September 14, 2021
Napa to Austin, NV
Detour, Rock Graffiti, Fly-Feeding
Out the door within 15 minutes of our targeted time-an auspicious beginning. The car is stuffed full, a far cry from our usual bike adventures. This is a longish trip, the bike portion is vehicle-supported and neither of us want to do hand-laundry, so we packed a lot of clothes, biking and otherwise. Clearly we are out of practice at traveling.
Since Hwy 50 is closed due to the Caldor fire, we crossed the Sierra on I-80, along with everyone else. We picked up 50 in Fernly and began the long, almost straight drive over the Range and Basin topography that comprises this part of Nevada.
About 10 miles out of Fallon we cut through the middle of some salt flats and immediately noticed roadside graffiti composed of rocks and rotting fruit, some more legible than others, likely due to weathering, made up of mostly names. It was the kind of thing you would notice if riding the Western Express but neither of us could recall seeing it mentioned in any journals. Unfortunately we passed by so quickly in the car, we did not get a pic.
By 7PM we are entering Austin, NV, our stop for the night.
Austin is the kind of town you can blink and miss; a strip of mostly closed businesses surrounded by a few houses and two large churches; most of the action surrounding the newer Champs service station and Food Mart at one end of town. Other than the two open motels beside the service station, the only other business open appears to be a saloon. While walking up and down through town, we came across one local gent, sitting barefoot out on the street, drinking a beer and professing to be "feeding flies" some sort of crystalline blue material he buys at a ranch store-he couldn't remember what the substance was but it looked suspiciously like rat poison.
There was one cafe that was kind of open - the woman inside stated that they only had pastries and snacks and there was a sign on the door that says "Remove Masks before Entree." Needless to say, tonight we are eating out of the Food Mart. A few other signs prominently posted on closed businesses further reminded us we aren't in California anymore.
Our room at the Cozy Mountain motel is adequate-2 queens in two separate rooms, clean, microwave and fridge, but no ice (Jim unhappy) and no in-room coffee (Genny unhappy.) Our Colorado friend, Kelly, says the lack of ice is a Covid casualty and perhaps the lack of in-room coffee is the same. I guess we will see.
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