Best RV Driver: Day 40. Side of the road, NV to Nowhere, NV: Another century(almost).

We woke up in our lovely RV that my fantastic and wonderful dad rented to sag us through the empty desert. We are fully convinced that with the route we chose through the desert, we would have died of dehydration and starved eithout him. As it was, we were comfortable, well-fed and full of water. My father would drive up about 20 miles and wait with sandwiches and avocado crackers ( but he doesn't know how to cut avocados.). 

Russel Bernard also made us safer. Every time we would pull out to ride off, he would stop all traffic on the highway so we can ride off safely. He was the official best RV driver of the whole trip. He was with us for about a week and loved sleeping in his comfy RV and spending all his time in it without cell service. 

The following quote essentially summarizes his feelings: " Ahh I Need to GET OUT OF THIS BOX""

Dad stopping traffic for us. 

Here is how the rest of our day with us. 

Woke up at our usual 530 and were off before 7. Started with a 13 mile climb. 

It didn't seem that long. It's funny to think back to our first days when a MILE was the longest climb ever. I think we are getting stronger. (Bout time). 

Anyway, we are still going over mountains, through empty flat basins and then back over another 15 mile mountain range. We did four mountain summits today. 

We have pictures of the other two on my phone but I'm writing this without service so I can't put them in. We don't have service for the majority of Nevada. We are passed by cars about once every half hour. No people live anywhere near here. 

We were 

still on the extraterrestrial highway, which makes us a little less bored. We pretend there are aliens everywhere (the bulls are disguised). Seriously. It is hard to keep ourselves entertained. We started talking to the cows and wondering what they thought of us. We have been in Nevada for too long..

It's actually a little unnerving. All of these steer have decent size horns. There's no fences anywhere of course and the bulls often get up and run with us as we ride by. 

We stopped to eat in the world famous Rachel, NV. Which is the only 'town' for almost 200 miles. The Al'e'inn was the place to be. 

(Notice the population)

At the Al'e'inn we started talking to some more geocachers. They were impressed with our ride and gave us $20 to donate to Citta. So nice. I still don't understand the appeal of geocaching..

Towards the afternoon, a strong headwind picked up. Which was unpleasant but not anything we aren't used to. However, we aren't used to sandstorms. . You know those little mini tornados that you see off in fields sometimes? 

We got hit by one on the road today. It knocked me off the road and felt like we were being pelted with sand. We covered our faces with bandanas to breathe and turned away. It was actually really cool. There was a clear and calmer center before we were hit with the second edge.  We spent the rest of the day covered in sand and dirt that had stuck to our sunscreen. 

We rode until about an hour before dark today. We wanted to ride just a few miles more, but we passed a rest stop with 8 trees. Eight. It was the only sign of humans we had passed in 85 miles, so we had to stop. 

Good day and with our big miles today we should be close to the California border tomorrow. Can't wait. 

Daily stats:

Miles. 98.78 (gahh)

Ave speed. 10.6 mph

Elevation gain. 4320 ft

Wind like little hands

Talking to cows we are nuts

Almost a hundred