To start the ride, we all had to arrive in Reno first.  One group rode up from Orange County (Ian, Janice & Daryl), while one group rode in from San Francisco (Dennis, Scott, Gary & Tayler) and met Tom who had flown in from San Diego. They stayed the night in Incline Village.  The OC group froze in 28 degree weather (or less with the wind chill) coming up from Bishop CA.  Stops were only 45 minutes apart, just to get warm and “the ride” has not even started yet. The SF group also froze as they made their way towards Nevada.

The Incline group got up and ready to leave at 8:43 with Pamela’s egg shots for breakfast with Tom’s Tomatoes!!

By 10:30 the group were united in Reno.  Ready for the start of the big ride.  Unfortunately, it took an hour to find the PRISMgives T-Shirts.  Finally found the group were ready to leave… and Ian’s (The Boss) bike wouldn’t start!!  While he worked on the solution (new battery for the security system) Dennis (Duracell) led the group to get fuel… except Tom (The Toddler), who struggled to understand the simple instructions!!  OK…  eventually the group re-united at the gas station (still in Reno) and the ride was on.  Midday the group was finally pounding miles towards the first nights stop at Tonopah.

The first stop was in [Ian to add] where we stopped for fuel and lunch.  A local delicacy (Subway) was consumed by all, while Janice (Turtle Mama) was becoming the local star at the hardware store (getting The Boss’s security battery).  Onwards to the exciting night’s stop and Gary (Big Red) was kind enough to point out where Turtle Mama lost her highway peg,  but not quite kind enough to stop and pick it up!!  Fuel in the smallest gas station in the world and another 60 miles to the longest straight road in the world (16.5 miles) and we arrived safely in Tonopah.

The Ramada, Tonopah comes highly recommended (by the sign posts heading in) and included a “3 of a kind Dice Roll” for a free room, which “The Toddler” didn’t win (despite two threes and a two)!!  Two hours later, we were all successfully checked in (not the most efficient check-in we have experienced).

Despite this inconvenience, Tonopah proved to be an exciting and memorable stop.  As the “star gazing” capital of the US we were excited to see the Milky Way… unfortunately the only Milky Way we saw was in the grocery store. Big Red did allegedly see one star… and that was the Cat Man from Ripley’s Believe it or not.  Big Red has still not recovered… but he will. Maybe!!

Dinner proved interesting as our resident Canadian debated the merits of clubbing seal cubs (a local pass time in Canada) with Turquoise hunting in Tonopah, which is carried out humanely… according to the locals.   The Toddler still disputes this and is thinking of setting up a foundation.

The rest of us are still trying to recover from “The Toddlers” duet with Jeremy (the local Karaoke King) of The Proclaimers (I can walk 500 miles… and we wish they had) and Daryl (The Dirty Pirate) singing Teddy Bear… the scariest Teddy Bear we have ever seen, or heard!!  The highlight of the Karaoke evening was the locals singing “I like big butts”, which was convenient as most had one. I cannot lie… which was the truth.

After significant amounts of alcohol Duracell decided to take first watch (Big Red was nervous after watching Deliverance earlier this year)  and we finally all got a good night’s sleep.