Day 24

High temperatures are expected again so we set the alarm for 4:30 to get an early start. The sky was pinking up nicely when we rolled out after our leftover rice a roni breakfast.
Second breakfast was 50 miles later in Middlegate which seriously looked like it had been in use since the Pony Express which is the route that hiway 50 follows. Actually, Middlegate is not a town it is the local watering hole and all there is the saloon we had breakfast at. Highway 50 is called the loneliest Hiway in America probably because of lack of services as well as traffic. We are carrying extra water as it is 60 to 80 miles between anything. Often less than 10 cars would pass us in an hour.

Though desolate it is early in the season so the sagebrush is still green and my cold must be better since a number of times the smell of sage floated in the breeze.

The mountain ranges in Nevada run North South and there seem to be lots of them. Today we crossed 4 named summits: 2 at just over 4600 ft and 2 in the mid 6000's. Often across a wide valley you could barely see the road tracking across and climbing the next range of gray shadowed mountains. Looking at our Adventure cycling maps shows 12 more summits ranging from 6594 to 7722 before we leave the state.

Tonite we're in the 1860s minning town of Austin. Instead of camping we're in a 34 dollar doublewide trailer motel. And we're having a salami and a sardine sandwich.

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