Enola Gay..should have stayed at home yesterday.. ah ha

I'm going to keep this blog short on words and long on photos. Partly because I don't feel in the writing mood today but mainly because the pictures tell it all.

I'd been advised not to miss Route 36 California on my travels and after I left Chico I went down it – spent the night in the Avenue of the Redwood again - and then the following day back up it. (Partly because it was such a good ride but also to give the bike a run out and pass by Chico in case there were any problems. Just look at the pictures – thanks, Rupert, for the heads up on this road.

140 miles of bends!

I then headed into Nevada, and briefly stopped at Virginia City. Originally a book town gold rush kinda place, now a tourist trap.

Pan for gold

This is inside one of the "bars". That's Nevada for you!

There IS a bar at the end but it's basically a casino

From there I was on Route 50 – the loneliest road in America. Lonely in the sense that not only is their little traffic, there's just nothing out there.

Route 50, Americas loneliest road

Fantastic views

So much space and sky

Now THIS picture should be in a calendar

The weather had turned a little stormy and before I knew it I was in the middle of a storm. Background info. needed here. In 2007 I was hit by lightening – in fact Tracy says a bolt of lightening landed a few metres in front of us and I was hit be a splinter. I wasn't hospitalised or seriously injured but it hurt. The point is that since then I've had a morbid fear of thunderstorms and am, quite honestly, just scared of them.

Looks pretty - little did I know...

Looking onimous

I took this AFTER I'd got through it

So when I was riding the loneliest road and heard a thunder clap, I panicked. I then saw a bolt of lightening. Now what do you do? As far as I could tell the storm was heading against me. If I turned around I would be going back into the storm and it was 40 miles to Fallon. If I carried on it was 60 miles to Austin. I carried it – it got worse. And what made it even worse was that I was the only persona round, the tallest thing for miles sitting on the only piece of metal for miles. Now, obviously as I'm writing this, it's clear that I survived, and unless you've been hit by lightening I doubt you can fully appreciate just how scared I was. I don't mind admitting, for 30 minutes as I passed through the worst of it, I was seriously afraid that I might not make it. What a stupid way to go...


The following day the weatherwas a little better but I was still concerned. I headed off but stopped the first car coming the other way to ask what the weather was like. They said it was Ok so I continued, but I never really relaxed and enjoyed the day which is a shame as the views were astonishing.

Nothing there and pure silence...

After 100 plus miles of this I road into Wendover. That's off route 50, about 120 miles north. But I've not come here because it has the worlds tallest mechanical cowboy....

Or because its where the “Enola Gay” crew were based. (Although I did learn one of two things that I hadn't known before.)

No, I've come here because of the salt flats. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the world speed championships held on the Salt Flats just 10 miles from here – and hopefully I'll meet up with Patrick, who I rode with in Canada for a while.

P.S. Whilst loading this blog I've just seen the weather channel. Thunder storms all over this region tomorrow.. Oh dear, not sure what to do but there is NO WAY I'm riding through another storm. All Wendover has is Casinos and I've just been into one to see what it looks like. Just sad, sad sad sad...

And I've spent ages trying to upload this, it hasn't been behaving itself so sorry if its a bit messy.

P.S Is it just me or is my blog taking longer to load? I think it could be the detail I'm putting on the goolge map. If so I'll move it but I need to know if it's just me?