I - The Annual Awesome Couples ride aka: The Alien Adventure

The date of the Annual Awesome couples ride has finally arrived!

Three bikes meet at our house on Thursday morning. We normally have 4 couples and once or twice 5, but it seems our little group continues to age hence the motorcycle tour activity has smaller numbers this year.

We take a gnarly back road,,,,,,well, gnarly for our group.

The road takes us past several closed mines and a bunch of active mines.

We continue south, along US 6 to Eureka where we grab lunch.

Then to Delta and onto US 50.....the LONELIEST highway in the world.

And of course we hit some refreshing rain....awwwwwwwwwwww.

At one of our stretch stops we see this fella....he is keeping an eye on the two legged aliens...

We make it to the famous and highly stickered "Extraterrestrial Highway" sign.

There were three fine young men there who are visiting our country and also each working on their own version of a video about area 51.

And naturally I didn't write down their names or homelands, but I do remember Darra, and ....Simon?  As for countries I would be guessing .....if you guys check in here please give me that info in a comment and I'll update this section.

Leaving the sign, about a mile later is the ARC - Alien Research Center. A fancy name for an alien themed gift shop.

And it WAS a very nice gift shop. Lots of fun things there.

Then we make our way to the world renowned BLACK MAIL BOX

A person can leave a letter to the aliens in the black mail box and they (the aliens) will eventually receive your letter (it might take a while, the Universe is a large place after all...)

I mail my lotto request..

Jan posts her letter......

Then we stop at the Little Ale Inn for lunch.
Hanging off the boom of the truck is an actual captured UFO replica!

I attach a new sticker...

And the group poses in front of the (distant) Area 51

The three video makers.

Our three women!
Jan, Bev, Wendy.

Then we make our way to Tonopah, where we DON"T stay in the Clown Motel.

Big Boy poses with the ladies...

The next day we are off to Carson City, Nevada. (part II)

II - The Annual Awesome Couples ride aka: The Alien Adventure

Day three we depart Tonopah and point our bikes to Carson City, Nevada

photo op first in Tonopah.

Someone is putting on a bike race on CA120 so  the road is closed from 8 to 1....we decide to wait it out in a city park rather than wait at the barricade. We had lunch in Benton during the 2 hour wait so it went by fast.

Finally we make it to Carson City, and have a memorable night.....I had been given some bad news moments before we left home and at Carson City the news finally gave me a melt down.... I had made an effort to be upbeat, and cheerful on this ride, but that day the news became more than I could bear with a smile. So...I "lost it" for a short while. 

The rest of the group listened to our news and was supportive and helpful.

The news? The medical clinic I go to did a whole boat load of blood work on me a while back. Thursday morning just as we were walking out the door to leave they (the clinic) called and told me I have cancer.........and that their tests showed that I am a "Very sick man" and needed to be seen ASAP!

After the group talked a bit and I was able to get it off my chest I felt much better. Kenny and Ron gave me a Priesthood Blessing which helped me tremendously.

(more info on my cancer at the end of this post)

This sculpture of Leonardo DaVinci was originally at the 2016 Burning Man gathering. You can step into the back side of the sculpture,  and 'enter the mind of a genius'....

We leave Carson City and ride to the Republic of Molossia.  The Republic of Molossia is the brainchild of Kevin Baugh aka His Excellency President, Kevin Baugh, and is claimed to be the smallest micro-nation bordering the US. It is in Dayton, Nevada. He gives tours, but sadly was away at the time of our visit.

Fully outside the US jurisdiction, Molossia pays no taxes, has its own currency (printed on poker chips, and valued by raw cookie dough).

I would like to someday meet His Excellency, I admire his strength to follow a different path, and his amazing sense of humor.

Behold; Molossia.

Leaving the Republic of Molossia, we ride to nearby Virginia City.

Wendy and her new salty friend at breakfast.

After breakfast we ogle this beauty right outside the restaurant.
This machine had been part of the convoy that we saw in Austin.

We left Virginia City long before we tired of the place. I heard "we need to go back there" numerous times the rest of the day.

So we are now on our way to Austin, where as we get close to town we see a whole slew of military type vehicles.  It is a reenactment of  the 1918 trip that Ike Eisenhower made as a First Lieutenant in the Army.

The original trip took 64 days (if I remember correctly) this trip should take a few days less than 7 weeks.

On the other side of Austin there is a natural hot springs.....we made our way there and had a very nice soak

We make our way back to Austin for a good nights rest....

We breakfast in Austin before we hit the road, and much to our surprise we get to see the Duke and are lucky enough to get a photo with him!

(ps, the tall guy in the back is a fellow moto-traveler. He and his wife are from Michigan [if memory serves..] and are on the way home after riding to the left coast and doing hwy 1)

We then ride to Ely for lunch, then to Wendover for dinner and a night.

And then we make the short ride (124 miles) from Wendover to home.

And just like that the ride is over.
6 days, 1500 miles, lots of Alien interactions..... good food, Great company.

SUCH MEMORABLE TIMES!!!!!!

Oh....my cancer? We had made an appointment for day we were returning from our trip so we could get more details.

We went in and had a face to face meeting with another provider and it turns out the first provider that delivered the bad news mis-read my blood work.

Bev and I spent 6 agonizing days fretting over all the things that goes through a persons head at times such as these. The relief we felt was incredible.

I have always, and now after this experience will even more have enormous heartfelt sympathy for those who don't get to hear "oops" after 6 days of "you have cancer", but who are sadly in a long term literal fight for  their lives.

"God sleeps in the minerals, 
Awakes in the flowers, 
Walks in the animals, and 
Thinks in Man."*

May God Bless All Cancer Victims.

*Sanskrit Writing.

Life is INDEED wonderful!!