The towns along Highway 50 are few and far between. Ely, NV is the natural stop for the evening. This is yet another tired town. There is only one new hotel and that's La Quinta on the far side of town, next to a two story Play Land McDonald's "restaurant". This fills up weeks in advance so we weren't going to be staying there. We opted for the Hotel Nevada, located in the lovely downtown....said with more than a slight tone of sarcasm. Dave and I had researched the places and this was #2 on TripAdvisor, guess what was #1? Yep, La Quinta....which was booked up.....weeks in advance. This is a historic hotel with clean rooms and biker friendly (we have NO idea what that means). And it is "good value" which was to become the theme of our trip. La Quinta is $115 per night and the Hotel Nevada was less than $50, including taxes! Donna was ready to scream when we pulled up and she saw plywood covering some windows...LOL. And I'm pretty sure E-Boy would be traumatized by the interior decorations.
We got rooms on the top floor, they got the corner suite (total LOL, but their bathroom actually had a tub so it was MUCH larger). The rooms had brass plates with the name of a famous person who had spent the night. We were in the Hank Thompson room. We are not familiar with this entertainer, even after reading the press clippings and album covers. The room was clean and we never smelled smoke or heard neighbors.
We strolled through downtown Ely (pronounced E-lee) and found a lovely little park. Still... sorry town. How do you end up here? Are you born here and just stay? Or does your car break down and you just stay? Everyone is very pleasant. But still.....I would be bolting at the first chance. We had dinner and breakfast here. Good value.
We left early in the morning to try and beat the desert heat. We fueled up in Delta, UT where we had to have them come out and explain to us how to work the pump! The buttons were on the lower side and we were focused on the screen, where the buttons are usually located. She said everyone makes that mistake. The help was friendly and also directed us to the post office where I mailed off the first postcard to E-Boy. I thought this would be a good tradition to send postcards to my grandchildren while we're traveling.
By my choice, I carry the full blame, we ate lunch in Salina at Mama's. I remembered it as delicious, and I readily admit my memory is not all that good. The food wasn't too bad, but the service was HORRIBLE. After lunch we hit the road. Bret looked up and asked if we should put the rain cover on the bags. We should have just done that. But we didn't.......
Shortly after leaving Salina we hit the mountains and the black rain clouds from an afternoon thunderstorm. And yes, there was lightening and thunder to accompany the rain...and then hail. Dave couldn't see a thing. He got behind a big 10 wheeler that was driving in the slow lane with flashing lights. He got in the tire wake and just followed along. There were no exits or overpasses....we just kept riding along. This went on forever...at least it felt like that...most likely one half hour. We were chilled....not to complain because we knew what awaited us.....HEAT.
When we got out from under the black rain cloud, there was a clear sky with a bright sun. We were soaking wet and it took less than 30 minutes to dry out. We stopped at a rest stop and discovered the first of many super clean and not smelly outhouses. They even had hand sanitizers. Very upscale.
We continued on to Green River where we fueled, soaked the cooling vest and buff, added ice to the kerchief, and drank plenty of cold water. We also chatted with the other people and learned a few tidbits. Then we headed out for the final leg to Fruita, Colorado.
No comments:
Post a Comment