Day 7
A quick bit of house keeping here....
Doug has become our unofficial, official photographer. He wants you all to

know that most of the scenery along the highway and the highway pictures,

were taken from the saddle at about 60-70 miles an hour. Some of these are great pictures...some...not so much....
Double click the pictures for a full size view. Return to the blog with
the back, or return button.
We started the morning in Ely Nevada. This is the beginning of the
Loneliest road in America.
Jim found this road in one or the other of the publications he researched
for this trip. The info on The Loneliest Road In America stated that it was
called this because there is nothing of interest here. There are only a
few small cities, towns and ranches. Naturally, we headed straight for it.
In truth, it is part of the Rt. 50 highway, so we would have been here
anyway.
We are participating in a 20 plus year tradition of driving the entire 287
miles of the Loneliest Road in America and getting a log book stamped along
the way, thus proving we did this. I'm not sure why this is important, but
it seems to be.
Our Log Book and window sticker proving we accomplished this great feat.
Various merchants and civic organizations have the stamps
and will validate the log books. There are several establishments listed
in the book that will stamp the book. There are also other merchants not
listed but they will display a Route 50 sign in their windows.
Beginning at the beginning;

All of the listed places in Ely were closed, so we decided to go into the
Hotel Nevada and have a cup of coffee and wait untill the listed places
were open.
Please take note of the right hand window, we didn't. We waited until the
other places were open, then found out the Hotel Nevada would also stamp
the books. OK.
From Ely, we proceeded in turn to Eureka, Austin, Fallon, and Fernley,
thus completing the Loneliest Road in America.
Along the way we ran through 287 MORE miles of desert. As if yesterdays
409 wasn't enough.
This shows 17 miles of road
Along the way we came upon some interesting sights. Doug and Jim had heard
of the Shoe Tree. THe story is that a young couple had been sitting under
the tree, one had gotten mad at the other and thrown their shoes into the
tree. One thing led to another until now it's almost a tradition to throw
shoes into the tree. Hundreds of shoes hang in the tree. Hundreds maybe
thousands lie underneath.

Doug brought shoes to add to the tree.
Doug winding up
Doug looking for his shoes.....he missed the tree.
How can you miss a tree? Obviously he wasn't the only one.
There's hundreds, maybe thousands of shoes down there.
Somewhere along the road, things got a little rough.
Never even saw those mule deer.
Digital cameras at speed are great.
This is the road we're traveling.

Todays ride was another very long hot ride
We got to Reno and rode to the planned camping site and found that this
KOA had no tent camping. We had to make an emergency decision. So we
checked into the Boomtown Casino Hotel.
I know, but sometimes roughing it means sacrifice.
The showers were really nice. The beds are great. We all slept very well.
Not a bad decision all things considered.
Now to pick up Pam at the Reno airport and start day 8