Where Did Everybody Go?

There are many places that I've been on this trip where there are too many people.  But there are still some places in this country where there are hardly any people.  Those are the places I rode today.  After I left Hurricane I stopped at a Lowes in St. George (more about that later), and then headed up towards Nevada Hwy 50.  This road was billed  by Life magazine in July of 1986 as the "Loneliest Road in America". It wasn't all that empty, and was far more scenic than I expected.  I had been on parts of it on the west end of the state near Fallon, and it was bleak desert.  The eastern part was greener and more mountainous.  The original plan was to ride it all the way over to Reno for an overnight stay, but I got to looking at a map and found a road that AAA denoted as a scenic highway that went from Austin to Battle Mountain......Nevada route 305.  I decided to take it to check the scenery and also to make some northern distance and avoid the congestion around Reno.  Let me tell you, route 305.......now that's desolation!  How desolate was it?  In 85 miles a total of 12 vehicles passed coming towards me; eight cars or pickups, three eighteen wheelers, and one fifth wheel travel trailer.  I encountered no vehicles going my direction.  How desolate was it?  Check it out:

I also took a picture of this abandoned ranch house.  It looked really old.  If only the walls could talk.

About the stop at Lowes:  It seemed to me that the bike was getting more buzzy during the last couple of days, but I couldn't think of a reason why it should and thought maybe it was just the nature of the pavement.  Then last night as I was pulling into the motel parking lot and going slow, I felt that the chain was definitely not happy.  I have been lubing the chain every day at the end of the day's ride, but I have been using a new chain lube that I had not used before.  My normal lube is a Dupont Teflon general purpose spray that I buy at Lowes.  Lots of riders use it.  Lots of lubes do the job of lubing the chain, but what makes the Dupont stuff so nice is that it doesn't fling off the chain onto the rear wheel, fender, swingarm, etc. However, before this trip I found some other Dupont stuff at Walmart that said it was actually for motorcycle chains, so I thought it might even be better.  Wrong. So this morning I used my Zumo to locate a Lowes near Hurricane, and it found one in St George, which I was going to go through anyway.  I stopped and got the old kind of lube and did a thorough lube job in the parking lot.  Big difference; I got my smooth running bike back for the rest of the day.

I rode 527 miles today, the longest day yet.  It wasn't hard; the roads were pretty straight and fast, and I guess I'm getting used to long hours of seat time.  At any rate, by doing that mileage and taking that northern route up Nevada 305 I have got back on schedule and expect to be home on Tuesday.  Tomorrow I plan to spend the night in Heppner, Oregon.  There is only one motel there and I have stayed in it before, but I sort of doubt they have WiFi.  If I can't make a post tomorrow, I'll do a catch up post and a summary after I get home.