Day 4 – 6/22/2017 – Kanab, UT to Ely, NV – 303 MilesKanab, UT to Ely, NV – 303 Miles – MAP LINKAfter my usual wake up call we had some breakfast and coffee and took our time getting going.
We took off from Kanab at 7:40. We got some gas at Shell before leaving town. We rode up US 89 to UT 9, where we turned towards Zion National Park. When we arrived at the entrance, we were greeted with a short line, but it went pretty quick. I let dad go first and flash his senior pass. It seems like half the people will let me in with it as well. This time, the lady was extremely nice let me in on Dad’s pass, but she said not to tell anyone. Whoops!
About a mile down the road there was a car stopped on the side and you could tell they were looking at an animal. We slowly rode by and then I spotted the three bighorn sheep. I grabbed a quick picture and we moved on.
The shorter mileage day today would afford for more stops in Zion. I took advantage of that and soaked in the scenery. We made 3 stops prior to getting to the tunnel. Here’s stop #1.
Here’s what I got from the second stop.
And here are my pictures from the third stop prior to the tunnel. While we were here a guy pulled up and parked, then set up his easel and started to paint.
We continued on and rode through the tunnel, emerging into the canyon and stopping for a nice break at the first overlook. We snacked and watched buzzards soar.
From there we twisted down and stopped in the bottom of the canyon.
Moving on, the next stop was at the Visitor Center on the west side of the park. We lucked out and a spot opened up right as we pulled into the parking lot. The place was packed and there were cars hovering over people waiting for spots. In the Visitor Center I picked up some stickers, magnets, and some stuffed bighorn sheep toys for my girls. Right by the Visitor Center is where you can catch the shuttle to view the other part of the park, Floor of the Valley Road/Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. This part of the park is only accessible by the shuttle. The line for the shuttle looked like it was several hundred people deep, so that was out of the question. It really just gives me a reason to go back with my wife and explore the rest of the park.
Leaving there, we had a car sit and wait for us as we geared up and left the parking spot. We exited the park and continued on UT 9 all the way to I-15. Getting through the towns of La Verkin and Hurricane seemed to take forever as we caught light after light. Riding a couple miles south on I-15 landed us in St. George, where we exited and took the Red Hills Parkway to avoid town. We then turned north on UT 18. As we were cruising along, I saw a sign that had “Massacre” on it. I thought it may be and interesting stop, so we turned around and went back to check it out. The official road off of UT 18 was FR375 then FR4018. As we were taking our helmets off, another car pulled up. Two guys got out, and struck up a conversation about the bikes. They were brothers, and the oldest owns a FJR. We talked bikes for a moment, and then the older brother asked if we new anything about the site. I said we had no idea, we just decided to pull in after seeing the sign. They lived on opposite sides of the country and had met up in Utah to do some outdoor activities together. They specifically came to the site this day because the older brother had just finished reading a book about the massacre. The book is Blood of the Prophets, by Will Bagley. It was pretty neat because as we walked out to the memorial, he gave us the Cliffs Notes version of the Mountain Meadows massacre (occurring in 1857).
The actual site was down the road in the distance. The road was being worked on and completely tore up at the moment.
Continuing north on UT 18, we took it to Beryl Junction and turned left on UT 56, which took us into Nevada. After crossing the border, the road number changed to NV 319. The next stop was for gas in Panaca. This was the most entertaining gas stop I think we’ve ever had. I had been getting a “Transponder Battery Low” error on my display, so I checked in the station to see if they had a battery. They did, and at a reasonable price, so I went ahead and swapped it out.
After filling the bikes we were standing around eating some snacks and having a drink. Then we heard a loud slam, which turned out to be the back door of an enclosed trailer. They pushed out a short dragster. A couple of guys opened the doors of the “Y Service” building and then set up some cones in the parking lot. I assumed they were just going to wheel the dragster into the shop to work on it. I was wrong. It took them a minute, but they fired it up.
Our interest was peaked, so we stood around and watched the show.
It wasn’t exactly a Top Fuel Dragster, but the thing was still pretty loud. He backed up from the position in the picture above and everyone got their cell phones out. I got my camera ready. He did a burnout, turned, and headed right for us. Looking through the lens of my camera, I thought he was going to mow ourselves and the bikes over, but I guess the brakes on it work.
He backed it up, and this time I protected myself with the pillar of the gas station… just in case.
He did several burnouts, literally going between the pumps and the station store, then looping back around.
It was at this point that dad and I learned a very valuable lesson. There was a guy getting gas next to us and we were talking saying what are the odds of us in the middle of Nevada, watching a guy doing burnouts in a dragster, in the gas station parking lot? He quickly said, “it’s Ne-VA-duh, NOT Ne-VAH-duh. You’re liable to get shot around here saying it the wrong way.” Yikes!
Back to the drag strip action, the final time he did a burnout the opposite direction, starting right by us at the gas pumps. For some stupid reason, I squatted down right beside him for pictures. He took off and nearly blew out my eardrums.
After that one, he shut it down and the show was over. People started taking turns sitting in it. I tried to get dad to get in it, you know, for the ride report. He refused. I think he was just being a sizeist. If it would’ve been a Top Fuel Dragster, he would have done it.
And possibly the best part of the whole stop, after everything was over an older lady came walking out of the store, looked at us and said, “it’s always excitin’ at the Y!” After she walked away we just looked at each other and laughed. Moving on from the Y, we headed north on US 93. In the 81 mile stretch between Pioche and Majors Place there is absolutely nothing! We stopped for a break somewhere in the middle because I wanted a couple pictures, just to break up the monotony.
US 93 intersected with US 50 and we took that to Ely. We ended up topping off our tanks prior to getting to the hotel, so we would be good to go in the morning. We had gained an hour coming into Ne-VA-duh, so we ended up arriving at the hotel at 3:30 PT, most likely the earliest we’ve ever gotten to a nightly destination. We stayed at Hotel Nevada 5 years ago, and it was such a unique place, I wanted to stay there again. At check-in, they give each person a complimentary drink ticket, good for one drink at the bar in the casino. After lugging our stuff upstairs, we came down and used our tickets. I tried the Hotel Nevada IPA.
I had planned on eating at the restaurant in the hotel, which used to be a neat little café. Mom called us during the day and informed us that the hotel restaurant was now a Denny’s. Not wanting that, she told us that Rack’s Bar & Grill down the road sounded good. It was within walking distance, so that’s where we headed.
I had the beef dip with onion rings and a local amber beer, but I can’t remember the name. Dad had a southwestern burger.
Dad had been feeling pretty congested ever since we got into Ne-VA-duh. (See picture of him on US 93 above with tissue in hand.) His nose was a constant draining faucet combined with lots of sneezing. Walking back to the hotel, there was an old school drug store and I convinced him to go in and get some medicine. We ended up talking to the pharmacist and he recommended something that he thought was more effective than what he originally picked as well as being non-drowsy. No longer “skeptical Larry,” he was now “drainage Larry.”
It was still fairly early, but I wanted to take some night pictures of the hotel. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stay awake, but watched TV and managed to keep my eyes open until the sun went down. I headed outside and played around with camera exposures.
When I’d had my fill, I headed inside and gambled with $5 for about 30 minutes. First with electronic black jack and then with nickel slots. After 30 minutes I stopped caring at that point because I couldn’t take the cigarette smoke any longer, it was killing my eyes. I called it quits, headed up to the room and went to bed.