ThumpThump… Thump… Thump… ThumpThump… It’s rhythmic sound is so deep and powerful, it kind of sounds like and extended earthquake that is going off 20 feet from you! Then the engineer puts it into a smooth purr, Th, th, th, th, th, th, th… How cool is that! My grandfather worked on the S&P before the war. I wish I had the picture as I talked with the engineer about his trains. This stop is a must see if in the area for sure. They have excellent facilities and good restrooms for the weary travellers.

I head for… Area 51

The road to Las Vegas on 318 is under construction at about 170 miles north of Las Vegas. There is about 20 miles of new tar and gravel being laid down, and there is no way around it. Not the best condition for riding motorcycles. Oh well. I learned to ride motorcycles on the gravel on the side of railroad tracks. So riding on this stuff is nothing for me. I just hate getting tar on the bike.

The turn onto the Extraterrestrial Highway was memorable. I pass the cut off about 5 miles for gas and then backtrack before heading up the highway. As I start onto the official ET highway, two rabbits jump across the road. They are cute little bunnies! Not the large jack-rabbits, and I hear that there are small antelopes that will jump right in front of you too. I take this as a good sign. Aliens disguised as rabbits showing me the way. I cheated and called the Inn ahead of time to find the ‘only’ gas station and how to avoid running out of gas on this leg because I felt there may be a problem with my route choice and gas. The people at the Inn are very nice and helpful, but you need to ask…

The town of Rachel, NV is 40 miles up the road. Most of it straight, straight, straight, with a few lively curves thrown in to keep you honest. The road is old, so watch the tar snakes. You can easily get going pretty fast on that road. I keep the speeds down because my tour pack mount is scheduled to be repaired tomorrow. I also see many people getting tickets in Nevada, so no need to push it now. I arrive at the Little A’Le’Inn to a welcoming bunch of travellers. I wave and park in the front.

The Little A’Le’Inn is just on the north rim of Groom Lake where Area 51 is located. Many people believe there are UFO sightings here so they actually formally renamed the highway to the Extraterrestrial Highway. Most people make it as far as the highway sign to take pictures, but I am going for it and will stay at [with] the A’Le’Inn’s. Accommodations are take what you get, since this is the only place in town. It wasn’t bad though. Clean, comfortable. You share common space and restrooms with other travellers. It is like renting a shared single-wide. The price was right, the food was decent, and the people were interesting company. A team of filmmakers from UNC was there that night making a documentary on UFO sighting areas and other paranormal location across America. I look forward to seeing my ‘silent’ part on the little screen.

I confess, I did spent a little time looking for flying saucers that evening.

Hitting the Lincoln Highway