Sunday, June 22, 2003 - Elko, Nevada
I was awake at 5:55 a.m. (alarm time again!) but didn't get up until 6:45 a.m. I dressed, combed, packed, and took a few items down to the bike, then returned to the room. Someone had taken my "do not disturb" sign, so I made another so that the cleaning staff would skip me until later.
Several members of our group met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I had a pancake sandwich with scrambled eggs, juice and milk, then went back to the room to get my T-Bag and final few items, checked out of the hotel and met the others down at the motorcycles.
We left the Stockmen's Hotel at 9:05 a.m., then stopped for fuel at a Shell Station on Idaho Street, rode back across the highway and got back onto westbound Interstate 80.
The leader stopped just before 10 a.m. at the Beowawe Rest Stop, where we did some load adjusting, hydrating, and talked to a couple of riders from Stockton who were on their way home.
As we rode west, I saw _numerous groups_ of one and two and five and more Chevrolet Corvettes, of all years, heading east. They were enroute to a major reunion event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Corvette.
We passed the communities of Battle Mountain and Golconda, and somewhere in that stretch I saw a "watch for motorcycles" sign.
At 11:20 a.m., we took exit 176 and stopped for fuel at a Chevron Station in Winnemucca, then continued west into Pershing County. Somewhere in this stretch we saw another "Watch for Motorcycles" billboard.
We took exit 106 and stopped in Lovelock NV at 12:40 p.m., where several got fuel, then we all got lunch at "Henry Station at the Lovelock Depot," (Main @ Broadway), a nice little sandwich shop. I had a chicken sandwich and apple juice. The weather was wonderful; we were able to take off our jackets and eat lunch at picnic tables in the sunshine.
We continued west into Churchill County, past Fenley again, into Sparks and then Reno, and once again into the parking garage at the Sands-Regency Hotel Casino at 3:20 p.m.
There was a long (Sunday afternoon) line at the registration desk, but when I got to the front of the line and presented my credit card and drivers license, my reservation was in order and I was assigned Room 1110 in the Regency Tower.
Our friend Gene was not so lucky. He was sure that he had told them on Friday that he would be back on Sunday, but they did not have a reservation for him, and the place was "full," so they didn't have a room for him.
Some of our party offered to share their rooms, but he was just fed up, so he carried his stuff back to his bike, loaded up, and rode home. I can't say as I blame him; he's ridden a lot of miles and didn't deserve this treatment, but who knows what went wrong, and more importantly, why the hotel could not rectify the situation.
I got to my room at 4 p.m., where I hung up my jacket, unpacked, washed off a layer of road dust, changed clothes and turned on CNN.
I got a cel-phone call from a friend at home, then went down to the gift shop to get my neighbor a Sands-Regency tee-shirt with the coupon they gave me at check-in. I didn't know what size she wears, so I called her mother and found out.
Then I called _my_ mother to make sure she was okay, took the tee-shirt up to the room by way of the pizza place, where I placed an order, then went back to the parking garage and cabled the Road King to a concrete pillar and got a cupful of quarters that I'd been carrying for a few thousand miles.
My (walking) exercise for the day completed (!), I gambled with a small handful of quarters while waiting for pizza, and turned it into $5 within a few minutes.
Then I found a dime machine (hard to find in Reno); put some in and got some out.
The group got together again at Tony Roma's (restaurant specializing in riiibs) in the hotel at about 6 o'clock, where I had prime rib, corn bread, garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. I put the bill on my credit card and the others kicked in with cash to cover the bill.
A plan was developed to meet for breakfast the following morning and to leave about 8 a.m.
I did a little gambling here and there, having a good time and not losing my shirt, then went back to my room about 9 p.m., took a shower and got to bed around 10 o'clock.
Miles for the day = 289. Miles for the trip = 915.
Tomorrow: not much excitement on the highway, and back home again.