Day 11 - From Dust to Dawn

Another early morning. Woken up by the sunrise once again. I just love this country's sunny states. The weather wasn't going to be too hot so I didn't have to leave too early. After a quarter of a musli bar and one weak coffee I hit the road at 8am. I thought I'd stop in the next bigger city, like an hour later to have a proper breakfast. Well, it would take a little longer.

The night before I found a more scenic road than I80, 49 (Nevada) or Jungo Road. If I had looked a little more closely I would have seen that this road ended after about 100 miles at a "town" called Gerlach. Gerlach is a short drive away from another, seasonally bigger "town", called "Black Rock City", the hometown of Burning Man. But I hadn't.

So I drove on that road and after 8 miles the pavement became a little rough. But still easy to ride. So I continued for 32 more miles. Some trucks and pickups passed me and maps reassured me that I was still on 49. And I still had cell phone coverage. Still no reason to be concerned. Shortly before Maps said "turn left", the road became a lot worse. Gravel and dirt, potholes filled with sand, the ones that every cyclist hates. And stones, potholes without sand, the whole collection. 

I didn't really take any pictures of the worst part as I focused on not dropping the bike...

At this point it looked as if continuing would be shorter than driving back. So, I continued. Talk about rocky road. A couple times I ended up in one of those sandy potholes and had fun trying to keep my bike from falling. It kind of seemed easier than with a bicycle but the prospect of having to pick up the bike in the middle of nowhere (My friend Mira called it "home" because it was so close to Burning Man) didn't appeal to me. Neither did the thought of having to walk or hitch hike in case it broke down. The truck or pick up drivers wouldn't have minded it, I suppose. Anyway, I kept going, and the bike did, too. The scenery was amazing, I was almost on my own. Well, I did not see any car on the last 30 miles. That last part of the road reminded me a lot of the trails I run on, back home at my parents'. 

My own little pre-compression :-). 

At one point, turning left looked a lot more appealing than going straight but Maps insisted that straight was a yellow "road" while left was just a grey "path" so I continued straight. I could see the highway 1-2 miles to my left but my road kept going straight for miles. Also, I was a little concerned that I might end up in front of a gate, field, fence, river, or just a gap in the road. At this point I couldn't have gone back as I didn't have enough gas anymore. And then, after almost 3 hours and 70 miles of dust I made it back to the properly paved highway! That felt like sleeping on a mattress after weeks of camping in the ground! Even the headwind didn't bother me anymore. And at 11.30am I finally got my breakfast! And I took a first look at my bike and boots:

The last part of the trip was easy. Down 95 which was perfect without the heat.

And then west on highway 50 to South Lake Tahoe. I hadn't been there in 10 years but I remembered the highway, the curves, and the stunning views because we went on a motorcycle ride around the lake then. And when I entered my hotel room I got compensated for all the dirt with a beautiful lake view.

The first thing I did was to get a pedicure.  Bright neon sparkly pink. After all this bike, adventurer, desert thing I needed something girly. It'll also fit perfectly with my sparkly white-pink wakeboard (I know why I got open-toed boots). 

Oh yeah, I tend to forget to close on my title. I talked about the dust enough. Now, where's the Dawn? Well, I am sitting in this restaurant on the pier with a perfect view of the lake and sunset-to-be, trying to come up with a smart headline for today's post. And then, my waitress appears and asks me if I wanted a drink. Her name is "Dawn"... And she looks exactly like Sonja Kirchberger, a German actress.