Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Aug 11, 2006

15th July, the long ride

Filed in Nevada 2006

I ended up doing a very long ride that day. For the map-followers, I headed out on US-95 or US-93; I forget which, but the one that goes past Beatty. I took a detour to look at the historical marker at Mercury, where the nuclear testing was done. Round there somewhere is Yucca Mountain, where the nuclear nasties are stored/were going to be stored. (No, I haven’t done my research yet.)

I passed through Goldfield, a town to explore for another day–old, dusty, original and with one as yet undiscovered historical marker to lure me back. Sadly, I passed the loop to Lida unexplored. I just felt uneasy going out there and risking running out of gas. Another time. That whole area around Beatty/Tonopah could keep me occupied for two
weeks all by itself and I would be more inclined to carry a gallon on a day trip based out of, say, Tonopah.

I did do a nod to the route, though, and doubled up to Belleville on NV-360 to see the marker and look at the ruins from a distance. Pretty road. I was able to fill up in the town with the desert lobsters. An old fella shambled out and insisted on pumping the gas for me. I don’t remember that service since I was a little girl.

Cut up over NV-361, feeling like I was coming full circle and catching up with the prequel to this trip. That’s the route that my friends took when they were able to go to Berlin and the ichythosaur state park. It felt like following in well-travelled tracks. The crinkly rocks you see in the picture are along there, it was pretty.

Took a stop for the third time at the loneliest phone to find out how far Don had got. Not very. There were new stickers on the phone and I liked the hug one so I took a picture of it. I bet it makes a few people
smile.

After that it felt like being on familiar roads. I arrived in Reno about an hour before Don did. I did around 400 miles that day, as I recall.