We loaded up our gear on Thursday morning and had a last cup of coffee before hitting the road. Carole's first feel for the new grips was "much better" as we said farewell to the strip and made our way north on Hwy 95. We stopped for gas on the north edge of Las Vegas and took off.
Hwy 95 is a straight and uneventful road. We passed through Indian Springs (I was assigned there by the USAF back in the mid-70's) and set our sights on Beatty, NV for brunch. Carole fell in behind me like an old pro and I found that I was spending less time looking in my rear view mirror to make sure that she was okay. I was surprised that we encountered no cross winds and very little traffic. We arrived at Beatty without any complications and had omelets at a non-descript casino cafe where a few truckers and cops were also enjoying a meal. We did meet briefly with a couple that were riding on their Road King. Their journey had started in St Louis.
After our meal we continued on north on Hwy 95. As beautiful as the Nevada deserts are there is very little to share about the breath taking views. You either love the desert scenery or you don't. We both love it. We made our way just past the town of Stonewall Pass and hung a left onto Hwy 266 to cut over to California. Man, if Hwy 95 was void of traffic, Hwy 266 was like being on another planet. I think we saw maybe 4 other vehicles, two of them motorcycles, on the 80 mile journey to Hwy 395 that skirted the northern edge of Death Valley National Park. But the ride became spectacular in short order. We began a climb along side of Magruder Mountain that developed into some very sweeping curves that skirted through some beautiful agricultural valleys in Nevada.
Immediately after crossing into California we connected with CA Hwy 168 and found some delightful canyon type twisties as we passed through Westgard Pass in the Inyo National Forest next to Black Mountain. If you are ever looking for a nice camping area where no one else seems to crowd around you this is the place! I wished that I had taken the time to grab a couple of snapshots of Carole gobbling down the twisties on her ST but the road was just way too much fun to have to stop. Too soon we emptied out into the valley that brought us to Hwy 395 at Big Pine. My gas gauge's empty light had been staring at me for quite a few miles so I gambled that a gas station would be closer if I made a left on 395 rather than a right. The gamble paid off and we refueled both bikes. Apparently there had been more headwinds than I was aware of because we only were able to make 210 miles on the tank of gas. Typically I get 240 to 270.
After refueling and consuming a couple of energy drinks we headed north on Hwy 395 though Bishop and on up past Mammoth Lakes. I was surprised to see so much snow still left in the area. Skiers and Snowboarders were still making their way to the ski resort at Mammoth to get in some late snow activity. The scenery was just too beautiful not to record so we pulled over along side the highway for a couple of snapshots. We then continued on past Mono Lake and made our way into Bridgeport for the night.
We had a brief dinner at the Bridgeport Inn. The food was probably the worst that we encountered on our trip but it was due to the fact that we are vegetarians. The only items on the menu we could enjoy was vegetarian lasagna and spaghett with marinara sauce. The lasagna was obviously bought at Costco and simply heated up. The spaghetti's marinara sauce could have be pored through a cheese cloth. But the rest of the menu did look good for carnivores and they were doing a pretty good business. We spent night at the Best Western Ruby Inn, parking our bikes next to a 1978 GL1000. As I was wiping down our bikes for the night I noticed that the '78 Goldwing's aftermarket windshield had quite a collection of bugs. I couldn't help myself, I wiped down the classic machine in respect to the standard of long distance touring that the GL1000 set.