Day 9 Eureka to Baker, NV

We have experienced much "road" adventure the last two days. The cool surprise of the day was that our dear friend, Tom Mann, showed up at breakfast! He was on his way to California and dropped by for a quick hello. We will meet up with him again before we complete. It waas hugs and laughter and a great boost to see his shing face!

Monday, Day 9, Eureka to Baker, was RAINY! "Walk between the raindrops" was not an option. About 3 miles out of Eureka, the sky opened up and a curtain of rain fell. Rather, it dumped! Semi trucks passing me in the car sent rain up over the hood. Imagine what happened with the bikers! By the time I got back to each of them, they were drenched. Raindrops were the size of quarters. They each will have their own version of how that was for them, and from my perspective, I'm impressed that most of them just stuck with it. Bob, always the optimist, said "it has to quit sometime!". And eventually it did. It was a rouch 8 miles or so, but the weather improved. I left them to go ahead 10 miles and wait, only to find two Sheriff's cars in the road stopping traffic. I thought "flood", but there was a wide load headed our way that took up both lanes. So we sat for about 30 minutes waiting for an odd GIANT tank to go sailing by on the bed of a truck. And, we were off. More riding, driving ahead to wait, driving backward to deliver rain coats in case the weather turned bad again ... then, about 8 miles outside of Baker, AGAIN WITH THE WEATHER! Bob and I sat on the side of the road waiting for a curtain of rain to pass over Baker. And for enjoyment, we watched lightening strikes and counted the time to thunder. Mostly, the lightening was about 9 miles off, but there were two strikes that were pretty local. Baker, population 0. Really. There is a grocery store owned by a grumpy person so we stayed clear. Our hotel (The Electrolux Motel and Cafe) was actually pretty cool (pictures below). It was a surprisingly nice experience in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. Okay, except for the food. Not so great. But HEY! What can we expect???