What a difference a day makes! Yesterday Oregon, today Arizona. My sister shared driving duties as we covered 1200 miles in 24 hours. She had never been through the Black Rock Desert in Northwest Nevada, so we angled down to Adel Oregon and headed south on 150 mile mostly gravel road to Gerlach Nevada. It wasn’t a stop and smell the roses kind of trip. Although we did stop 100 miles from anywhere at one building up a jeep trail to check it out: Turns out it is a part of the huge Sheldon National Antelope Refuge. It looks like you can rent this cabin as there are bunks inside along with a wood stove. If I was traveling solo I would probably have camped here for the night. It is so serene out in the middle of the desert in Nevada. Check out the interesting cloud formations looking off the front porch of the cabin. It looks like a UFO contrail: It is remote and beautiful in an austere sort of way out on gravel roads traveling for 150 miles in NW Nevada. Nobody lives out here except an occasional rancher: No gas stations for 150 miles down county road 34., You see maybe one car an hour on average, mostly hunters. I didn’t stop at the actual Black Rock Desert for pictures. It is where the Burning Man Festival is held every year. You may have to look that up on wikipedia. Pretty wild event. My sister was disappointed to see that the Black Rock Desert is not actually black. It is a vast brown mudflat that is dirt colored. It was named for the volcanic Black Rock Mountains towering in the background. I hadn’t been through Las Vegas in a while. I think I rode in from Death Valley on an old BMW motorcycle to see the “Art of the Motorcycle” traveling museum display that was at the Bellagio hotel whenever that was. Las Vegas has gotten huge since then. South of Las Vegas on the road to Arizona, the main road over the Colorado river doesn’t take you over Hoover dam anymore. They built a huge bridge. It was a fullish moon traveling through the night and soon we were in Arizona. I have a Kawasaki KLX250S here. I bought it while I was working in Texas last year and dropped it off here in Arizona months ago. When a bird has built a nest on the tachometer, I take it as a sign that I haven’t been out riding enough: In order to fix that, I have decided to load the bike up for a road trip back to Texas to go straighten out my Social Security that was suspended while I was in jail. I hope to be in Big Bend National Park by this evening on my way there. I am loaded up and ready to go: With a high mileage work truck there is no better roadside assistance that a dirt bike strapped to the back. I hope to visit people along the way and update this daily, so if you live in Arizona, New Mexico or Texas and need somebody to drop by for a chat don’t hesitate to email me at johndwns(at)yahoo dot com. and I’ll try to drop by for a visit. I have two weeks to kill before my plane leaves for Buenos Aires. More later……..