June 23, 2024
Day Nine: Goldfield, Nevada to Tonopah, Nevada
I slept pretty well, only waking up once or twice coughing. I knew I wasn't going to do a long day today, given the spacing of towns and services; the only real option was to ride under 30 miles to the next real town, Tonopah. So I could afford to take my time getting ready.
There was supposed to be a restaurant, "The Dinky Diner" open this morning at 8:15. I was on the other side of town, so I walked back to the "downtown" where the diner was located, looking things over.
Surprisingly for a near-ghost town with almost no services, Goldfield had a radio station. I walked past it as a speaker above the sidewalk played its audio. I looked in the window, but there was a female mannequin sitting in the DJ seat. Obviously the station was not broadcasting "live", at least not from this location,
There was some sort of art project, "Art Cars". I studied that for a while. I determined that there is a fine line between a junk yard and an art installation.
I reached the Dinky Diner. A woman was sitting in a chair outside. "They're not open. There's no one inside."
I was saddened, but not surprised, to hear this. A lot of businesses in these tiny western towns have very irregular hours. I assumed the owner of the restaurant just didn't feel like opening up on this Sunday morning.
The woman told me she was from West Virginia, and was van camping throughout the west. She was not a big fan of Goldfield: "This is a weird place." We compared notes about our recent experiences, and agreed that it would be hard to live in a place with almost no trees or lush vegetation.
Back at the cabin I got everything back on the bike and headed out on US-95. I quickly stopped to take a photo of a business sign with several amusingly misspelled words, but just then the owner of the business walked out. He didn't look happy that I was observing his operation, so I put the camera back in my handlebar bag without taking a photo.
"You're going the wrong direction: That way's uphill!" I laughed and made my usual reply: Every direction seems like uphill to me.
Actually, the first 16 miles were a long, fast downhill. I literally coasted for the entire thing. I knew, though, that I would have to pay for this with miles of climbing to regain that elevation before reaching Tonopah.
Scenery was very, very boring. Traffic was heavy, but the shoulder was wide and smooth.
I arrived at the outskirts of Tonopah hot and thirsty.
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2 months ago
I stopped at the first gas station and went in and got a large fountain Diet Coke and a bag of Doritos. Civilization!
I rode to my motel at the other end of town, resupplied at two different convenience stores, returned to my room, did chores,, and ordered a pizza.
After that I spent some time figuring out a plan for the next few days. I was going to ride on what was supposed to be a very, very empty road: US-6, where there are no services for 170+ miles.
I was tired, and went to bed at 7:00 after my now-customary swig of Nyquil.
Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 545 miles (877 km)
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